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Red Headed Stepchild
(The Barrett family memoir of Navy Life)
by Sophie Ruth Meranski with photos
Red Headed Stepchild
(The Barrett family memoir of Navy Life)
by Sophie Ruth Meranski with photos
| JOHN BARRETT INTRODUCTION:Carriers played a decisive role in World War in the Pacific, especially in great battles of Coral Sea May 7, l942, Midway June 4-5, l942, amphibious operations including Guadalcanal August l942-Feb l943, and battles of Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf l944. Sophie Barrett's memoir includes extensive materials on Commander Phil Dahlquist's experiences on the carrier YORKTOWN at Coral Sea and Midway. The Yorktown was badly damaged at Coral Sea but special emergency repairs prepared her to participate in critical Battle of Midway four weeks later, though Yorktown was not at full speed and ultimately was sunk by a Japanese sub more than a day after the main battle in which Japan lost four big carriers - the turning point of the war.Dahlquist tells how the YORKTOWN developed fire-prevention techniques by cutting airplane fuel hoses when enemy bombers were detected approaching,so that she would not have the huge fires that doomed ENTERPRISE at Coral Sea.However, she had too much structural damage, and could not move fast enough back to port to elude an enemy sub. Dahlquist lowered a temporarily blinded sailor when "Abandon-ship" was ordered - the rope was too short - Dahlquist had to alert a rescue vessel - then cut the rope, and the sailor drpped the last few feet and was recued though startled. Jack Barrett's friend Dr. James B. Moloney Boston Latin l9l0 Harvard college l9l4 Harvard Medical l9l7 was a career Navy surgeon l9l7-l950. He was at battle of Midway and thought very highly of Admiral Spruance, who he saw frequently aboard NORTHAMPTON - Spruance also directed U.S. effort at Midway from Carrier ENTERPRISE, which sank three Japanese carriers.Moloney advised John Barrett junior on hospital Economics thesis l956 and made many suggestions for material for Barrett family memoir. He lived at Harvard Club of Boston l950-l976, then following aorta aneurysm at Soldiers Home, Chelsea Mass. to September l980." SOPHIE BARRETT text: RED HEADED STEPCHILD SECOND NOTEBOOK p. 554 "On April 8, 1971, Commander Dahlquist wrote: 'No, I didn't have any idea that Jack Barrett was within a thousand miles of Pearl Harbor at the time that I was there right after the Battle of 555 Midway in 1942. I wish I had known it. I'm sure I might have gotten a better berth on the HENDERSON than down in the hold where they used to carry the mules for the Marines. But it was jammed with men returning, so I probably could not have done much better. I was in a big hurry too. I had just received word from my brother in San Pedro telling me that Peg and the three boys were house-hunting in that area and had been hit by a gasoline tank truck and trailer, and she had been hurt very badly. Peg was unconscious for five days and actually suffered a fratured skull. I had this to worry about when I came ashore from Midway. The little fellow had a fractured pelvis and broken collar bone. One reason I didn't see Jack was because all the survivors were bundled off into a separate camp up in the hills around Pearl [Harbor] so that the word would not get out that the YORKTOWN was sunk. It was sunk on June 6, and it was the latter part of August that they announced it. The Japs didn't know that they had gotten us. Of course, they had reported that they had gotten us on the YORKTOWN at the Battle of the Coral Sea.' DAHLQUIST YORKTOWN at MIDWAY June 4-5 l942 {Authors of particular passages named in brackets} {SOPHIE BARRETT} I shall now quote many sections of this long letter [April 8, 1971]because it is a first hand account of the last weeks of the aircraft carrier YORKTOWN by Commander Dahlquist,who was one of the survivors when she was sunk at Midway.{PHIL DAHLQUIST}"The thing about our carriers being sunk was that they caught fire & burned to the extent that we very often had to sink them with our own torpedos when they became so badly burned it was impossible to salvage them.To my knowledge the YORKTOWN was the only carrier which had to be bombed & torpedoed until it sank.It did not burn.By this I mean-there is always a fire when a bomb hits a ship.We had such fires-lots of them-but they were brought under control quickly & contained + it did not interfere with the battle efficiency of the ship to any great extent.I remember that after the LEXINGTON was sunk in the Coral Sea we all got our heads together & decided we were not going to burn as did the LEX.But how to do that?You see, there are gasoline fueling lines running from the main fuel tanks up to the hangar deck & the flight deck for the fueling of the planes.We could & did launch as many as a hundred planes at one sitting,& that called for a lot of gasoline.Then when the ship was hit with a bomb or a torpedo, it was to be expected that these gasoline lines throughout the ship would become ruptured, & gasoline would be accumulated in various places in the ship.It was just a question of how long before it would become ignited by a spark from some electrical apparatus.This happened to the LEXINGTON, & I imagine to the other carriers which had burned as well.We had these same fuel lines, & we decided that when p.562 an alarm was sounded of approaching aircraft we would cut off the lines at the main tanks by a valve, & then blow high pressure air through the pipes to blow the gasoline in them overboard. We did this & we had no gasoline fires as a result- or maybe we were just lucky- I don't know.About the Battle of Midway we were on our way up from the Coral Sea & feeling a little sorry for ourselves as we had taken quite a beating.We had a bit of repairs to be made-& all we could think of was about six months in Bremerton Navy Yard- & our families. That was when I suggested to Peg that she run over & call on her friend Vi Hawes.Peg was living in Norfolk at the time,& Vi lived in San Diego.But she took the hint & shipped things out to the West Coast & drove out with the children.{JOHN BARRETT note}(Note- this appears to have gotten past the censors, whereas a statement the YORKTOWN would be coming to San Diego would have been censored) {PHIL DAHLQUIST letter continues}It was when she got to San Pedro that she had the accident.It was also on the way north from the Coral Sea that we found out that the Jap code had been broken.We found that ships of various types were being ordered out from Japan to be assembled at a rendezvous & when there they would split up- some going to the Aleutian Islands for a diversionary attack to draw our carriers & heavy ships up there- & then they could attack Midway with their main fleet of four carriers plus battleships & a whole mess of ships.We had no battleships at the time & only a few heavy cruisers & three carriers, counting the YORKTOWN,which was slowed down a lot due to damage from bomb hits in the Coral Sea.We had a submarine spotted at the rendezvous point with instructions to remain hidden & to just report the various types & numbers of ships arriving & departing.This sub reported the arrival & departure of the expedition for the Aleutians & also reported the massing of the Jap fleet for its attack on Midway.We arrived at Pearl on the day the attack on the Aleutians took place,& the other two carriers & the escorting cruisers pulled out of Pearl Harbor as fast as they could & were presumably headed for the Aleutians.I'm sure that Jack knew all about this. One division of light cruisers (MARBLEHEAD type) did go on up to the Aleutians.The rest of our ships changed course one hundred miles out & headed for Midway.We were given two days' emergency overhaul & repairs to the YORKTOWN, & then we left too.There also went our six months overhaul in the Navy Yard.We ran as fast as we could & joined up with the two carriers to the northeast of Midway before the Japs had arrived.The Japs were sighted by small B-17's.The Japs hit & messed up Midway pretty badly,& the Marines there were given a bad mauling.The YORKTOWN was not able to keep up with the other two carriers because of the damage to the ship in the Coral Sea.So we laid back some twenty to thirty miles & hoped to send our planes to the attack, which we did.Then when the three Jap carriers & some of their cruisers were page 564 finished & the whole Jap fleet was running every which way, we saw a flight of enemy bombers coming in to attack us.They had come from the fourth carrier, which had taken their station behind us & had not been spotted up to then. Well, we were too far away for the other carriers to help us, & our escorting cruiser & the destroyers stayed with us,& we took a pretty bad bombing.Our power was knocked out,& we were dead in the water for a while.We took several very severe hits.Finally we got some headway on the ship & were making seventeen knots.Then we got word there was another flight of enemy planes coming in. These we knew would be torpedo planes.Several of their planes were shot down, but we took two torpedoes on our port side just where they might have exploded our magazines if we hadn't already flooded them.I have often thought how lucky we were this didn't happen.It would have blown the ship to pieces,& we would have lost most of our crew.The hits put holes in our side that one could have driven a truck through, & we listed very badly.To keep from losing a lot of men,the skipper ordered the ship abandoned. We went over the side, after tossing life rafts overboard- & then slid down lines to the water & swam to the rafts.Then they would pull away & be picked up by destroyers. I was finally picked up by the destroyer ANDERSON together with a hundred or more other men.Then I was transferred to a cruiser & finally to a submarine tender which was to take us to Pearl. A Japanese submarine fired four torpedoes at the stricken YORKTOWN at very close range. Two of them hit the YORKTOWN & two of them hit the destroyer standing by.The destroyer was sunk immediately, & the YORKTOWN could not be helped from then on. The YORKTOWN turned over & sank (on the morning of June 6 - check date).She & the destroyer were the only two American ships to be hit in the whole engagement. The fourth Jap carrier was sunk by our planes joined by planes from the other carriers. I arrived at Pearl Harbor with what I was standing in at the time I left the ship-shoes, pants,shirt & a cap.I felt pretty lucky.We lost very few men from our ship,We lost a lot of our pilots, especially those flying the slow torpedo planes.I waited in Pearl for well over a month before I could get orders home.And the it was the HENDERSON. I could have walked faster." {SOPHIE BARRETT comments} DAHLQUIST evacuating wounded from carrier YORKTOWN at Battle of Midway June 4-5 l942 from manuscript additions pages u & w following page ll9:When all the secret preparations were being made at Pearl Harbor, Jack's l924-l927 friend from the MARBLEHEAD Philip Christain Dahlquist in l970 a retired Lietenant Commander at 790 East Thirty-Sixth Street,Eugene Oregon, was on the carrier YORKTOWN, which was damaged in the main battle June 4. Enemy subs frustrated efforts to bring the disabled carrier back to port -she had been hurriedly repaired following serious damage in early May at the Battle of Coral Sea. When on June 5 the order came to "Abandon ship," Dahlquist saw a young sailor on deck whose head & eyes were covered with bandanges due to earlier wounds.He was temporarily blinded.Dahlquist ordered some men to put a rope around the lad to lower him over the side.But when he was several feet above the life raft, he just dangled in the air as the amount of rope was insufficient to reach the raft.Signalling the men in the raft what he was about to do, Dahlquist cut the rope, & the boy fell in the water & was taken onto the raft after a very harrowing time in the water.Dahlquist did not know who the boy was & had himself to go over the side quickly as the ship was sinking.On the destroyer that rescued Dahlquist he had a pair of pants, a shirt,& a cap. Following letter gives Dahlquist's own account: On April 15, 1971 Commander Dahlquist wrote from Eugene, Oregon about his escape from the YORKTOWN at Midway, "We went down a line to the water. Some may have jumped, but I thought better of it. It was sixty-some odd feet to the water. I was the only officer on the forecastle at the time, and a man was brought up from one of the guns that had been hit by a bomb. The man was swathed in bandages and had to be led by the hand. I told the men to put a line around him and lower him over the side,- and then called a life raft alongside to take him aboard. He was lowered away. He got within a few feet of the water, and that was as far as we could lower him. It seems the line used was a trailing line from another life raft and was only so long. I was sure he would be injured further if we hauled him up again to the deck and put another line around him, so I took a knife from one of the life rafts still on deck and indicated to the men on the life raft what I was going to do - and then reached down and cut the line and dropped him into the water alongside the raft. He was picked up promptly and not hurt,- merely wet. I had no idea who he was. A litle over a year later I was at Camp Peary, Vrginia, (near Williamsburg), and we had a prison camp there for court martial prisoners. A man came in to get transportation from m office and saw my name there and asked to see me. He came in and said he had been a baker's striker on the YORKTOWN with me. I remmebered him, and we talked for a bit, and he said he was being sent back to duty after having been sentenced for some time after a court martial. He had been wounded badly by a bomb hit that killed most of the gun crew of the YORKTOWN of which he had been a member. He was sent back to a hospital in the United States 568 and then ordered back to duty when he was able. He asked for leave, and this was denied. He wanted to go home for a while and did just that. Then he returned and was court-martialed for desertion. He received a sentence of a year or two, but this had been cut, so he did only a small portion of it and was returned to duty and was now headed back to sea duty again. Then we got talking about the YORKTOWN, and I asked him how he got off the ship when he was so badly wounded. He told me that he had been led up to the foc'sle and then lowered down part way on a line 'and then some SOB cut the line' and dropped him into the ocean. I explained this, and he grinned and said he hadn't been hurt by it at all, although 'he was plenty mad about it'. " [Sophie Barrett note: We have a picture (destroyed 1993) of Commander Dahlquist and the sailor - also the boy's name which I omitted here. The picture was taken in 1944 at Camp Peary.] When they reached Pearl Harbor,he did not go to Jack's office for transportation, because all survivors were kept in the hills of Pearl Harbor to prevent interviews by reporters who might get information about losses of ships & personnel that would be valuable to the Japanese.After about a month he arrived in California where his wife & three sons were hospitalized following a bad automobile accident.His wife Peggy & one son were critically injured.Eventually Dahlquist's next work assignment was at a Naval prison in Virginia.One day his corpsman told him that a young prisoner who had seen his name as being present there requested permission to talk with him. Dahlquist immediately reecognized him as a baker's striker from the YORKTOWN.They discussed the ship, & the sailor told Dahlquist that he was very angry because some "S.O.B." had cut the line (rope) he was using to abandon ship-& he had a rough time in the water before he was picked up, because he couldn't see anything due to the bandages over his eyes.After the sailor had recovered from his injuries,he requested leave to go home to recuperate & relax & regain his confidence, but a young officer refused the leave. Whereupon he went home & when he returned we was courtmartialed for being AWOL (absent without official leave) & subsequently sentenced to a year in the Prison,where he was currently serving the time.When Dahlquist explained that he was the"S.O.B." who cut the line to save the boy's life by freeing him from the sinking ship, the boy was quick to understand & said he still loved the Navy.When his term was drastically reduced,he returned happily to War service & gave a good account of himself.We had a picture of Dahlquist & of the lad taken at the Prison.Although Jack did not see his former shipmate Dahlquist at Pearl Harbor, he did see many others & took great pride in the fact that many of his former junior officers had important commands of their own in the Pacific theater ofthe war.Throughout his Naval career Jack was interested in developing the younger officers, the petty officers & the enlisted men. Phil Dahlquist, who enlisted as a sailor at a young age in supply from Lancaster in northern Minnesota, was commissioned for heroism at Coral Sea & Midway on carrier YORKTOWN May-June l942. {John Barrett notes)One of his sons became an Army officer, another and artist.He & his wife Peggy corresponded extensively with the Barretts in the l970s.They took an interest in the efforts of Vice Admiral Joseph E. Stika USGC Retired to obtain quality health care for his wife, & they participated in letter round robins with Sophie Barrett in West Roxbury,, Admiral Stika in Fort Worth, Texas & Norfolk Virginia, Ivan McCormack in Salem New York, & others.Phil worked as a timber salesman aftrer retirement & told us when he & Peggy traveled the Inside Passge to Alaska.He was a sports fan & especially interested in University of Oregon sports. A basketball star at the University of Oregon in Eugene was Ronnie Lee, who had attended Catholic Memorial high School in Wst Roxbury - Phil sent many newsclippings from the Eugene newspaper. __ Admiral King#75ee In the June 1971 issue of the United States Naval Institute Proceedings magazine, Admiral J.J. Clark has an article on Ernie King (Fleet Admiral Earnest King) entitled, "Sundowner par Excellence". Admiral Clark was on theYORKTOWN in eaRLY 1942 WHEN JACK'S FRIEND AND shipmate of MARBLEHEAD days, Lieutenant Commander Phil Dahlquist was a paymaster on the YORKTOWN. {Sophie Barrett note:}In response to our inquiry, CommanderDahlquist wrote on November 5th l97l:{ Another Phil DAHLQUIST letter follows} "Dear John, Yes, I know AdmiralJ.J. Clark quite well. He was our Executive Officer until just before Midway when he was ordered home to be made a captain and to take command of the new Lexington.Later when I came back to the mainland after the YORKTOWN was sunk at Midway - and was stationed at Camp Peary and commuting from Norfolk to Newport News on the ferry, on weekends, I would seem to catch the same boat as he did each time. and we invariably found each other and re-fought the battle of the carriers many times.He went from Commander to a fourstar Admiral in something like three years.While in the YORKTOWN with him, he was in firiest person I've known in the Navy, I think. He would be on the bridge and see something going on down on the deck, - and he didn't need any megaphone to assist him. There was a blast- usually accompanied with various degress of profanity- and some very choice words at that-and while the edges werre curled somewhat, I did survive.That evening I was up on the Flight deck getting a bit of air before going to bed. I heard somebody just behind me and looked back and saw Commander Clark walking fast to catch up with me. He told me how peaceful it seemed up here in the nice evening air, and he felt rested after a walk. Then he told me how he used to go fiushing with a bamboo pole and a cork float and with a worm on the hook for bait.He was from Oklahoma, I believe. I said that I had done all of those things too as a kid and that I often thought of those times as being some of the best recollections of my childhood. We walked and talked for some two hours and never a mention of anything about the ship. I think he had been in an airplane accident shortly before I knew him, and this gave him the appearance of hobbling along.Believe me - it didn't slow him down the least bit.He was part Indian - just how much I do not know. But he never hesitated about speaking his piece and his choice 0f words was most enlightnening, and nobody ever mistook his meaning.The title of the article leads me to believe that I might have been in the center of what he was writing about.I would like very much to see the article.I will return the article to you promptly.I am enclosing a bit of the tape that I had around a folder in my file. This is not the red tape that you mention. (Jack Barrett had shown John red tape rolled on a cylinder that was constantly used at his office at Pearl Harbor. but it is very similar. I believe that the red tape that you mentioned might haave been a bit heavier and wider - but not very much.We always carried it in stock, and I'm almost certain that any big stationery store would know of it. We used it to tie up file copies of our quarterly returns and other things that would be stored away for possible future reference. This tape would never rot out like rubber bands.- and this is the famous "red tape" that people deried through the many years.Actually it was a very necessary and useful thing to have around an office. It came rolled in a cylinder and was of a brick red color. I had alway had the highest regard for Admiral King up until the Battle of the Coral Sea (May l942). On page 50 of my Log in the first full paragraph on this apge you will note the OPNAV (Admiral King) was giving us (the YORKTOWN) a bad time. I have an idea that this is what Clark might have been referring to, or part of it.. While I was at Camp Peary, several of the Reserve officers were getting spot promotions, and I remarked about it to the Commodore [Clark]. He grinned and said," Oh, well Phil, they expect us to to the job without the promotions." I guess so - but we like to eat and have nice things too."- Phil Dahlquist." |
p 58-1110 Admiral Orlin Livdahl of 1936 redesigns gun placement of Carrier ENTERPRISE September 1942 Solomon Island region South Pacific. | [being organized] Admiral Orlin Livdahl in "Guadalcanal: The Carrier Wars." From November 1935 through October 1936 my father commanded destroyer CLAXTON #140, and young Lieutenant Orlin Livdahl was one of her officers during gunnery and landing force exercises January-February 1936 with United States Marines participating at Culebra island at the eastern end of Puerto Rico and in the Virgin Islands.Smokescreen experiments were part of the amphibious operations, which pointed toward important techniques of world War II in the Pacific. We had an interesting letter about 1970 from Admiral Livdahl who then resided at Jekyll Island, Georgia. My mother's transcription of the text appears currently on the website (still being corrected)- much of our material survived in her handwrtten copies after major thefts in 1993 at our home in Massachusetts.My father was very much interested in Naval Architecture- he subscribed to the Journal of the American Society of Naval Engineers and wanted me to apply to the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture - I had little background then but am becoming interested now at a rather late age! The material on Orlin Livdahl's redesign for placement of carrier ENTERPRISE's new Swedish Bofors guns September 1941 is extremely interesting - and Chester nimitz's role cutting red tape in approving the plan in time for Santa Cruz in October - I wish you could have given detailed diagrams of the placement and how it might have affected future designs. My father took great pride in the accomplishments of many friends and proteges in World War II- I would like to think he encouraged a number of young talents- he was scheduled to retired June 30, l940 at New York where he was in charge of Branch Hydrographic Office - he was getting an "Irish promotion" to commander but remained on ative duty in Hawaii to January 1, l947 . From July 15, l941 to October he was Assistant War Plans Officer Fourteenth Naval district under idiot Claude Bloch, whose role in the loss of 2400 lives December 7, l941 has been mercifully covered over.Lord Louis Mountbatten warned Kimmel and Short at Royal Hawaiian hotel early September 1941 - then he repeated warning to Harold Stark in Washington - Stark regretted lack of funds to follow Mohntbatten's recommendations- Mountbatten would have told President Roosevelt personally, but Chuirchill wanted him home in a hurry - an opportunity was missed.My father had participated in Apri 1925 war games that demonstrated the vulnerability of Pearl Harbor to air attack and Oahu to sneak attack via north coast - the "Blue" attacking force landed there under radio silence from San Francisco while defenders reacted to diversion created by carrier LANGLEY east of Diamond Head on southeast corner of Oahu. My father wanted to consult Army war plans about defense of ships while in port - an Army legal responsibility - hwe was forbidden to do so he Admiral Sees the General on the Golf course"-= this partly reflects the obsession with spies and secrecy. Secrecy was used to cover laziness and stupidity. My father's account strongly supports and documents Prange's view of PEARL HARBOR and refutes Edwin Layton's alibis for Kimmel "And I Was There" poshumous l985. My father was particularly aware of the vulnerable oil tanks and repair yards missed by Nagumo's timidity after the initial Japanese success. My father was transferred October 1941 toi be assistant personnel officer and Overseas Transportation Officer at Pearl Harbor for four years indluding the entire war till October 1945 assigning priorities during severe shortage of ships- most Navy families evacuated Dec l941 to June 1942 - an account appears in PACIFIC Fleet CHAPLAIN WILLIAM A MAguire's l943 "The Captain Wears a Cross" chaPTER 9 "BREAD ON THE WATERS." IN 1946 MY FATHER SERVED ON COURTS MARTIAL - A BOARD headed by Captain Paul Washburn received severe abuse from Chester Nimitz and Navy Secretary Sullivan for acquitting on basis of reasonable doubt and weak evidence a career naval officer accused of commissary fraud or theft on the testimony of a single uncorroborated witness - a N Reserve officer with political connections. The l950 Uniform Code of Military Justice was intended to prevent this type of intimidating improper "staff influence" on independence of court martial boards. Captain Washburn temporarily was reduced in rank, but it was rescinded. Nimitz deserves credit for the buildup to Midway where intelligence was superb and YOPRKTOWN was rushed into service, and your account of his intelligent support of Livdahl is very good to hear about. Nimitz slipped up in regard to the 1944 Leyte landing as I see it - initially he supported Adm. Ernest King's idea of invading rugged, distant Taiwan (which involved logistical strain) but having agreed to the Roosevelt-MacArthur plan for the Leyte invasion, I would say Nimitz should have told Halsey to cooperate in protecting the amphibious forces - the Japanese foresaw Halsey would rush north to try to destroy their carriers, not realizing how depleted their planes were -Halsey talked this over with Nimitz, but Nimitz failed to see the connection to the promises he had made for the Navy to support MacArthur. I blame Nimitz not Halsey. Morison argues and I agree that Halsey could have left Willis Lee and some battleships at San Bernardino Strait. Morison stresses the brilliance and courage of Clifton Sprague and Tafey Three with the Escort Carriers - he makes it sound like the three (four?) hundred Spartans at Thermopylae but Hoyt says escort carriers were severely underestimated at that time -Kincaid was half-asleep, buit one of his staff woke up -Kincaid's sixteen escort carriers had 480 planes, but some had been sent to look for personnel ditched at sea. Hannibal l934-5 later commanded destroyer DALY and planned amphibious operations IWO JIMA-OKINAWA- letters of Warren McClain,Walter Calhoun Richard C. Hottelet from CLAXTON l936; Gershom Bradford of Naval Hydrographic office, Captain and Mrs. Paul Rice and Marine Col. William w. Paca from gunboat TULSA Tientsin-chefoo l930-31 - letter of Coast Guard Admiral Earl Rose about William Rupertus who had kidney problems at Revnue Cutter School - later colmmanded marines Tulagi-Peleliu -letters on survety ship HANNIBAL of Capt. Mervin Halstead, Dan Candler, engineer Paul Lehman and others -letter of Mrs. Paul Nelson on convoy evaucating her with young children Pearl Harbor to San Francisco Dec 25, l942 -material about Samuel Wilder King first native Hawaiian grad of Annapolis - letter l970 of Henry Brantingham who left his uniform in Phillippines catching last plane to Australia - then my father arranged his transportation to Washington DC to receive unit citation from {Prezident Roosevelt- Brantingham arrived may 1942 PeaRL HARBOR WITHOUT UNIFORM - TO keep him out of trouble with military police, my father brought Brantingham to our home 2415 Ala Wai Boulevard for supper and swim, - sent him out to DC next morning to see FDR>.I met a nephew of Adm Livdahl's a few years ago who was entomologist at Princeton-admioral was alive about 1990 - would be about 93 years of age if alive now I suppose. You seem to have had an interesting personal interview. He was a remarkable American and human - my father was proud of helping to educated many like him. John Berchmans . PRIOR history appears in Edward Beach's history of United States Navy- The great caution in requiring all details of guns be approved by Bureau of Ordnance goes back to a long history of gun explosions. In 1844 in the presence of President Tyler, eight persons were killed in the explosion of the huge new PEACEMAKER cannon on the frigate PRINCETON, in which Robert Stockton disregarded advice of Swedish-born John Ericsson, who later was principal architect of Union Navy ironclad MONITOR. The victims of the explosion included the Secretaries of State and Navy and the father of President Tyler's fiancee, a member of prominent Gardiner family of Long Island, New York. John Dahlgren became head of Naval ordnance for many years and did scientific studies that showed much higher pressures in the combustion chambers than was priously known- he developed cast iron cannon larger than previously known with sharply tapering bottle shape- slower burning powder facilitated greater distances for cannon and shell than had previously been azttained. However, Dazhlgren insisted on complete control of all ship cannon, that they be manufactured and located entirely according to bureau regulations. It is against this long history that the Nimitz-Livdahl decision of September 1942 to re-locate the new Swedish Bofors guns of carrier ENTERPRISE in time for Solomons action in October is noteworthy. In late 1942 the ENTERPRISE was the only seaworthy United States carrier remaining to support Marines on Guadalcanal and U.S. forces in theSolomons, until SARATOGA returned to action nd many new rapidly built fleet and escort carriers were operational in 1943. |
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C-L-A-X-T-O-N #1112 p 58 Landing force Culebra Puerto Rico,Adm. LIVDAHL, Capt. McClain,Richard C. Hottelet, midshipmne training, Gardiners Bay | 63- #63 p.222 On February first,l970 Rear Admiral Orlin Livdahl who was a Lieutenant on the CLAXTON at the time Jack was in command wrote to John junior from 223 Jekyll Island Georgia 224 back to Annapolis.On one of the cruises we went up the Hudson River to West Point..This was done in connection with making a movie but I do not remember the name of it or what part we played in its making.We anchored off West Point one night & then sailed back to New York.If I remember correctly no liberty was granted at West Point.Generally speakling there was a great deal of entertainment offered to the midshipmen, but your father whowas Senior Officer Present Afloat (SOPA) thought that our missionwas to train the midshipmen in the ways of the sea & declined most of the invitations.During our stay in the Virgin Islands we were entertained extensively.I do not remember the dinner for Secretary Ickes 7 was not there.I do remember that (Interior) Secretary Ickes was in the area at the same time that we were ,but I did not meet him.The CLAXTON operateed out of Norfolk during the spring of l936 in routine training exercises until we were ordered to Annapolis to cruise midshipmen. I regret very much that I cannot give you the names of many of the midshipmen.I lost all my papers,photographs,& records whe n my room was bombed ouit on the ENTERPRISE.The only one that I can remember offhand was Bill Ingram whose father was Admiral Jonas Ingram.ne the midshipman cruise the Naval Academy provided one offficer usually a Lieutenant,who acted as the midshipmen's Executive Officer & Training Officer.It might inter3est you to know that the following year after your father was detached,the CLAXTON was stationed at Annapolis for the entire year training midshipmen & upon completion of the summer cruises,we were ordered to Europe as part of the Naval Forces stationed there during the Spanish Civil War.The CLAXTON was transferrred to the 225 British in l940 as part of the Lend-lease program. am sorry I cannoty give you any information on the Hydrographic office.My only tour of duty in Washington was in the old Bureau of Ordnance & I never became well acquainted with anyone in the Hydrographic Office.The Bureau of Naval Personnel maintains an Historical Section in which a history ofe very ship is kept,& I am sure that every officer & man who served on her with your father is listed,& you could probably learn a great deal more azbout the people who were on her with your father.It was good to hear from you & I regret to learn that your father has passed away. I hope the information I have given you is of some help.Give my very best wishes to your mother.Very truly yours, O.L.Livhdahl." -220-On March 8,l970 Captain Warren McClain who was a young watch & gunnery officer on the CLAXTON when Jack took command in November l935,wrote to John junior from el Cerrito California,"Dear John,Sorry for the dealy in answering your letter of February twelfth &6 thanks for the copy of Orlin Livdahl's letter.It brought back memories Orlin was a good friend of mine & I've often wondered where he was & how things were going with him 7 his family.I joined the CLAXTON in December l934 shortly after mymarriage on November eighth.The CLAXTON was at Norfolk at the time.From this time until your father assumed command,threeCLAXTON served mostly in the Carribean area as a unit of the Special Service quadron.We carried az complement of Marines on board.Wyhen your father became Commanding Officer,we were at ther Norfolk Navy Yard preparing for a cruise to the West Indies.I remember our cruise from Norfolk to St. Thomas in January l936.I particularly remember the two Army officers Livdahl spoke about - mainly because of their being seasick the entire trip.One of them refused to leave his bunk & ate very little. We were worried about him,but he survived.Also I recall the Marine passengers we had wiuth u us.Our mission on this trip was to provide shore bombardment support for the Marine Landing Exercise on the island of Culebra.A number of target were placed on a hillside,including an Army tank on the crest of a high hill.The CLAXTON came down the range & shot on schedule.Results of our shooting came later, 7 I recall how pleased you father was of our shooting,particularly the hole we put through the tank.Maybe it was luck,but anyway my gunners & I were pleased by your father's warm praise of us.Your father impressed me as being very interested & concerned about the officers & men who served 221 under him. Not many commanding officers show such a personal interest.I remember him once talking to some sailors before they departed on a liberty ashore.Since some of the sailors never got past the first bar when ashore, this was good advice, especially for yhe younger men.I also well remember your grandfather when he visited the ship.He was a great deal like your father & seemed very interested in all that was going on.I also remember spending the greater part of an afternoon going over with your father the charts of a hurricane he had been in(l935(. I learned a lot listening to him.He knew the sea and apparently loved it.His stories about his recent experiences in the survey ship HANNIBAL Were always interesting. During the spring of l936 we had an apartment in Norfolk out near the Naval Station.Your parents were our neighbors.Betty saw a lot of your mother in the days just before your birth.Our duties were rather routine during this period.Upon arriving in Annapolis to begin duty training midshipmen I was detached & sent to the Navy Post Graduate School at Annapolis.The next & last time I saw your father was at Pearl Harbor-I believe in l943. I was commanding officer of the destroyer RUSSELL at the time, & he came aboard to visit me.I enjoyed his visit very much.He seemed proud that I as one of his junior officers was moving up in rank and responsibility.My career following my departure from the 222 CLASXTON went about like this Two years at the Post Graduate School Annapolis, seven months on ther Maryland as Electrical Officer 3 l/2 months on the destroyer ANDERSON as Chief Engineer & Executive Officer one year l943 commanding ffficer of the RUSSELL,-l944 at New York Navy Yard June l945 to January l946 Commanding Officer of the Division l22 in Western Pacific l946-7 Commander Destroyer division 92 selected for engineering duty only l947.When I retired Feb l, l960 I was Supervisor of Shipbuilding at Seattle Washington.My was duty found me in Iceland when Pearl Harbor was hit-in the battle of Coral Sea, Midway,Guadalcanal, Santa Cruz, Tarawa, Kiska & with Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet off Japan in the closing days of the war.I was with our carriers Lexinton,YORKTOWN |
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B.C law, Cutter #1114 wp 58-1114 H-O-M-E--I-S--T-H-E--S-A-I-L-O-R | I am thinking of dividing RED HEADED STEPCHILD into Three VOLUMES. The first is fairly complete - Young Sophie Meraanski and her family, Hartford, Mount Holyoke College, social work marriage. The SECOND VOLUME follows JACK BARRETT AT SEA - Revenue Cutter School, briefly LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE, RESERVE + REGULAR NAVY 1909 to 1947, most of the time away fom Boston except 1912 and 1932-3. This VOLUME is getting near completion, as this week I have got the very long CHINA- TULSA chapter 1931 in near final form - a very important chapter that had to be pieced together from many sources, which has a great deal of Sophie's personal reminiscence. Most of VOLUME TWO will soon be ready for proofreaders. The EAGLE 19 chapter 1932-3 and NEW YORK- BROOKLYN HYDROGRAPHIC 1939-41 chapter have been put together during August 2000. There remains VOLUME THREE - THE BARRETTS in BOSTON - The WILLIAM JOSEPH BARRETT chapter with important ANITA DOUREDOURE material has been on the website for some time, and in AUGUST the BOSTON PUBLIC LATIN SCHOOLS chapter has been re-edited with many additions, including materials on Dan Lyne, David Niles, John Carroll Poland of West Roxbury Historical Society, Dr. James . Moloney Captain USN and more. Sophie Barrett's chapter on {early) "BARRETT FAMILY HISTORY" may be split and expanded, as a great deal of material is available, and also materials on Cork Ireland and South Boston and the chapter "CHILDHOOD + SCHOOLS." A considerable portion of a chapter on Jack Barrett's father "JOHN ROBERT BARRETT" 1854-1942 is in existence, and there is material for Chapters on Jack's half-sister Mollie, various Buckley O Farrell Hartigan Lane Lynch Mehegan and Fahrbach relations, which will require comsiderable time and effort. Current Sophie's chapter H-O-M-E I-S T-H-E S-A-I-L-O-R 1947-1969 is the next priority, partly because Jack Barrett's Boston College Law School 1951 classmates will be observing their fiftieth reunion in 2001. Jack's legal interests probably will deserve a separate chapter - he began law school nights 1927-9 at Fordham Bronx campus- completed LL.B 1951 at Boston College and wrote master's tax thesis at Northeastern Law 1963. His thesis on abolition of Sixty-Five Day Rule in federal income taxation of Trusts and Estates appears on lower portion of web. page ninety-one. Jack and Sophie took a great interest in the debating at Roxbury Latin School under Albert Kelsey and in the music of Giuseppe deLellis, and Sophie raised a great deal of money for Roxbury Latin School TRIPOD magazine - they lived three blocks from the school, and this part of their story can be put together. Many photos survive from their West Roxbury years,and these will be listed and described. They both were active in Wet Roxbury Historical Society - Sophie for more than a decade. Comments of interested persons might be very helpful, especially those with photos or other material, and proofreaders specializing in particular chapters could help enormously - John Barrett H-O-M-E I-S T-H-E S-A-I-L-O-R web page 84-1334 Dean Father Kenealy, S.J. Professor Slizewski, Moynihan, O'Reilly, Sullivan, Grimes, librarian Steven Morrison H-O-M-E I-S T-H-E S-A-I-L-O-R with Boston College Law School account -H-O-M-E I-S T-H-E S-A-I-L-O-R from 58x exc 88A- #88A+ Hartigan,Pops,RLS- #88A+telephonedTEXT:l947 Home is the Sailor - South Boston - West Roxbury-(p. 144) There were many interesting curios at 640- some from Jack's trips.One was an alligator with a pencil inserted into the jaws, with an African native's head sticking out on the head of the pencil.Jack had an old Boston Traveler l907 World Atlas in the cold front room by the stairs, where he used to sleep, and where John slept August to November, l947. There was a fancy lampshade which Jack's deceased sister Katie had made, and some cushions she had embroadered.On the front stairway, a slightly phosphorescent glass knob hung down from the electric light so that Mollie could find it when she came home and up the stairs after dark. I wish we had photographs of the old set tubs and barn before Mollie modernized everything in l948. The things provided quite a link with Grandpa Barrett. The refill water closet of the toilet, which he had made years earlier, was up overhead to utilize gravity.There were coal stove in the parlor and kitchen. A portion of the house dated from before 1860, but additions were made several times.Grandpa had a victory garden in l9l8 and peach trees. An old asparagus plant and many hollyhocks grew in l948 and lilacs.Jack had to report at Boston Navy Yard to show he had completed his authorized travel to Boston. Before long we took a trip to Hampton Beach, New Hampshire to see Jack's brother Bill and his son Billy and "Gram" (Billy's mother's mother) and Billy's aunt Vivian Walsh, Virginia's sister.Jack made inquiry at Phillips Andover Academy thst day but learned their school had a four year course starting in the ninth grade, whereas John was entering the seventh grade. We began house hunting very soon after we arrived in Boston.At this time we expected John would enroll in Boston Latin, and his father had started him learning "Adeste fideles" and other Latin materials.However, Peggy Hurley, entertaining the four of us at dinner at her house, suggested we look into Roxbury Latin School, a private day school in West Roxbury, where her son-in-law Broderick had been a member of the l944 class. This ultimately influenced our choice of a house. Mr. William Cunningham, a school teacher who did part-time realty work for the Fowler agency of Jamaica Plain. showed us a number of houses- Allandale Road and Ardale Road- then on August 28, l947 - Jack's fifty-ninth birthday, he showed Jack and John a house at 52 Emmonsdale Road, West Roxbury, which we later bought.That day after showing the house, Mr. Cunningham bought a round of ice cream cones to celebrate Jack's birthday.The house was only two and a half blocks from Roxbury Latin School, and Mr. Cunningham with nine children lived only two blocks from us himself, so we were ready to believe him about the neighborhood, and he was friendly for many years afterward.He became principal of Roslindale High School, and one of his sons was President of Wang computer corporation.The house on Emmonsdale was owned by the Van Steenbergen family.Mr. Van Steenbergen taught at Boston Latin School, where John was actually enrolled for three days.He was in Mr. Jamieson's room there, along with our neighbor Eddie Brickley of Tennyson Street. John was somewhat upset when his father changed his plans and went rather unwillingly to an interview at Roxbury Latin The new head master Frederick R. Weed without applying pressure either way permitted John to take the entrance exam with some other late applicants including G. Robert Macdonald of Dedham. John scored very well and was admitted. Rather to John's surprise, Jack made the decision to send John to Roxbury Latin and buy the Emmonsdale Road house where no commuting would be necessary.The tuition at Roxbury Latin was only one hundred dollars per year at that time for residents in the area of the old town of Roxbury. The school had just celebrated its third centennial in l945 and received publicity in Life magazine as 'the oldest continuously operating Independent school in the Country" and the "biggest educational bargain in the country." At one time it was very heavily endowed, but its finances suffered severely in the l930's. A new school building was opened in l926 in West Roxbury, but a planned gymnasium was deferred until l955.Peggy Hurley, widow of Jack's South Boston friend Joe of the Boston Post, who had died in l94l, was very friendly when we arrived back from Hawaii.Besides having us to dinner, she invited us to her daughter's wedding in Duxbury spring l948 and introduced me to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Collins one block away from us on Emmonsdale Road.They visited us at our new home two days after we moved in on Thanksgiving l947. Jack also found his former French teacher at Boston Latin School William Pride Henderson living in West Roxbury -aged eighty-four in l947. Bill Barrett's Latin School l912 classmate John Vaccaro was one of the first people John Barrett met in Boston as he had John and his father to lunch at Lockober's Restaurant in August.He also searched the title to the new house, and another l9l2 Latin School classmate of Bill's Archie Dresser appraised the house at a value of eleven thousand dollars.We ultimately paid Mr. Van Steenbergen twelve thousand dollars plus the commission. Jack's l906 classmates Dan Lyne and Edward Illingworth wrote recommendations for John at Roxbury Latin. Illingworth an organist and vocal and piano teacher lived at 64 Hastings Street West Roxbury and was very well acquainted through the Highland Club of West Roxbury with Roxbury Latin French master Joseph Henry Sasserno.Our house is on the slope of Bellevue Hill, the highest ground within the city limits of Boston.Survey maps say the top of the hill is 328 feet, and the Boston state house is visible, and the South Boston waterfront. Our house is at about 210 feet elevation. Mr. Illingworth, who Jack knew from the fourth grade in South Boston onward through Boston Latin School, was nicknamed "the eternal question mark." He studied in Rome with the composer and virtuoso Ferruchio Busoni. His wife was a South Boston neighbor from L Street.He invited Jack to join the Highland Club, but Jack was not much of a joiner, and also passed up the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars as well. Mr. Illingworth one time drilled John on the dotted rhythms of Beethoven's "Minuet in G." Mr. Joseph Sasserno had a considerable conversation with Jack at the Roxbury Latin parking lot the first day of school.He was one year older than Jack and had attended Boston English High School and Harvard College- then taught seven years at Norwich Military Academy in Vermont l911-l9l8. He later was a close friend of his former pupil General Harmon,who became President of Norwich and asked Mr. Sasserno to write a history of Norwich, which was incomplete when he died in Genoa, Italy August 12, l962. Mr. Sasserno and his sister Mary and brother Henry lived in apartments near us at 30 Bellevue Street. Their family were from East Boston and Dorchester.Henry was later our investment broker at Kidder Peabody Company.Joe was active in the Italian Historical Society and West Roxbury Historical Society.Jack's conversation with Mr. Sasserno undoubtedly helped sell him on Roxbury Latin School, where John attended for six years. There was a high attrition rate among the students, but a very fine education was available, and all twelve members of the small faculty were of great ability and became our very good friends.John began piano lessons with Giuseppe deLellis, who took a very wonderful special interest in Jack senior in his last two years, l967-l969.He and his family have been wonderful friends throughout more than twenty-two years.For the first two months Jack drove John from South Boston to school. John was unfamiliar with the Boston streetcars, and the trip was slow and roundabout, with several changes of cars and trolleys.Sometimes Gil Hoag would ride to Dorchester with us to his home in Savin Hill, and Ronald Havelock would ride to the Elevated to connect to Cambridge.We later often regretted that Mollie was not closer to us. Mollie at this time worked in a Metropolitan Life Insurance local office on West Broadway near F Street just beyond Dorchester Street, ten or fiteen minutes walk from her home. She received weekly cash collections at the cashier window and so knew a great many people in the neighborhood.At this time she frequently saw the Barretts' former next door neighbors Katherine Kinnaly and Mr. and Mrs. Daniel and Emily Kinnaly who lived on Clement Street in West Roxbury. Danny worked in the Post Office and was very cordial when he heard we were copming to West Roxbury.Our new house was painted by Meissner Brothers of South Boston, and a new heater and shower and cellar bathroom were installed by Rull Company. Jack's second cousins, Gertrude and Mary Hartigan were still at 80 Brown Avenue, Roslindale, near Cummins Highway and Sacred Heart Church,where their mother moved from South Boston in l9l7.May gave Jack a cordial greeting on his return and frequently brought us poinsettias, azaleas and other plants as presents. Her brother, Father Edward Hartigan, was in North Braintree as pastor until l953- then he became pastor of Immaculate Conception parish, Everett, retiring in l970.For a while May Hartigan kept her car in our two-car garage, as she lived only two miles away and parking was scarce.Until her retirement in l956 at age seventy, she taught mathematics at the Washington Irving intermediate school in Roslindale. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Buckley dropped in soon after we moved in.Subsequently Jack would see Joe around City Hall where he worked in the Sewer Department- and also in Joe's private law office.Joe wrote a recommendation when Jack applied for the Graduate Law Course at Northeastern University in l95l.While we were still living at 640 East Seventh Street, we went with Mollie to 168 I Street to celebrate the seventy-fifth birthday of Mrs. Fortunato Pistorino, the mother of a family of nine, among whom several sisters were very good friends of Mollie Barrett.Mr. and Mrs. Pistorino observed their fiftieth wedding anniversary about the end of the war, and now they were having quite a birthday celebration. Josephine Pistorino worked for Bell Telephone Company.Her sister Frances was a legal secretary, and their brother John was a barber. Their paternal grandfather came from a distinguished family of Messina, and the Pistorino family operated a business in Boston. One of the nephews was with United Fruit company.Mrs. Pistorino's family, long in South Boston, traced back to Skibbereen, Cork, Ireland. Their name was Daly, and they may be related to Jack Barrett's father's mother.Mollie would often have Wednesday and Sunday meals at the Pistorino home, while Josephine and Frances would come to Mollie's for fish dinner on Friday. Jack's second cousins Gertrude and Mary Hartigan lived at 80 Brown Avenue, near Cummins highway and Sacred Heart Church in nearby Roslindale, and their brother Father Hartigan was in Braintree but in l953 became pastor at Immaculate Conception church in Everett.May gave Jack a very cordial welcome home and gave us several azalea plants.For a while she kept her car in our two-car garage.Until her retirement in l956 at age seventy, she taught mathematics at the Washington Irving intermediate school in Roslindale. Mr, and Mrs. Joseph Buckley of South Boston - with whom Jack had been friendly since young boyhood, came to call.Jack saw him frequently at City Hall, where Joe worked for the Sewer Department.After dropping John at Roxbury Latin in time for the start of school at 8:42 every morning, Jack would drive to our new home at 52 Emmonsdale road, where the Meissner workers were painting and papering, and Rull, the plumber was putting a new bathroom in the cellar.Jack unpacked furniture, put the Chinese rugs on the floor, washed dishes, pots and pans, and when the telephone was installed, he called me to say that he had just unpacked the piano, so I listened while he played one of his favorite piano pieces.The piano was in perfect condition although many other items of furniture had been damaged in the round trip to and from Pearl Harbor in 1941 to storage in Boston.By the time the painters,plumbers,and electricians had finished their work, Jack had the place ready for occupancy by John and me.The floors were scraped. Jack bought an electric wax polisher, and on the Sunday before Thanksgiving Jack and John missed their Sunday dinner at 640 because they were determined to finishing waxing the floors and polishing them so we could move in. -and we did move in on Thanksgiving Day l947, when Mollie came out with us and was most helpful in getting us settled. Our next door neighbors at 21 Rustic Road, Tony and Mabel Bernazzani and their two daughters were flower lovers. He was a professional gardener with an unusually green thumb.He had planted the peonies, day lilies, and hydrangeas on the Van Steenbergen property we bought. His own property had a wide variety of rambler roses, yuccas, hollyhocks, violets, Spanish iris,tomatoes, strawberries, bulbs, and ususual trees.The Bernazzanis enjoyed the outdoors and had a large fireplace, where they invited us and other neighbors for spaghetti and steak dinner, which we enjoyed at long outdoor tables. One Sunday noon Mollie called up to invite us to dinner at six o'clock..Since it was a very cold day, I at first refused, but Jack and John, who loved 640 East Seventh Street accepted gladly, as it was a very dull cold day here.I simply suffered in that cold weather- couldn't get warm despite the adequate oil heat.After they left, the house was so quiet, I decided to go to South Boston by subway, even though I wasn't sure how to get there. But our Emmonsdale neighbors, Joe and Grace Collins,picked me up in their carand took me to the Jamaica Plain Civil War Monument, where they put me on a trolley car to Park Street under Boston Common, where I changed for a subway train to South Boston.Jack was glad to see me.it was a lovely party, with the smell of ham pleasant after the long cold trip. Everybody was there - Mollie's cousins, Tom and Bessie Palmer of North Cambridge, her old neighbor Katherine Kinnaly, her cousin Bill Lane of Melrose and his wife Jean,Josephine Pistorino of 168 I Street, and Mollie's second cousins Mary Elizabeth and Helen Lynch of Hyde Park. There was a lot of good talk, the food was excellent, and it was far better for me than sitting at home.Our next door neighbor at 44 Emmonsdale Road was Mrs. Allen, a widow with two grown sons. She was enthusiastic when John made the honor roll for the first marking period at Roxbury Latin. Two neighbors on Rustic Road, Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Ethel Maier came to call one day while John was studying for mid-year examinations.We told them about our trip across the country. Mrs. Maier's father retired police Captain Anderson, lived with her and her husband Otto.Our first winter in Boston was an unusually snowy one. Usually when the Boston public school closed because of snow, Roxbury Latin remained in session, but one morning at 8:30 when the snow was very deep, and it was still snowing, we heard via radio that there would be no school at Roxbury Latin. Against my advice, John went off to school, two and a half blocks away.About noon, when it was still snowing, with the snow two feet deep, I began to be concerned.About two o'clock Mrs. Heffler, wife of the school custodian, telephoned and told me she was surprised when her husband found john reading in the School Library- and when she learned John had been there since 8:30 AM, she gave him a bowl of soup and some crackers.He finally returned late in the afternoon, and when I asked him how he got into the school, he said that the head master had been there and said to him, "Don't you know there is no school?" John admitted he knew it but asked permission to use the library that snowy day. He was eleven and a half years old. Mr. Richard Whitney was the Sixth Class home room master and taught English and geography.When John told the class about some of his experiences in the western national Parks, en route from Hawaii to Boston, Mr. Whitney suggested he use the subject for the annual Fowler Prize history essay competition, offered for the best paper in each class on a subject related to United States History.John used his spring vacation to write the paper and won the five dollar prize. The winner was ineligible the next year, but in l950 John again won with an essay on "Life on Oahu from July l941 to June, l947."John got his best grade in Latin, with Mr. Earl Taylor, who ran the bookstore before school in the mornings - John would often go in early and discuss difficult points in the assignments. Mr. Taylor led singing of hymns in Hall four mornings a week. On Tuesdays and Fridays Giuseppe deLellis came to the school to teach music, and played the piano accompaniment.John soon continued the piano lessons he had begun with Laura Canafax at Punahou in l946.They worked in the Schirmer collection "59 piano solos you like to play" -the Schubert Moment Musical in f op. 94 #3, and Military March, the Beethoven Minuet in G, the Strauss Blue Danube Waltz, Verdi's Grand March from "Aida", the Brahms Waltz in A Flat, the Mozart Turkish Rondo, and the Tannhauser Act 3 March of Wagner, Handel's "Largo" from "Xerxes".and Bach Prelude in c from Well Tempered Clavier #1. Mr. DeLellis and his wife Connie became family friends,and we visited back and forth from their home in West Newton.I met many of the mothers of the sixth class students at a tea party given by the Parents Auxiliary in October l947 At a second tea party given by Mrs. Clifford Ronan and Mrs. Huston Banton I saw the mothers again., and I met many other parents of the Auxiliary at meetings in Rousmaniere Hall.After the meeting we went to the school dining room, where the hospitality committee served coffee,sandwiches, and small cupcakes. We enjoyed talks by Mr. Weed and other invited speakers., and at the Spring meeting we heard the Roxbury Latin Debating Team. We also met parents at school football and baseball games, after which we gathered in the dining room. Since John was interested in debating, we attended many debates at the school and even drove to Groton the fifth class year, where John was a speaker in a junior debate. Roxbury Latin won taking the affirmative on the topic, "Should Athletic Scholarships be Granted by colleges? Mr. J. Clifford Ronan, father of John's classmate Cliff and two younger children, Frank and Dorothy, was a track coach at Boston English High School, and he cited the case of Center College in Kentucky, which was little known until highly successful sports teams brought publicity - then the school was able to raise money and develop a strong academic program. Mr.Ronan's material worked out well in the debate, and when John had finished speaking, Headmaster Peabody of Groton remarked to me, "That boy has a head" In the spring of l948 our former Waikiki neighbors Mimi and Harry Bronson came to visit us. Harry was working as an entomologist for the state of California,and they had bought a home in Santa Paula but were visiting Mimi's parents and sister Frances Gage in Marlboro. Since they had movies and slides of the Hawaiian Islands to show us that Sunday afternoon, we telephoned Aunt Mollie and invited her to come and see them and bring home John, who was visiting in South Boston that day.They also showed views of brightly colored spring flowers from their hikes high in the Sierra Nevada. We bought only two tickets for Roxbury Latin Night at the Boston Pops in May, l948, because it was the last Friday in May, the night I was scheduled to attend my twenty-fifth reunion at Mount Holyoke college.I went to Pops the next year when John was in the fifth class. We sat next to Randy Hare and his mother,- had a pleasant evening. MR. DELELLIS WAS THE PIANO SOLOIST WITH ARTHUR FIEDLER IN A BRILLIANT PERFORMANCE of RACHMANINOFF'S SECOND PIANO CONCERTO. On that last Friday in May l948, Jack drove me to Brookline to the home of my classmate Carol Fisher Mallory.Clara Michael, Ruth Phinney and I rode with Carol to a Howard Johnson's for dinner and then on to Mount Holyoke. where we registered for reunion at Student Alumni Hall. I spent the early part of that evening rehearsing for my part in the play written by my classmate and friend Rebecca Glover Smaltz.The play was to be presented Saturday afternoon. We then went to Pearsons Hall, where I lived freshman year.and where we had Reunion rooms and breakfast Saturday and Sunday.We had a class meeting at which our president Marion Lewis Smart read letters from classmates not in attendance at reunion.When we awoke Saturday morning, it was raining so we could not have the Alumnae parade.So we gathered in student Alumnae Hall, where I sat next to my friend Betty Gilman Roberts, and we had box lunches. In the afternoon l923 presented a good skit by Becky Smaltz, and the Alumnae President announced gifts to the college by various classes. Late in the afternoon we went to Pearsons Hall to dress for dinner- a banquet at a hotel in Holyoke.Ruth Peck Doyle drove Betty Giles Howard, Betty Gilman Roberts and me to the hotel. The drive was one of the highlights of the Reunion for me, because I had lived with them in Brigham Hall junior and senior years, and Betty Gilman and I had taken Master's degrees together in l925 -the only two candidates for the degree that year. at the dinner we were seated alphabetically just as we had been for chapel for four years so I was surrounded by people I knew well. Marion Lewis Smart, our class president asked me as Sergeant-at-Arms of the class to pour the champagne, which I did after saying that this was a strange state of affairs after I had spent so many years in the Navy advising against the use of liquor.The classmates applauded and laughed. As Carol Fisher had two young children left in her husband Dr. Mallory's care, we left South Hadley right after breakfast Sunday morning. Carol came to my house to meet Jack and John.She had met her husband Kenneth Mallory in Vienna when they were doing graduate study in biology and medicine.Dr. Mallory was a pathologist at Boston City Hospital where the Mallory building was named for his relative. we were invited to the Mallorys for Sunday dinner later in June BEFORE CAROL LEFT FOR MOUNT DESERT ISLAND MAINE with the children. Carol was an active member of the League of Women Voters. That summer Jack and I had considerable contact with Roxbury Latin parents. Mrs. Martin of Dedham, mother of Fred Martin came to visit one morning in June before Fred left for summer camp Kabeyun. Mrs. Stikeleather, mother of Robert Stikeleather wanted John to spend a week at their summer home in Stow to help Robert learn some French, before the boys officially started the new language with Joseph Sasserno that fall in the fifth Class. We saw her when we drove John to Stow, and Mr. Stikeleather had come from their East Dedham home to West Roxbury to give us a local map showing their place by the lake.When we went to get John the next week our neighbors Mr.and Mrs.Sweeney of 229 Wren Street rode with us, so we got well acquainted with them too. Mr. Sweeney taught shop in Boston Public Schools,and their son John was class president for three years, until he lost a year with bone tuberculosis, for which he was successfully treated at Lakeville Sanitarium. We also had an invitation for lunch and a swim with Mrs. and Mrs. J. Clifford Ronan at their summer home "Silver Hills" West Newburyport, in the area where Mr. Ronan had grown up.He taught mechanical drawing and was the track coach at Boston English High School. John Sweeney was with us, and Mrs. Ronan urged us to stay for supper. - we had cream of tomato soup- most welcome after a cool swim.Mr. Ronan in later years became a landscape painter. His home on Tennyson Street West Roxbury, and the summer place at West Newbury, which became their home after his retirement, became filled with paintings, and they gave us one - a lovely snow scene which hung many years in our dining room.Mr. Ronan wrote a newspaper sports column "Ronan's Reckonings"- a forecast or "educated guess" on the standings of high school in the track competitions. Mrs. Ronan's father and mother Mrs. Goodwin and her sister Grace Antell lived near us on Howitt Street. Cliff went to Amherst, and his brother Frank did track at Bowdoin. In l948 Jack finally had a chance to grow some good sized tomatoes after fighting insects and mildew in Hawaii. His favorite was the Winsall tomato. We had many three-pound fruits, and once he had a five pound tomato. They were delicious but too fragile for commercial use. He supplied many friends and neighbors with tomatoes and plants and seed to start new ones in February. indoors. He also grew"Crystal White" tomatoes, a variety l45 developed from the yellow tomato. We grew some for many years. Originally we obtained the seed from Peter Henderson Company later from Breck's of Boston. Since l965 we have had to use seed from our own crystal white plants as they now seem to be unavailable commercially.Jack grew tomatoes every year until l965.-#55- p.148 (#55)With my encouragement Jack entered the accelerated two-and-a half year daytime course at Boston College Law School in January, l949 financed as a War Veteran under the G.I. Bill.He made inquiry at Harvard, where Dean Erwin Griswold was courteous, but explained he was crowded with returning veterans. Griswold encouraged Jack to talk to Father Kenealy of Boston College, who strongly encouraged his effort, even though Fordham Law School had not been nationally accredited, and Jack did not get credit for his two years' hard work there 1927-9.One of the professors told the entering law students,"Look at the man on your right and the man on your left, as one of the three of you won't be here when you graduate." There were fewer women in those days, but Jack was friendly with Phyllis Levine, who was on the committee for the excellent Yearbook "Sui Juris". Louise Day Hicks of South Boston was at the Law School one year and was always friendly with Jack in later years when they both spent much time at the Registries of Deeds and Probate. The teachers included Father Kenealy in Jurisprudence, Wendell Grimes, John D. O'Reilly, Emil Slizewski, Cornelius Moynihan, and Law Librarian Steven Morrison. Under the case method students were expected to read and abstract cases carefully in preparation for class discussion. Some professors occasionally threatened to cancel classes when not enough students did these assignments, but Jack and the more serious students usually talked them out of such extreme action. One of the faculty may have been the source of a student joke, "It is sufficient to say 'NOT PREPARED.' It is uncessary to demonstrate." The property professor taught them about the disadvantages of joint interests in real property and joint bank accounts, especially under modern tax laws, "Stay out of expensive joints". All his new classmates were much younger-serious men with a living to make in the law but a number of them told me at various times that Jack had a wonderful mind & that the professors liked to draw him out in class.We went together to the Red Mass an annual event sponsored by the Boston College Law School every fall to mark the opening of the legal season.Father Kenealy conducted the Mass, where we enjoyed a most learned speaker from the legal profession.During the second year his class sponsored a dance at the Recreation Hall of Boston College in Chestnut Hill to raise money to defray some of the expense of the class yearbook. We sat with some of his young friends including Larry Burkart,Frank Amsler,Gene Lyne & his wife Ruth- Gene's Jack's law school classmate was the son of Jack's l906 Boston Latin classmate Dan Lyne, who lived nearby on Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill. John and I attended one of the moot court sessions in which Larry Burkart of Newton andJoe Neylon of Somerville participated - they were members of the very successful moot court team named in honor of 1840s Massachusetts Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, father-in-law of Herman Melville and author of a leading opinion on circumstantial evidence, Commonwealth v. Webster.At the end of two and a half years of hard work, he received the LL.B degree in June,l95l twenty-four years after starting his law studies.When he passed the Massachusetts Bar exam in October 1951 and was admitted to law practice,he Boston Globe gave him first page headlines in big print-wrote a long first page account of his accomplishment at 63 years of age & published a picture of him with his Navy hat & law books in our West Roxbury dining room with John & me.Father Kenealy had asked the Boston Globe to feature Jack. Jack passed the Massachusetts Bar examination on the first try, even though a majority failed to pass,& "there was weeping at the Bar".He then applied for Northeastern University's night classes at the law school to earn a l953 Master's degree, writing a tax thesis he typed himself & taking course in Taxation, Admiralty, Massachusetts Practice, International Law (using the Louis Sohn "World Law" textbook). He took a tax course with Massachusetts Tax Commissioner Henry Long, a colorful & outspoken thirty-year veteran originally appointed by governor Calvin Coolidge around l9l9- & arranged for John to interview the Commissioner in l952 for Albert Kelsey's English course,which required students to record conversations in the style of James Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson" (l788). Professor Gardner gave the Admiralty course. In l948 Jack,John & I were crossing Linnet Street on Bellevue Street in West Roxbury,when an elderly lady emerged from a house at l65 Bellevue Stree.Struck by the color of her Alice-blue big felt hat, I smiled at her as we approached -I remarked "Your blue hat brightens up this dark afternoon."She was carrying a cane, & when I noticed that she had letters to mail,I offered to mail them for her to save her from crossing Linnet Street.She accepted, & as John went to the mailbox, she Jack & I chatted as we waited for him.We told Mrs. Getrude Cutter that we were comparatively new in the neighborhood & that the Reverend Harold Arnold lived right across the street from us on Emmonsdale Road.She told us that he was the retired minister of her Unitarian Church at the corner of Corey & Centre Streets l50 & a distant cousin of James Arnold for whom the Arnold Arboretum was named. When we were out walking Christmas afternoon,we impulsively rang Mrs. Cutter's bell, as John wanted to talk with her,& it was calling-hour.She greeted us graciously,& for the next half-hour we were treated to an account of the very old houses on Centre Street between Richwood & Corey.A few of them were being demolished to make room for a supermarket-to Mrs. Cutter's regret.She invited us to call on her very often.She told us that Mr. Cary Potter of Roxbury Latin was the grandson of Bishop Potter. She & John enjoyed many games of backgammon through the years . Often after playing with her he came home with a can of peanuts.Each Christmas she sent John a calendar from the Museum of Fine Arts.Often about noon she would telephone me to call on her about three in the afternoon.She was hard of hearing but amazingly adept at lip reading if you looked right at her as you talked.She liked to tell about her mother-in-law "Madam Cutter" whom she considered an outstanding woman.One afternoon she told me about her father-in-law's experience in job hunting: one day - as he was on his way from Winchester where he lived to Harvard college to see President Charles Eliot to inquire whether he was to be appointed Librarian of Harvard College, President Eliot was on his way to the Cutter home in Winchester to offer him the job.When Mr.Cutter learned that President Eliot was not in his office, he went to the Boston Athenaeum & accepted the job as librarian there & developed that famous library for many years 151 His Cutter library classification was the forerunner of the Library of Congress system.As a young woman Miss Gertrude Cross took a job as an art teacher in the Winchester school and declared,"l'll never marry a man from Winchester", but she married Madam Cutter's second son Roland, an MIT graduate & an engineer for the city of Boston.Madame Cutter's first son was named Ammi, as the first son in every Cutter family for some generations is named.Mrs. Cutter's nephew Ammi is a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (l97l).One of their family friends was founder of the Windsor school for girls.When the author of a widely used book on geometry was revising his work,he showed the new illustrations to Gertrude,the young art teacher.She examined the drawings & said,"I could do better myself." She was stunned when the author said,"All right. You are hired.You make the illustrations for the book.I'll pay you anything you ask & give you an unlimited expense account." He told her to take all the time she needed to make the illustrations, so important in math work.She regretted her rash statement but took on the job.He accepted all of her illustrations & acknowledged her work in the introduction to the new edition. Jack had the book- a well-worn copy `-& that acknowedgement appeared in the mathematics text he had used at Revenue Cutter School in l909.He immediately telephoned Mrs Cutter, who was pleased the future Coast Guard officers had benefited from her work.Mrs.Cutter had an arthritic back for which she had a brace called "Gracey Bracey"She was rationed as to daily trips up & down stairs. A friend designed an ingenious thirty-inch long wooded scissors that she used to pick up papers or small books from the floor.In l955 Mrs. Cutter moved to a nursing home on Alfreton Road,Needham and gave us a large collection of books Jack picked out -a complete set of Charles Dickens, several Trollope novels -"Barchester Towers" and "The Warden," - and Pagan & Christian Rome.There is even a history of the Cutter family.When she had back troubles, her motto was "Cooperate with calamity." She lived to age 83 - l874 to March l958. She knew the Codman family,who were Brook Farmers 1843 & preserved an l846 engraving of the Brook Farm site, which was given to West roxbury historical Society & has proved useful to archaeologists interested in tracing positions of the buildings - some of which have been moved from their foundations & later destroyed by fire.There are very few extant pictures of Brook Farm from l84l-46, the era of the social experiment. The engraving also clarifies what areas have been flooded or filled. |
L-E-T-T-E-R-S DAHLQUIST YORKTOWN,Peggy w1115 about p 58 p 59 China material {D} | 83--75 -Dahlquist letters:p.552 On April 2nd l97l Commander Philip Dahlquist of Eugene Oregon payclerk on MARBLEHEAD when Jack was on board l924-27 wrote a long letter from which I excerpt:"Yes I have heard the term 'Bloody Saturday'. I think it was the day the North Station (Railroad) was taken ny the Japanese from the Chinese. This wqas in the French Concession & after that the Chinese didn't seem to have anything more to fight for-or with.It happened in the llatter part of October l937 (see letter in this section from Mickey Ashley covering the l937 attack by the Japanese on Shanghai}.My wife Peg looked in her diary & found a lot of interesting things:She had spent the summer of l937 up at Chefoo with me when I was on the BLACK HAWK, a destroyer tender. The dependents were required to leave Chefoo before we did. The coastwise shipping having been stopped a long while before this,the submarine tender CANOPUS was designated to come up from Tsingtao & pick up our dependents & take them down to Manila via Shanghai.Some of her entries - she had with her the boys- twins eight years old & one four.October 20th, l937Got aboard the CANOPUS at nine AM. Received our instructions & were shown to our rooms. I have two staterooms up forward on the superstructure deck. The twins have one room, & Gordie & I have the other.There is a bunk in each room. Paul has a cot to sleep on, &Gordie has a little bed.p. 553 It is made like a crate & has pillows for a mattress.We have gone to town on the good old stateside chow.We are hungry all the time.Left Chefoo at eleven AM.October twenty-first arrived Tsingtao at six AM. Went ashore - back to ship for lunch.Paul had an orange, two poached eggs, sausage & two waffles for brfeakfast- & then wanted an apple.October 22 left Tsingtao at eleven AM. Sighted a Jap cruiser.They signalled, & we had to turn a searchlight on our flag. The flag flies night & day- is not taken down at sunset.This is a large flag painted on the awning of the bridge.October twenty-fourth.-Heard our first report at 7:45 AM. We are anchored about fifty miles out.There are Jap destroyers just off our side. The HENDERSON is anchored just aft. Two of our destroyers are here to escort trhe HENDERSON & the CANOPUS into Woosung.Expect the pilot aboard at nine o'clock.The guns are uncovered & the kids are thrilled & think they may be used.The PERRY escorted us in to Woosung.Passed about six English destroyers & a Jap ship. About nine planes bombing Woosung.A haze of smoke covers the entire region.The planes curled about us & were flying low.A blimp was observing.We took on oil.October 25- Boy- the Japs are bombing with a vengeance. p. 554-The ship shakes like the dickens with each shot. The plane flew over, bombed, & returned to the ship for reloading.Missed the air raid last night - slept through it all.Watched the families in the lighter having chow.Had a live duck on board.Fifteen destroyers anchored near the buoy.The air raid was at its worst at 3:30AM. I went to the children's room to tell them to stop banging the doors.They were both fast asleep.The FINCH escorted us out of Woosung.How that place is wrecked.Looks as though the Japs deliberately shot away every house.Even the sheds are demolished. Sighted Formosa this morning.(end of diary...) They went on to Manila.According to Dahlquist the things described inthe diary were those leading up to the taking of the North Station & quite probably the day is known as Bloody Saturday.This happened very soon after the events described here.October 23rd was a Saturday.I would guess Bloody Saturday was one week later October 30. I joined Peg in Manila a month later, & the North Station had fallen long before that.-Phil Dahlquist. On April 8, l97l Commander Dahlquist wrote "No I didn't have any idea that Jack Barrett was within a thousand miles of Pearl Harbor at the time I was there right after the Battle of Midway (continue p. 560) in l942. I wish I had known it.I am sure I might have gotten a better berth on the HENDERSON than down in the hold where they used to carry the mules for the Marines. But it was jammed with men returning, so I probably could not have done much better.I was in a big hurry too. I had just received word from my brother in San Pedro telling me that Peg & the three boys were house hunting in that area & had been hit by a gasoline tank truck & trailer - & she had been hurt very badly. One of the boys was also hurt very badly.Peg was unconscious for five days & actually suffered a fractured skull.I had this to worry about when I came ashore from Midway.The little fellow had a fractured pelvis & broken collar bone.One reason I didn't see Jack was because all the (YORKTOWN) survivors were bundled off in a separate camp up in the hills around Pearl so that the word would not get out that the YORKTOWN was sunk.It was sunk on June 6, & it was the latter part of August that they announced it.The Japs didn't know that they had gotten us.Of course, they had reported that they had gotten us on the YORKTOWN at the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 7-8). BELOW is duplicate...I shall now quote many sections of this long letter because....go to #75A-75b-I shall now quote many sections of thisa long letter because it is a first hand account of the last weeks of the aircraft carrier YORKTOWN by Commander Dahlquist,who was one of the survivors when she was sunk at Midway."The thing about our carriers being sunk was that they caught fire & burned to the extent that we very often had to sink them with our own torpedos when they became so badly burned it was impossible to salvage them.To my knowledge the YORKTOWN was the only carrier which had to be bombed & torpedoed until it sank.It did not burn.By this I mean-there is always a fire when a bomb hits a ship.We had such fires-lots of them-but they were brought under control quickly & contained, and it did not interfere with the battle efficiency of the ship to any great extent.I remember that after the LEXINGTON was sunk in the Coral Sea we all got our heads together & decided we were not going to burn as did the LEX.But how to do that?You see, there are gasoline fueling lines running from the main fuel tanks up to the hangar deck & the flight deck for the fueling of the planes.We could & did launch as many as a hundred planes at one sitting,& that called for a lot of gasoline.Then when the ship was hit with a bomb or a torpedo, it was to be expected that these gasoline lines throughout the ship would become ruptured, & gasoline would be accumulated in various places in the ship.It was just a question of how long before it would become ignited by a spark from some electrical apparatus.This happened to the LEXINGTON, & I imagine to the other carriers which had burned as well.We had these same fuel lines, & we decided that when p.562 an alarm was sounded of approaching aricraft we would cut off the lines at the main tanks by a valve, & then blow high pressure air through the pipes to blow the gasoline in them overboard. We did this & we had no gasoline fires as a result- or maybe we were just lucky- I don't know.About the Battle of Midway we were on our way up from the Coral Sea & feeling a little sorry for ourselves as we had taken quite a beating.We had a bit of repairs to be made-& all we could think of was about six months in Bremerton navy Yard- & our families. That was when I suggested to Peg that she run over & call on her friend Vi Hawes.Peg was living in Norfolk at the time,& Vi lived in San Diego.But she took the hint & shipped things out to the West Coast & drove out with the children.(Note- this appears to have gotten past the censors, whereas a statement the YORKTOWN would be coming to San Diego would have been censored)It was when she got to San Pedro that she had the accident. 75m- d)It was when she got to San Pedro that she had the accident.It was also on the way north from the Coral Sea that we found out that the Jap code had been broken.We found that ships of various types were being ordered out from Japan to be assembled at a rendezvous & when there they would split up- some going to the Aleutian Islands for a diversionary attack to draw our carriers & heavy ships up there- & then they could attack Midway with their main fleet of four carriers plus battleships & a whole mess of ships.We had no battleships at the time & only a few heavy cruisers & three carriers, counting the YORKTOWN,which was slowed down a lot due to damage from bomb hits in the Coral Sea.We had a submarine spotted at the rendezvous point with instructions to remain hidden & to just report the various types & numbers of ships arriving & departing.This sub reported the arrival & departure of the expedition for the Aleutians & also reported the massing of the Jap fleet for its attack on Midway.We arrived at Pearl on the day the attack on the Aleutians took place,& the other two carriers & the escorting cruisers pulled out of Pearl Harbor as fast as they could & were presumably headed for the Aleutians.I'm sure that Jack knew all about this. One division of light cruisers (MARBLEHEAD type) did go on up to the Aleutians.The rest of our ships changed course one hundred miles out & headed for Midway.We were given two days' emergency overhaul & repairs to the YORKTOWN, & then we left too.There also went our six months overhaul in the Navy Yard.We ran as fast as we could & joined up with the two carriers to the northeast of Midway before the Japs had arrived.The Japs were sighted by small B-17's.The Japs hit & messed up Midway pretty badly,& the Marines there were given a bad mauling.The YORKTOWN was not able to keep up with the other two carriers because of the damage to the ship in the Coral Sea.So we laid back some twenty to thirty miles & hoped to send our planes to the attack, which we did.Then when the three Jap carriers & some of their cruisers were page 564 finished & the whole Jap fleet was running every which way, we saw a flight of enemy bombers coming in to attack us.They had come from the fourth carrier, which had taken their station behind us & had not been spotted up to then. Well, we were too far away for the other carriers to help us, & our escorting cruiser & the destroyers stayed with us,& we took a pretty bad bombing.Our power was knocked out,& we were dead in the water for a while.We took several very severe hits.Finally we got some headway on the ship & were making seventeen knots.Then we got word there was another flight of enemy planes coming in. These we knew would be torpedo planes.Several of their planes were shot down, but we took two tropedoes on our port side just where they might have exploded our magazines if we hadn't flooded them.I have often thought how lucky we were this didn't happen.It would have blown the ship to pieces,& we would have lost most of our crew.The hits put holes in our side that one could have driven a truck through, & we listed very badly.To keep from losing a lot of men,the skipper ordered the ship abandoned. We went over the side, after tossing life rafts overboard- & then slid down lines to the water & swam to the rafts.Then they would pull away & be picked up by destroyers. I was finally picked up by the destroyer ANDERSON together with a hundred or more other men.Then I was transferred to a cruiser & finally to a submarine tender which was to take us to Pearl.A Japanese submarine fired four torpedoes at the stricken YORKTOWN at very close range. Two of them hit the YORKTOWN & two of them hit the destroyer standing by.The destroyer was sunk immediately, & the YORKTOWN could not be helped from then on. The YORKTOWN turned over & sank (on the morning of June 6 - check date).She & the destroyer were the only two American ships to be hit in the whole engagement. The fourth Jap carrier was sunk by our planes joined by planes from the other three carrier. I arrived at Pearl Harbor with what I was standing in at the time I left the ship-shoes, pants,shirt & a cap.I felt pretty lucky.We lost very few men from our ship,We lost a lot of our pilots, especially those flying the slow torpedo planes.I waited in Pearl for well over a month before I could get orders home.An |
Robert Mehegan letter Barrett f-a-m-i-l-y history 1911 #1116 p 59 | #100 Robert Mehegan letter- #100 "Red Headed Stepchild- Memoir of the Century "-September l9ll letter of Robert J Mehegan l857-l925 to his son Robert junior then working in Evanston,Wyoming in federal Land Office:"As long as you have fully made up your mind to visit San Francisco,we will have to put you wise to the people that you will see and visit.Had we known some year ago that you should be so far away from home we could have talked over these different relatives of ours to a greater satisfaction than to write.You will be asked a number of questions about the relatives in Boston and vicinity.Consequently I shall have to climb the family tree for your inspection. The Barrett family came from Ireland and landed in Boston in 184l sixty-nine years ago.The family consisted of five members,four women and one man.The man was the oldest of the family, his anme was Robert Barrett.After being in Boston some years he married and settled in South Boston. They had four children, two boys and two girls.Mr. amd Mrs. Barrett died when the children were very young.Michael the eldest of the family was about sixteen or seventeen years old at the time and went West and went into the cattle business.When the Grand Army had their convention in Boston inn l89l (sic-actually August,l890) he came on from the West and visited us when we were living on Carlyle Street in Cambridge.The last I heard of him shortly after leaving Boston he was in a place called Somerville, New Jersey. If he is living today he must be over sixty years old.The two girls of the family was taken by your grandmother and lived with us in South Boston (East Fourth near I Street until l871) when their aunts sent for them to live with them in San Francisco.The names of these two girls are Mary and Kate Barrett. Mary after being in California a short time entered religious life and has been a Sister of the Presentation order for a great number of years. You have seen her picture surrounded by her scholars in one of our rooms at home.She is now in a convent located at Berkeley,a town near San Francsico.By all means you must see her,but the best of my opinion you will have to be accompanied by some female relative or friend.Katie the yonger of the two girls and about my age never married and always made her home with her aunts.The other member of the Barrett family is John, and at the death of his parents went to live with a family by the name of Thompson at City Point (640 East Seventh) and when a young man learned the plumbing trade.He is now in business for hmiself. and has been for some time located on Harrison Avenue Boston directly in front of St. James Catholic Church.He is married and owns and lives in the Thompson house that he went to when a small boy. His first wife died and left one boy who is now an officer on one of Uncle Sam's battleships (correctly a Revenue Cutter School cadet l9ll).I never saw his second wife but there are some children. He is quite distant and does not visit his relatives much. That is about as much as I can say about my uncle Robert and his family who came out from Ireland.Now for the four women of the original Barrett family.Kate the oldest married Charley Mehegan's father and is dead between forty and fifty years. She left three children; Robert the oldest (l848-l9l6),whom you know, Mary, who you never saw,and who married a widower named Barry Sullivan who had quite a large family, and when she died there were flour children left after her. (Mary l852-l885 died in childbirth.).One of her stepdaughters married Dr. Devine,one of the leading doctors of South Boston.Regarding her own children they are all grown up and able to care for themselves. As for Charley of course you know all about him (l857-l9ll letter carrier City Point, five children - wife accidentally drown l9l0 surname Sullivan).You will probably be asked about Robert: Of course you know the kind of life that he has led and you can make it as pleasant for him as you can,not unless you are unable to do otherwise. You know that he has a daughter (Elizabeth l880-l978 lived to age 97 years sen months) who was married and had one child. Both husband and child are dead ( she remarried l9l2 to Joseph Hoarde in Waltham - four children, seven grandchildren more than twenty-two great-grandchildren). The third member of the original (Barrett) family was Ellen,who was your grandmother (l822-l895,married John Mehegan). The other two women of the original family is Margaret and Johanna.They left Boston in l854 for California and are at last account living at 2043 Polk Street,San Francisco. Johanna married a Mr. Hession,a very industrious and good man.They had four or five children.Mr. Hession has been dead for a number of years and the children (INSERT-all the children) likewise, with the exception of one married daughter Mrs. Fahrbach, who has been an invalid for years (Eliabeth,died l907).The last member of the old family is Margaret.She never married and always made her home with the Hessions.These two old ladies at the time of the great San Francisco fire lost all their property,which consisted of three houses on Polk Street which was their principal income.Since the fire I think they have only rebuilt one of the houses,which they live in themselves.I have gone over the Barrett family to the best of my ability but there are numerous other relatives there that you will see and hear about.The Colemans and Murphys and several others whose parents in coming from Ireland to Boston (sic) never settled in boston but went to the Golden gate of California. Your grandmother was the second oldest of the four women of the Barrett family and died when we lived on Elm Street in Cambridge sixteen years ago, and if she lived to the present day would be eighty-nine years old.Her sisters,whom we hope will be alive when you reach San Francisco are about eight-five and eighty-seven years old respectively.When they left Boston for California,it was a far different thing than going there at the present time.The was no railroad running fromthe Atlantic to the Pacific and only taking a few days to get there.The only way overland was the prairie schooner, and the other way was by boat from New York to the Isthmus of Panama and then up the Pacific Cost to San Francisco. It was a far different place than you will find on your arrival.Among other people you will be asked about is "Auntie Mehegan." She was the second wife of Charley Mehegan's father and came over Charlie when he was a very small boy.As you are well aware,she died last November (1910) and she did not die in South Boston but at the home of her nephew Timothy Sullivan on Hanover Street,Boston.He is a bachelor and over sixty years old.,and his housekeeper is his aunt,who is a sister of "Auntie Mehegan" who is over eighty years old and blind and never married.She spent a great number of years in San Francisco and is well known to the old ladies there.They were acquaintances of theirs when the lived in Ireland years ago.These things that I have gone over you will find useful on your visit.(Sophie Barrett note - Jack spoke often to me about his aunt Sister Mary Joseph and about his great aunts who crossed the isthmus of Panama by muleback.) Robert Barrett died Dec. 1859 of lung disease on Goddard St., which became W. Eiught Street between Lark and E Sts,. Charles Mehegan immigrant railraod builder to Concord N.H. died l868. His first wife Kate Barrett died l863. His seond wife "auntie" Mehegan lived to l9l0. A grandniece Mrs. Kelleher was located Ballinreesig Cork l971. -add end- from #64 Elvira letter 1970-Elvira Mehegan 3870 East Wesley Avenue, Denver Colorado 802l0.August l6,l970 Cear cousin Sophie,Your letter sent to the Catholic Church in Evanston Wyoming was sent to me. I had heard of the Barretts who were relatives of the Mehegans but had never met any of them.I met Robert Mehegan junior when he worked in Evanston.We were married in August l920.My married life was all spent in Boston & Arlington (Massachusetts). We had o=four children- one girl Eileen & three boys,John Edmund & Paul. Robert's father died in l925 his mother in l940 & his only sister in l964.My husband died in l933.After his death I came back to Wyoming to earn a living for myself & four children rteaching school.I retired from teaching in l963.Then I moved to Denver to be near Eileen.I live alone in a small house about two miles from Eileen.My four children are all married.Eileen has two girls 7 one boy.John lives in Boulder colorado. He has three boys & one girl.Edmund lives in DesPlaines Illinois. about fifteen miles northwest of Chicago.He has two girls & one boy.Paul lives in Canoga Park California about fifteen miles north of Los Angeles He has four girls & one boy.I have quite a collection of grandchildren to visit.I do not see those who live away from this area very often.I was very pleased to get your letter & learn that someone in the East is still interested in the Mehegans. yours truly, Elvira Mehegan." -29- To: Meranski@yahoo.com, RMclaug325@aol.com #29 In 1888 Sister Mary Joseph Barrett in San francisco selected the middle name Berchmans,which was given to Jack, born August 28, l888 at 654 East Sixth Street, South Boston.His sponsor or godfatherwas named Andrew Dailey- pssibly a relative of his father's mother Catherine Daly, who died l863.It was not possible to identify this Andrew Dailey in Boston directorys - an Andrew Dailey had been a cigar-maker on W. Seventh St. South Boston some years earlier but does not appear in directories near l888. Saint John Berchmans was a Belgian child canonized l887. Sister Mary Joseph sent pamphlets telling his history.Until l993 we had a photo she sent of the convent where she served in Sonoma in the l890s and several photos of her.Sh was born l852. Discrepancies appear in records as to the birthdate of her sister Kate, possibly l855 or later, as records indicate l855 but leave an insufficient gap after birth of her brother John Robert November 29, l954. They lived in l859 on Goddard Street, formerly in Dorchester but part of the "Washington Village segment annexed to Boston in l855. The house where John Robert was born is the second door west of Lark Street on the south wide of West Eighth Street - a house still standing with blue shingles in the l990;s.It was owned by Michael A. Ring,who started in the junk busainess, but expanded tp paer and "gunny cloth" according to directories. Robert Barrett a milkman, died of lung disease December l8, l859 and his wife the former Catherine Daly in February l863. Michael A. Ring's will many years later shows the division of his property among twenty-four grandchildren. One of his sons Thomas Ring was a founder and trustee of the Saint Vincent de Paul in boston. A b neighbor Mrs. Welch took an interest in the family. and her photo appeared in John Robert Barrett's photo albums. Her brother Michael Thompson was a baker with one of the oldest houses in South boston at 640 East Seventh Street, and John Robert Barrett went to lived there and is listed at that address in the l870 census. He went somewehre in the Middle West for a time probably early l870's to work with his older brother Michael in the meat or cattle business. Little is known of Michael, but an excelllent timtype photo of his remained, and we have good copies though the original disappeared l993.Cousin Robert Mehegan wrote in l9ll that Michael BaRRETT HAD RETURNED TO VISIT BOSTON "WHEN the Grand Army were having theeir convention" but he was probably not a veteran, as city records indicate he was probably born September l850. Mehegan stated that in the early l890's Michael was in Somerville New Jersey near Princeton,. Around l9l5 Jack Barrett wrote his aunt Kate in San Francisco saying he heard Michael had been in Lewes, Delaware, but sahe replied, "It's news to me." Nothing further is known of Michael. Jack did considerable in probabte records l967-l968 and found some indication that Robert Barrett's sister Mrs. Ellen Mehegan of 630 East Fourth Street near I had taken her two niece Mary and Kate Barrett in l862 to live with the Mehegan family, while their mother was still alive but ill with tuberculosis. From l862 to l871 they grew up in the household of John and Ellen Mehegan with their cousins Catherine Mehegan born l854 (later Mrs. Craig of Joy SAtreet Boston, and Roibert born l857 printer at the Boston Herald. In l871 they traveled on the recently completed transcontinental railroad to San Francisco to live with their aunts Margarent Barrett and Johanna Hession and the Hession faMILY. MARY SERVED IN THE PRESENTATION NIUNES FROM L87L UNTIL HER DEATH November l923. One of Ma Lane's brothers Tate was a very large and strong person who went to the Pacific and was killed on an island there in the 1890's attempting some prodigious rescue of a team of horses froma dtich. Several of the other brothers were plasteres in Melrose: A brother Bill had five children, Myles, John, Frank, Bill junior and Eileen.Myles played baseball for Huntington School, played footballand hockey at Dartmouth class of l926, became one of the first United States natives to play professional hockey- he was with the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers around l930 - attended Boston College Law School, served in the Navy in World War II and became a New York state judge.The remainder of the Lane family remiained in Melrose.A sister of Ma Barrett, Kate Kernan became Mrs. Kernan and had two daughters.My husband was very fond of the Lane family and frequently visited them and his own Buckley relatives in Melrose in his youth and also knew John Lambert, a second cousin of the Lanes and Lynches who was a newspaperman in Portsmouth New Hampshire and adviser to calvin coolidge.The Lamberts resided in Portsmouth in the l920's and l930's.Jack attended elementary school in south boston and then the Frederick T. Lincoln School in greade four through nine with Maurice White as principal, and master William E. Perry, who was laterprincipal. OIf his classmates, Edward Illingworth continued along with Jack in the Boston Latin class of l906. Illingworth was graduated from Harvard in l9l0 and studied piano and organ with the composer Ferruchio Busoni. He became a professional organist, married Eilabeth York of L Street South boston, and moved to West Roxbury around l9l6 and lived at 64 Hastings Strret until he was killed crossing Centre Street in November l978. One of his two daughters Geraldine was a piano teacher, and his son was a physician in Springfield Massachusetts. Of other classamtes, John Murphy was active in South boston affairs including the Saint Patrick's Day parades and lived to age ninety untio about l988. As a resident of the Soldiers Home in Chelsea, w he was able to identify more than thirty members of the l902 class in their ninth grade photograph.Teachers at Lincoln School included Josephine Simonton, and in the fifth grade Vodisa Comey, who had a dstinctive method of making students pound therir chests on key points when they practiced elolcution.Dr. James B. Moloney had many of the same teachers four years later. Bill Barrett participated in a performance of Julius Caesar, and his classmate John Vaccaro recited a program about "The Three-Legged Goose." Jack attended choir during these years at Gate of Heaven church but was expelled when his friend Joe Buckley was found with Jack's water pistol. They were both held responsible.A stolen tintype showed the four Barrett children in the back yard at 634 East Seventh Street around l90l, with Jack formally dressed and weatring a hat, and his father holding Kate, the baby.Jack felt a very fine residential area could have been developed in South boston if houses had been planned with larger yards to avoid overcrowding.Next door at #642 the Kinnaly family arrived in l911 in a house that was moved from a location near Broadway and Fifth Street, to make way for a new School Building.Houses were frequently moved in the neighborhood. Horses and icemen were common until the l940's. There was a streetcar line on Eighth Street, which passes south of Dorchester Heights. East Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Streets are cut off at G Street by Dorechester Heights.Mr. Kinnaly was a plumber. His eldest son Edward became a seaman.Danny worked in the post office and he and his wife Emily later lived in West Roxbury and Roslindale, as did their younger sister Katherine, a close chum of NMollie Barrett's for many years.Katherine would often accompany Mollie on weekends visits to see Bill Barrett and his son Billy in Darien after Billy's mother died in l945. One of the Kinnaly cousins was a secretary in Washington DC> first to Boston Congressman Gallivan and then for many years to House of representatives Speaker John McCormack, who lived on Vinton Street.A maternal cousin of the Kinnalys was Father Harrington of New Hampshire. _ |
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