The Story of a Merchant Mariner

I’d like to tell you the story of one man sailing for Export in 1937 who, upon learning of the soon-to-be-passed 1938 Naval Reserve Act, took the time to join the Naval Reserve. Although a licensed mariner, he was given a rate of quartermaster 1st class, and in 1938 and 1939 he took time out from his sea-going career to do two weeks active duty with the Navy as a quartermaster 1st class aboard a battleship. In 1940 he didn’t have time. Instead he made numerous efforts to go on active duty with the Navy, lie was willing to go into the Navy as an enlisted man because he saw those bad days coming. The Navy kept telling him to go back to his ship. It needed his skill as a merchant mariner more than it needed him as a Navy sailor. And each time he returned to his ship, and went down to the sea. Each time he shipped out he told the Navy where he was going, what ship he was on, and left a next of kin.

One day in November, 1942, this merchant mariner and his ship got caught by a German raider in the Indian Ocean about 400 miles east of Madagascar. At approximately 2330 hours on the 29th day of November the German raider Michell with guns and torpedoes sank the M/S Sawolka. Among those killed in action on that night were C/M Meyer Egenthal (E) and C/M William V. O’Hara (D). At dawn of November 30, the Michell returned and picked up the 29 survivors and recovered all of those she could find who had been killed in action. They were all given a proper burial at sea. The 29 survivors were taken aboard and given whatever treatment was necessary, and treated properly by the Germans. The wounded were treated by the medical officer, and they remained prisoners of war aboard this vessel for approximately three months.

During the three months, the Michell was able to sink two more vessels, one British and one Greek, and retrieved additional survivors. Some time in early February the Germans prisoners of war were turned over to the Japanese in the port of Singapore. Here they were split up into various groups. Some of the men were sent on ships north to the home islands of Japan, some making it, some not making it, their ships being sunk in the China Sea by American submarines. Of those that were kept in Singapore, this particular merchant mariner found himself with four or five others thrown in with approximately 80,000 allied POW’s, mostly members of the British Armed Forces.

A few months after arriving in Singapore our particular merchant mariner and about five others from his ship, all licensed personnel, were grouped with some 8,000 British POW’s and sent north from Singapore, eventually making their way up into the Siam jungles to an area near the Three-Pagoda Village. Not too many of us know where the Three-Pagoda Village is; it can best be described as being approximately 200 miles north of the Bridge on the River Kwai. They were sent up there to work on the railroad that was going to connect Siam to Burma. The railroad was given the title The Death Railroad’ because of the tens of thousands of conscript laborers who died building it. It is said that some 100,000 men died in the construction of just a few hundred miles of railroad.

When the 8,000 members of H Force, including our five merchant mariners, arrived in the jungles, they joined thousands of other prisoners of war who had been laboring up there, and ‘lo and behold, our particular merchant mariner was startled to discover 20 Americans. These 20 Americans included members of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. There were survivors of the cruiser Houston and members of the 114th Army Field Artillery, who had been captured in Java. Of the 20, 19 would come back out of the jungle with our merchant mariner, and 18 would survive to the end of the war.

Our particular merchant mariner went from 170 pounds to 80 pounds working his way along the railroad. Finally, so badly worn down, and so heavily decimated by the jungle and the work and the lack of food, H force was returned to Singapore. Of the 8,000 who went north, less than 3,000 came back some eight or nine months later. They were placed in the Changi Prison in Singapore to be fattened up, the plans being to send them to the Japanese home islands for some slave work. On September 7, 1945, Allied Forces took command of Singapore.

Our merchant mariner was looked upon by the Germans and the Japanese as an officer in the Armed Forces of the United States for the simple reason that they looked upon their own merchant mariners, licensed personnel, as holding that status. During his entire captivity by the Axis Forces, he was treated as, housed as, and worked as a prisoner of war. There were internment camps nearby when he was in Singapore and Bangkok, but he was not provided the opportunity of relaxing in an internment camp. Instead he was given the opportunity to literally work himself to death, as did so many Allied POW’s in that area.

With the advantage of his officer’s status, our merchant mariner also held a unique situation relative to the U.S. enlisted. His status as quartermaster 1st class, United States Naval Reserve, out-rated all other U.S. Armed Forces personnel that he encountered in the jungle of Siam. He took advantage of this unique arrangement to become the spokesman for, and the protector of, those 20 Americans that he found in the jungle. He buried one of them up there and another one down in Singapore. He became their spokesman, and demanded of the Japanese, and eventually obtained, the privilege for these individuals to let their families know they were still alive, a privilege that wasn’t granted until they had been captives for nearly two years. lie represented the Americans in Shanghai in dealing with the senior officer present among the British forces.

Some thirty-five years after his ordeal in the jungles of South East Asia, our merchant mariner sought from the government a recognition of his time as a POW.

Our merchant mariner has been denied POW status, although in compliance with Article II of the Geneva Convention signed by the Germans, the Japanese and the Americans, he met all the qualifications for POW status.

Our merchant mariner is now in his 72nd year. He no longer goes down to the sea in ships, but he keeps abreast of his Merchant Marine. Dennis Roland, hawsepipe sailor and master mariner, was 3 I years old when he found himself being shot and shelled in the Indian Ocean back in 1942. Dennis Roland was just one of a number. There was Stanley Willner. There was George Duffy. We had our own cadet midshipman, William Mitchell.

Dennis Roland has been a servant to his country. Part of that service was as a POW, and he should be recognized as such. I am reminded of Dennis Roland by the recent rejection by an A.F. Review Board to include certain World War II merchant mariners in the GI. Improvement Bill, a bill that would have given these individuals a few of the G.I. benefits that have been passed along to veterans of World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, whether they were combat or otherwise.

Dennis Roland’s story illustrates why recognition of members of the Merchant Marine who served during World War II is warranted. The decision by the AF. Review Board should be reconsidered and an affirmative decision made.