Attacked at Sea

by Michael J. Tougias

  By morning, the family was worn out from travel but awakened to lush green surroundings that were unlike most of what they knew in Texas. The wide brown Mississippi came next, and the kids stuck their heads out the windows to get a glimpse as they crossed it on the giant Huey P. Long Bridge. A sense of excitement grew in Ina and Ray as they realized the adventure they’d talked about and planned for was really beginning. New Orleans wasn’t much farther down the road.

  Once in the city, their excitement mounted further. Ray returned from the United Fruit offices with information about their trip: They were leaving immediately for Cristóbal, Panama, on the SS Santa Marta. The trip would take six days, and then there would be a layover of five days until a second ship took them to Barranquilla, Colombia, where they’d meet a plane for the final leg to Santa Marta.

  United Fruit Company’s “Great White Fleet” was a group of ships that operated between the Gulf States and South America, transporting employees, paying passengers, and cargo. The ship the Downses sailed on initially was a luxury liner of sorts. This was a huge departure from their everyday lives in Texas, and it made them feel valued and pampered by Ray’s employer. Indeed, they were living like movie stars, if only briefly.

  “They put us in Suite B, the Bridal Suite,” Ina wrote to her father. “Ain’t that something. I have to pinch myself every once in a while to realize this is me.”

  The family was among 89 passengers, many going to Havana, Cuba, or Panama to work for the government; some were just on a cruise. Fortunately, there were a few other children aboard, and Sonny found a boy about his age with whom he could roam the decks.

  Terry and Ray watched with interest as a smaller pilot boat guided the big ship through the ever-changing sandbars at the mouth of the Mississippi. Once they reached the open water of the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi’s muddy flow disappeared a little at a time until the water beneath them was aqua green. The pilot then left the bridge of the Santa Marta, descending a rope ladder on the side of the ship to his own boat. He waved to the passengers as the big liner slowly slipped by, leaving land behind.

  Ina and Ray stood by the rail, mesmerized by the crystal-clear water. Soon they spotted movement in the ocean near the bow of the boat and called the children over to see. Dolphins were racing alongside the boat, arching up out of the water and seeming to swim on top of one another. There were so many new things to experience that the family forgot any worries about moving far from home.

  Unfortunately, their enjoyment of the luxury of the cruise ship did not last long. Once the ship was deep in the Gulf, it pitched and rolled continuously, and the effects of the vaccinations everyone had received in New Orleans were being felt. Ina spent two days lying down, and other members of the family stayed close to their suite. During the layover in Cristóbal, Panama, the tropical heat was oppressive, making their stay less than festive.

  In Colombia, United Fruit and similar companies had developed whole towns of workers, supplying nearly everything the families needed to keep productive for the organization. Started some 50 years earlier as a railroad company, its founders realized they could make a considerable profit by exporting bananas to the United States. These founders, nicknamed “banana barons,” quickly became the largest employers in several countries of Central America, influencing governments and even running the postal service in one country. With hundreds of miles of railroad used to transport employees and fruit, men with skills like Raymond’s mechanical knowledge were key to keeping things running smoothly for United Fruit. Dozens of ships either owned by or leased to the company regularly moved both employees and products.

  Growing bananas requires tropical heat, and it was difficult for Ina to adjust to the oppressive humidity once they settled into the company town. But the heat and humidity didn’t keep the kids from playing with new friends or exploring their surroundings deep in a lush jungle. They felt like royalty, with a sparkling new home, servants, and a well-paying job for Ray. The children stared in wonder the first time a man came by to leave a giant bunch of bananas on a hook outside the kitchen, as he did weekly for every household in the village.

  The novelty of having hired help quickly faded for Ina, as did her energy, sapped by the heat and lack of purpose. “I don’t have to do a thing all day—just dress and go to eat,” she wrote to her parents. “A maid does the cleaning and we eat at the clubhouse and I have a laundress who washes and irons for me.”

  While Raymond had work to attend to, Ina’s isolation was made more challenging by the difficulty in connecting across cultural barriers. Missing news from home, Ina was particularly homesick after a minor but painful foot injury. The family didn’t have a radio, no newspapers were available, and letters were few and far between. It was difficult for Ina to make the transition from a busy San Antonio household to a daily routine of reading and simply directing the maids’ work and shopping. She disliked the United Fruit community’s lack of religious observance and other lifestyle differences that didn’t match her view of a family-friendly environment.

  During one holiday break, Ray took part in a company softball game and was quickly recognized as a strong athlete, but the fun went a little too far. While the whole family cheered as Ray slammed a home run with two men on base, winning the game for his team, the holiday cheer didn’t end there. After the game, the other employees had a cocktail party, dinner, and dancing until the wee hours. Ina didn’t need an excuse not to dance, as her foot was in a splint, but the excessive alcohol at the party rubbed her and Ray the wrong way.

  Ina poured out her frustration in a letter to her parents: “The people here are mostly English. They are rather hard to understand and I find some are snobs. They are all very, very friendly in a distant sort of way. They give you the feeling you are on the outside looking in and you are classed according to your husband’s job. If things don’t change we are not staying any longer than our contract calls for.”

  While Ina and Ray felt like fish out of water among the employees of the company, the children adjusted quickly. Terry and Sonny figured out that the company clubhouse was a source of a sweet soda drink called a lime rickey, which they thought was free for the asking. But Ray got the bill and caught them at the clubhouse one day, acting like a couple of rich kids. He shooed the boys home and admonished them against bellying up to the bar for “free” drinks again.

  Other parents informed Ina that school in the United Fruit colony wouldn’t be rigorous enough for Terry. Most families were sending their teens back to the States for high school. Ina and Ray decided to do the same, even though Terry was having a great time playing golf with some hand-me-down clubs and swimming and running with a crowd of other youngsters. Ina alerted her parents that he’d be sent back to Gainesville to live with them while he went to school. The 14-year-old was back in Texas within a month, traveling by plane, train, and freighter ship alone through several countries and concluding the trip with a train ride from the port in New Orleans back to Texas.

  Sonny and Lucille would have to make the best of living in South America without their big brother.

  3

  WAR WORRIES AND THINKING OF HOME

  After Terry returned to Texas, Ina made renewed efforts to become more involved in her South American community. She learned to speak Spanish by trading lessons with a local woman, and she joined a group of women sewing woolen dresses for the British War Relief effort. She and Ray often visited a neighbor to listen to radio broadcasts of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats and other news of the day. World events were discussed among the workers, particularly the British, who rarely dared to take a trip home. Their reluctance was due to the escalating German U-boat attacks, which made travel and trade by ship a perilous endeavor.

  Just three months before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt had been preparing the country for the war by discussing a series of what he called unprovoked attacks on American ships by German U-boats. Although the United Sta
tes hadn’t entered the war, the country was actively supplying Great Britain not only with raw materials to support its manufacturing but also with ships to replenish its fleet. While the United States was officially neutral, these actions infuriated Germany.

  * * *

  The war was far from Santa Marta but never far from the minds of the people there. The local company manager invited Raymond and Ina to a fancy dinner party where funds would be raised to help the people in Great Britain during their time of need. Ina enjoyed the evening immensely, especially the opportunity to dress up. “Everything was very correct and nice,” Ina wrote, explaining to her parents that the proceeds from games of rummy and horse racing were going to support the Red Cross in Britain.

  Then things began to change for the couple in unforeseen ways. Sigatoka, a fungal disease that kills the leaves of banana plants, was rampaging through the plantations. United Fruit attempted to get the Colombian government to pay some of the costs of spraying the plants to keep them alive, but the government refused. This threat was followed by a hurricane that damaged the crop. The war also hurt the banana market; only American ships could then take produce out of the ports to markets in the States. Because of these issues, fewer workers were needed on the plantations. Employees were laid off or transferred to Costa Rica, and Ina anticipated a major shake-up in Ray’s railroad department as a result.

  Having a teen far away also occupied Ina’s mind. In a letter to Terry, she scolded him for not working hard enough in school. After a sweet sentimental line or two about how much he was missed, she dug in with her real message: “I was not so proud of your grades. You have football on your mind instead of making very good grades,” Ina wrote. “Football is fun but just remember you are going to school to equip yourself for a lifetime of work of some kind so make the most of your studies.”

  Ina was very concerned about getting money to her parents for Terry’s care. She was impatient with the system of cashing out company stock to send support money home. Ina learned that the stock took a month to sell, and then taxes were discounted from the proceeds. It was another reason to be discontent with life in Colombia.

  That problem was solved when the company’s troubles with shipping, hurricanes, and plant blights prompted them to send Ray to Costa Rica after the family had spent several months in Colombia. “It’s a much nicer country,” Ina wrote, anticipating better conditions and a different class of people. Getting mail and other communications from home faster would be an added bonus in moving to Costa Rica.

  Resettling on the west coast of Costa Rica awakened Ina’s interest in travel, as she was entranced by their train’s route along a mountainside. The ground was covered in almost every species of fern known, the world around them lush and green. As the train skirted the mountainside, she pointed out to Lucille and Sonny a valley far below them, where a mountain river hurried to the sea over huge boulders and rocks, with many beautiful waterfalls along its path.

  The family’s sense of wonder was piqued, and soon after arriving at their new home, they awakened at 3:00 A.M. to drive to the top of the Irazú volcano by sunrise. “I never dreamed I’d be able to gaze upon such a thing,” Ina whispered to Raymond.

  * * *

  The December 7 attack by Japan’s bombers on U.S. Navy ships and air bases at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii shattered Ina’s newfound sense of well-being. Both she and Ray continually tried to learn more about the U.S. involvement in the war. Ina longed for a radio, to know more about the country’s progress into war, so she and Ray could make a clear decision about their future. United Fruit’s boats were being taken by the government and put into military service. The U.S. government also tightened access to the Panama Canal and gave warships priority, further limiting the fruit trade. The uncertainty ate at the couple, and Ray’s desire to join the Marine Corps grew by the day.

  “We aren’t satisfied with this life to bring up babies in it,” wrote Ina to her parents. “There is so much drinking going on and other things and Lucille is growing by leaps and bounds. It is not a healthy environment for a growing child. Ray is anxious to be doing something for the government, and feels he should offer his services in some way.”

  A month after this letter, Ina and Ray made their final decision: They would leave South America and return to Texas. United Fruit secured passage for the family on the Heredia.

  A week before boarding, Ray was asked to sign a waiver releasing the company from all blame should their ship be attacked by a U-boat. Ray and Ina readily agreed, never imagining what was to come.

  4

  ADMIRAL DÖNITZ AND HIS GRAY WOLVES

  Sonny gazed up at the small deck on top of the Heredia’s wheelhouse and wondered at the machine guns mounted there, one on the starboard side and the other on the port side. His parents had told him they were for defense against German submarines. Ever curious, Sonny later found the captain and questioned him about the weapons. “Well, young Downs, the ones mounted at the top of the ship are machine guns, and the ones mounted on the bow and stern are a bit more powerful. Those are twenty-three-caliber, three-inch cannons.” Sonny wanted to fire one, but knowing that was out of the question, he thanked the captain and ran off to tell Lucille what he had learned.

  Captain Erwin Colburn, originally from Somerville, Massachusetts, was personable and approachable. Red-haired and fair-skinned, the captain usually had a pipe in his mouth and always dressed in a crisp white uniform and captain’s hat. Sonny liked the man; whenever their paths crossed on the ship, the captain had a kind word and the boy usually had a question. The crew was comprised of Americans and a few Filipino sailors. The Filipinos invariably wore their dark blue peacoats around the clock, even when Sonny was quite comfortable in his bare feet and shorts. Taking a cue from their captain, the crew was friendly and took the time to answer Sonny’s and Lucille’s many questions.

  The men whom Sonny and Lucille didn’t know well were the six members of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard, who rotated shifts manning the guns or scanning the horizon with binoculars. Sonny spent a considerable amount of time watching the men in uniform, hoping to see them at least fire a machine gun in a practice round. He knew his dad wanted to fight the Germans and Japanese, too, but the eight-year-old quickly concluded that the navy men had the most boring job on earth. All they did was stare out to sea, occasionally switching positions with one another to break the monotony.

  After Heredia made a brief stop in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, the Downs family settled into a routine as the ship plowed northwestward at a steady 12 knots. After breakfast each morning were emergency drills. An alarm would sound, and all on board were required to grab their cork-and-canvas life jackets, put them on and tie them tight, and then assemble at their assigned lifeboats. Because the Downses were passengers rather than crew, they were told that in the event of a real emergency, the crew would instruct them when to enter the lifeboats. The sailors would handle lowering the boats from deck level to the water.

  Everyone was reminded by the captain and the officers not to drop anything overboard, lest they leave a clue for the Germans that a ship had recently passed. And all were instructed to immediately report any object they might spot in the water—it just might be a sub in the distance or even a periscope nearby. The captain also explained that the ship would mostly travel in a zigzag pattern to make it more difficult for U-boats to track the Heredia down. And although the captain could listen to incoming radio messages and alerts, he would not respond, because doing so might enable the enemy to find them. Lights on the ship, however, were not completely shut down at night.

  Once the safety drills were over, the family had the rest of the morning and early afternoon free. Ray and Ina usually read, while Lucille and Sonny went exploring. Ina’s joy at heading home was dampened by her unease about the U-boat threat. She was able to put it out of her mind during the day, but each evening she’d look out at the ocean, worried that a gray steel monster might rise up from the shadows of the swells. In
a knew that her fear was probably misplaced. Like most people, she believed the Gulf of Mexico was simply too far from Europe for a U-boat to reach. Ray had said the odds of a submarine finding the Heredia in this wide-open sea seemed near impossible.

  Ina had heard rumors of an attack in the Florida Straits but tried not to dwell on it, because no other incidents had been reported. Along the East Coast of the United States, especially off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina. U-boat attacks were nearly common events. But that was a long distance from the Gulf. Ina also tried to remind herself that the Heredia was carrying bananas rather than oil or gasoline, which were the real quarry U-boats were after. Still, she’d feel a lot better when they safely reached New Orleans.

  Ina’s lack of knowledge about U-boats wasn’t due solely to her having been far from home. Since the start of the war, the U.S. government had been controlling the information that was reported about U-boat attacks. By censoring the news, the government could keep the public from panicking about the number of ships sunk and from realizing the seriousness of the situation. Censorship couldn’t keep a lid on all attacks—sometimes hundreds of civilians in waterfront communities witnessed horrific scenes of ships exploding. So while Ina worried about the possibility of an attack, she didn’t fully realize that all merchant ships were easy targets for the U-boats, even Heredia.

  Sonny and Lucille had no idea that their mother was worried; they were having too much fun. The children had complete run of the ship except for the ammunition room. The crew frequently offered them snacks and drinks, and it wasn’t long before Sonny decided this voyage home was every bit as good as the trip to South America had been. He wished his brother, Terry, could have been with him and Lucille; Terry would have organized games and contests—competition that Sonny loved.