The long voyage of the ship Pasteur
Hal Stoen, July 2001
revised 6/24/2008: Entries for Barend
Koerssen and Sidney Rosen, added
The Pasteur as a troop transport in Indo-China.
Painting by Jocelyn Gille. (published by Art et Collection Affiches)
The Pasteur was a ship with a grand history of sailing the world's oceans for forty-one years. Designed as a luxury liner with greyhound speed for the long ocean haul from France to South America (13), she was delayed in serving in her civilian passenger-carrying destiny for twenty years. On her maden voyage the Pasteur helped save the gold reserves of France, just before the Germans invaded her homeland in World War 2, by making a high-speed run across the Atlantic, delivering a little over 213 tons of gold bullion from The Bank of France to Canada for safe keeping.(13, 15)
Captured in Canada by the Allies, the Pasteur was converted to a troopship, and carried thousands of Allied troops to Europe and Africa during World War 2. On her return trips, she became a prisoner of war transport, carrying German and Italian POW's to internment camps in Africa, the United States and Canada. After World War 2 ended, she continued her duties as a troopship, carrying thousands of French troops during the Indo-China War (1946-1956).(13) She was awarderd France's highest honor, The "Croix de guerre", in October 1947, for her service.(13)
The Pasteur was sold to the nation that she formerly carried troops to fight against (Germany), and finally, after twenty years of service as a troopship, became the luxury liner that she was designed to be. For the next twelve years, sailing under her new name "Bremen", she made scheduled North Atlantic crossings, offering her passengers luxury accommodations in those days before the jet-powered airliners took over the passenger business between Europe and North America.
She went on to serve as a cruise ship, almost became a floating hotel, and ended her history as a barracks ship.
During her life at sea she flew the flags of six nations: France, The United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines.
She also sailed under a variety of names: "Pasteur", "Bremen", "Regina Magna", "Saudiphil I", and "Filipinas Saudia I"
Forty-one years after she was launched, after carrying tens of thousands of passengers safely to their destinations, the Pasteur finally sank at sea.
Too proud to go to the breakers.
Veterans, please note: If you crossed on the Pasteur, please
contact me and I will send you a CD with this information on it.
There is no cost to veterans for this CD. 
Do you have any information on the Pasteur? If you do, and wish to share it, please contact me and it will be published, with your permission, on this site and on the CD. Thank you.
"Question and Answer Board"
This site is primarily devoted exclusivly to the Pasteur. However, people that have direct experience with the ship, and the era, are leaving us at an alarming rate- such is the cycle of life. While it is not the intent that this site be a "clearing board" for other matters, I feel that it is only fair to be a little broader in base for some issues.
1. My father John
"Dixie" Dean served in the 1st Battalion Beds &
Herts Regiment. He and 83 others volunteered to serve as
gunners on DEMS. On 6 May 1941, a convoy left Alexandria
and reached Malta 3 days later, under escort of half the mediterranean
fleet. The men were billetted with the Cheshire Regiment until
23 July when it was considered safe to send the convoy to Gibraltar.
The men were then taken to Scotland on "Pasteur"
along with civilian families.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who took part,
or has any information on this convoy, in particular on the Settler.
The other ships were Amerika, Talabot, Thermoylae, Calcutta,
Dido and Phoebe.
Kind regards, Brenda Dean
(email address for Miss Brenda: brendadean@zonnet.nl)
2. The French gentleman that is researching the Pasteur's history for an upcoming book on the ship is looking for any and all input that you may have on the Pasteur. If you will please send me whatever you may remember I will make certain that he receives it along with appropriate credit. Of particular interest right now is the time frame "early 1942" when the Pasteur was part of a large convoy sailing from Great Britian during January, 1942. The Pasteur was scheduled to go to Singapore via Freetown and Durban. However, after sailing Singapore fell to the Japanese. The "mystery" is where did this convoy then go? She was loaded with troops and supplies that went somewhere. Do you know? Do you have any dates?
An answer for item 2. See the entry for "Duke" Waddell under the heading "Personal memories of the Pasteur" below.
3. Shirar Wendy
writes: "I am the daughter of one of the survivors of the
SS West Lashaway that Mr. Sam Beverage mentioned in his excerpt.
My mother was one of the young children aboard the Lashaway when
it went down and was obviously one of the survivors rescued by
the HMS Vimy. "
"My mother who was Carol Shaw, age 7, at the time, has a
beautiful picture of a young sailor aboard the HMS Vimy who is
carrying her in his arms. His name was Raymond Venables."
Does anyone have any more information on this incident? Is Raymond
Venables around some place and able to furnish some insight?
An answer for item "3" above: I was looking through the Pasteur Saga again to see if anything new was added and I came upon my name mentioned in connection with the West Lashaway sinking. Someone by name of Shirar Wendy speaking of her mother Carol Shaw a survivor who lost her parents and a sister.She mentioned a photograph of her mother being carried by British Raymond Venables of the Destroyer HMS Vimy. I wonder if she has the book, written by another survivor, of the SS West Lashaway, Robert W. Bell and assisted by D. Bruce Lockerbie? The name is "In Peril On The Sea", Doubleday & Company, Inc, Garden City, New York 1984. The book mentions Carol's parents and Carol's struggle as an orphan etc. I had some correspondence with him in 1985 at which time he was at Stony Brook, LI, NY, as a School Administrator. I do not know if he is still there or not? Contributed by Sam Beverage
Another answer for item "3" above: On 1/24/2004 Robert Logan contributed the following:
Following up on the above reference to the SS West Lashaway I found the following additional information at web site http://warships.web4u.cz/history/histmain.php?language=E&file=USN_1942_9E September 18, Fri. Atlantic:
"British destroyer HMS Vimy is detached from convoy to investigate raft containing survivors from U.S. freighter West Lashaway (sunk by German submarine U-66 on 30 August 1942).
3. Jane (Wile) Levy
writes "I have been reading the fascinating stories about
the ship Pasteur. Places such as Port Said, Suez Canal,
South Africa, & Egypt have all been mentioned by my father
as places he was in WW11 while a wireless operator aboard a merchant
vessel out of New York. He passed away in Sept. Although
a Canadian he was on the US merchant vessel Gloria or
Old Gloria. Does anyone you are in contact with possibly
have info on this ship?"
If you can be of any help, please contact her at clay.jane@ns.sympatico.ca
Vimy, believing the hoisted sail to be part of the disguise of a U-boat, opens fire on the raft. Her gunnery, however, is fortunately bad, and the survivors (who hurriedly strike the sail) are rescued.
"Living history" moment: In March of 2005 I received an email from Mary Bell Whitbeck. " ....you have a picture of our raft & Carol Shaw on board the Vimy. My Mother was that missionary lady---and I was one of those four children on that raft---my name was Mary Bell, now Whitbeck....I know Carol & her daughter Wendy as well as Richard Shaw as we keep in touch these days..."
And in a follow up email from Mrs. Whitbeck: ".....this
is what I know of those pictures. It was a long time before
we even knew there was an actual picture of our raft, something
we never dreamed of.
In about '44 or '45 Mother was in Boston & told our story
there. Apparently there was a notice in the paper about
her & a brief account because a man went to hear
her/see her. He happened to be a friend of the Vimy photographer
& whenever the Vimy was in port there they would visit as
they could. He had done this & on one visit gave the
Boston friend a copy of the raft picture telling him what he knew
of the incident. When the Boston man read about
Mother he thought the two stories were actually the
same event so sought her out. After she was finished speaking
he approached her with the picture saying he thought it was of
us before rescue. Mother was stunned--could hardly believe
it. But the man put her in touch with the British photographer
& through correspondence it was verified that it was indeed
taken on 9/18/42 just before we were picked up. So
it was in direct contact with the photographer through that Boston
man we came to have both those pictures from the Vimy. I
don't think I know now the name of the photographer. But
after reading about Robert Logan I wonder if it weren't his father.
That is Mother & I standing at the back corner of the raft---it
is still mind boggling to me there were 17 people on that tiny
raft.
The raft picture was taken about 10 AM & the one of
Carol being carried about 3 PM when we were conveyed by
hand from the Vimy deck to the Dutch ship which took us into Barbados
while the convey continued on its way to the Mediterranean.
In those heaving seas, that spooks me now---a life boat
was even smashed in the attempt--but we all got over safely.
That man carrying Carol put that picture in a Chicago paper about
12 years afterward wondering if anyone would recognize Carol
and someone did & he then phoned her transatlantic---which
was a big deal in those days---that was all written up in the
papers.
I consider the Vimy to be a gallant ship. It took part in
two memorable WW II events, Dunkirk evacuation & DDay
invasion. I count it such a privilege to have been on board
those few hours myself. They were a wonderful crew to us
in kindness..."
This group includes among them the woman missionary and four children (see 24 September 1942). "
Mr. Logan adds: "These references reminded me of two photographs, from my fathers time in the Royal Navy, now in my "family album" ... I have no details for these photographs, but I was wondering if it would be possible for this e-mail and the photographs to be forwarded to Shirar Wendy to see if either of them relate to the references above."
French Foreign Legionaries jump ship (Contributed by William McAlister)
In 1955 I was a deck apprentice on Ellerman Hall Line's 'City
of Madras' sailing between India and the U.S. We were anchored
in the Bitter Lakes whilst transitting the Suez Canal northbound.
The Pasteur appeared apparently carrying Foreign Legionnaires
from the Indo China conflict bound for Algeria to fight the
FLN. The Pasteur did not anchor, I was informed, because of possible
troop desertion. As she drew abeam of us two figures were seen
to jump overboard from the boat deck of the Pasteur. Our Captain
ordered our vessel's Suez Canal mooring boat to be launched
and we duly picked up what turned out to be two of the troops.
They were brought aboard and given a hot drink and food in the
Quartermaster's mess. The Chief Officer told me to keep and eye
on them should they emerge from the accomodation. One of our
QM's appeared and said 'I wouldn't keep too close an eye if I
were you, these two soldiers have just spent two years at war
and are now heading for another in Algeria . They have just
poleaxed two of their military police to make good their
escape'. Sure enough when we got to Ismailia the two soldiers
appeared and produced two condoms into which they put their money
and watches before diving overboard. I was then 19 years old and
prudently watched as they did so. I have attached
a photograph of one of them as he left our ship. You can just
see the disturbance in the water at the top of the picture which
is his accomplice. One was Spanish, he is the one in view, the
other was Italian. At the time the Egyptians gave any such deserters
a good meal and a passage home. We caught up with the Pasteur
in Port Said and the French military authorities questioned our
ship's Captain as to why we had not apprehended them. Thankfully
no one asked me.
(On the subject of Legionnaires "jumping ship" also
see the entry for Roger Seynav under the
"Personal Memories" section.)
How this page is arranged
- Background
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Specifics of the Pasteur (length, width, tonnage etc.)
- History of the ship, from launch to her final voyage
- Bibliography of sources
- Personal memories of the Pasteur. (From veterans that sailed on her during The War.)
- Personal memories of the Bremen. (With some photographs of personal memorabilia.)
- Photographs of the ship (Including her ultimate demise as she sank in the Indian Ocean.)
Background
I started researching the Pasteur because my next-door neighbor, E. Glen Strom, veteran of the 12th. Bombardment Group, 81st. Bombardment Squadron- "The Earthquakers", crossed the Atlantic on her enroute to North Africa in World War Two. I posted his information on the internet site "World War II Troop Ship Crossings" (1). Since then several people have contacted me seeking information on the "Pasteur". I found that while information was available, it was scattered about here and there at a multitude of sources. This site is an attempt to consolidate that information.
And lastly, I have since been contacted by several veterans that sailed on her as the Pasteur, and a civilian that crossed on her when she was the Bremen. Those memories are included.
Their memories of the ship are what adds the real substance to this site.
Dedication
Sadly, in 2001 Glen Strom joined the thousand of veterans of that era that we are losing every day. Young men that showed extraordinary bravery in incredible circumstances.
This site is dedicated in their memory.
Troopship research
If you are doing research on troopship crossings, here is an excellent link to start with: http://troopships.pier90.org/ The page has some excellent resource links. (A "Thank you" to Jim Baker for providing the new link to this site.)
Sadly, it would appear that finding documentation on passenger lists may be difficult if not impossible. This is a quote from the page:
"The records of ships used to carry troops to their theaters of operations were destroyed intentionally in 1951. 'According to our [U. S. National Archives] records, in 1951 the Department of the Army destroyed all passenger lists, manifests, logs of vessels, and troop movement files of United States Army Transports for World War II.' (Sorry, but there was no word on why the records were destroyed.) Thus there is no longer an official record of who sailed on what ship, though there are still valuable sources that can be found...."
Introduction
The Pasteur led a long life, lasting forty one years. During that period, she flew the flags of France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines. She also operated under several names: "Pasteur", "Bremen", "Regina Magna", "Saudiphil I", and "Filipinas Saudia I".
Right from the start there appears to be a minor controversy over the ship's name. Most of the links that I found in my research refer to the ship as simply the "Pasteur". However, the WW2 veterans that took passage on her usually refer to the ship as the "Louis Pasteur". In fact, her actual name was simply "Pasteur."
This information is correct as far as I know at this date. However, I am not a researcher, nor a maritime or military historian. My intention is to give the veterans of that era a single source on the internet where they may find information on this ship.
A bibliography of sources and internet links is provided at the end.
Specifics
Length: 209.4 m (9), 212.4 m (10)
Beam: 26.4 m (9), 26.8 (11)
697 feet x 87.9 feet (11) or, 696.9 feet
x 90.2 feet (12)
GRT: 29,253 (10, 11)
Speed: 23 kn (9, 11)
Max. speed: 25.5 knots (11)
Propulsion: Parson's geared turbines, 60,000 shaft horsepower
(10)
Propellers: quadruple screws (10, 11)
Passengers: 1,122 (9) 287 (10,
11) or 275 (12) in 1st. class, 126
in 2nd. class, 338 in 3rd. class (10, 11)
Crew: 540 (10, 11)
Launched: 15 February, 1938 (10, 11, 12)
Interestingly, she was christened by Madame Pasteur Vallery-Radot,
the wife of the grandson of Louis Pasteur (12).
Completed: August, 1939 (10, 11)
History
The Pasteur was built by Penhoët of St. Nazaire, France (6) in yard number R8 (10, 11) and completed in 1939. Her weight was 32,000 ton, with a length of 697 feet (7). Her original owners were Cie.Sudatlantique. She was designed for Atlantic passenger crossings between France and South America (13). Although sometimes referred to as an "S.S." (Steam Ship), she really was a "T.S.S." (Turbine Steam Ship) (10, 11).
Due to the start of WW2 she did not enter service immediately (2). Her original maiden voyage was delayed by the outbreak of fire while she was being fitted out (12). Her maiden voyage, re-scheduled for 10 September 1939, from Bordeaux to Buenos Aires (11), was canceled due to the outbreak of World War II (6, 11, 12).
She was a fast ship, regarded as the third fastest of her day.
In what was to be her maiden voyage, the Pasteur was commissioned to carry part of the French gold reserves (213 tons, 600 pounds worth (12, 13), to the safety of Canada (6,20). She sailed from Brest to Halifax, Nova Scotia on this mission June 2nd, 1940 (10, 11). (This was done in concert with several other ships, civilian and military, during the period late 1939 to June of 1940.) (13)
After the fall of France, she was taken over (in Canada) by the Allies as a "prize of war", and converted into a troopship. The Pasteur entered service as a troop carrier in August, 1940 (6, 11). As a troopship she flew the British flag and was operated by Cunard-White Star Line (2). Some sources refer to her as a "H.M.T.S." (His Majesty's Troop Ship). "She was one of the few fast transports that could cross the Atlantic in small, unescorted, fast convoys" (12).
Due to her speed, the Pasteur generally made her troopship crossings alone, without a warship escort, and not as a member of a convoy.
"In October, 1941 she made a voyage from Glasgow to Halifax with a varied complement, including officers arranging the transport of 20,000 British troops across Canada and the Pacific to Singapore." (12)
The Pasteur apparently returned loaded with German prisoners destined for prison camps located in North America. I have been contacted by at least one individual who stated that his father was on such a crossing. Also another individual stated that there were Italian prisoners on a previous East-West crossing.
In addition, she hauled prisoners from Suez, Egypt to South Africa, carrying as many as 2,000 German POW's (3).
It would appear that there was an attempted mutiny by German POW's in late 1941 or early 1942.(14) For more information on this, see the "Personal Memories of the Pasteur" section, under the entry by Bryan Samuels.
One thing that the remarks of American soldiers that sailed on the Pasteur have in common is the quality of the food. In a word, it was described as "terrible." No one has ever come forth to suggest that the food served to the GI's was the same as that served to the POW's on the East to West crossings, but it certainly appears to be a possibility.
"In 1943 she visited Freetown, Capetown, Durban, Aden and Port Tewfik, and then back to the Clyde and Halifax". (12)
"Before the battle of Alamein she had carried 10,000 men of the British 8th. Army, and 5,000 men of the US 1st. Army Corps." (12)
It is possible that the ship also operated in the Pacific Ocean. There is a reference to a "SS Louis Pasteur" in the war diary of an American Destroyer Escort, the USS Wintle, DE-25 (4). However, there was also a Liberty Ship named the "Louis Pasteur" (5), and it is most likely that the remarks were referencing it.
"During the War she had carried 220,000 troops, and 30,000 wounded, and steamed 370,669 miles." (12)
"After the War, she repatriated US and Canadian troops." (12) In October 1945, the Pasteur returned to the French flag (13), and in early 1946 management was returned to Cie. Sudatlantique. Her service, though, remained military in nature. After her World War II trooping duties ended, Pasteur was used to transport French troops to and from Indo-china (6).
She earned her nation's highest honor, the French "Croix de guerre" for her service (11, 13), but never made a commercial voyage for her owner (6).
The Pasteur made made a "one time voyage" to bring
dutch people to the Netherlands. The Pasteur sailed in 1950 from
Tandjong Priok to Amsterdam arriving there January 24th.,1950.
She docked at 13.45h at the Javakade, there were about 4,000 soldiers
and their families on board. The Netherlands army has a passengerslist
of this voyage.(16)
The Pasteur was laid up in July, 1956 at Toulon (13) and January, 1957 at Brest (13).
Activated again in September of 1956, the Pasteur, along with other civilian and military ships, transported troops during the Suez Canal "affair". (13) The HQ General of the French troops was on board the Pasteur while she was moored in Port Said harbor, December of 1956. She was one of the last Allied ships to leave Port Said, Egypt at the end of the "affair". (13)
In September, 1957, the Pasteur was sold to a German company, Norddeutscher Loyd, and was rebuilt by Bremer Vulkan. At this time her stack was replaced with a more "modern" looking affair (2,6). New boilers were added in 1959 (10).
Renamed "Bremen", she entered NDL service in July 1959, on the Bremerhaven-New York route as a passenger liner. "She commenced Bremen-Southampron-Cherbourg-New York voyages on the 9th. of July, 1959 and continued this service, with some cruising voyages, until 1971." (12)
The ship was refitted in 1965/66 at the repair yard of North German Lloyd. The bulbous bow was added at this time. GRT changed to 32,360 (10).
Also used for cruising, she became part of Hapag-Lloyd when the two leading German shipping organizations merged in 1970.
Her final Bremen-New York roundtrip for Hapag-Lloyd came in September 1971 (6).
In October of 1971 The Bremen was sold to a Greek shipping company, Chandris Lines (2). Delivery to Chandris was accomplished on January, 1972 (10, 11). After refitting she entered service under the Greek flag and was renamed the "Regina Magna", GRT now at 23,801 tons (11). As the Regina Magna she did cruises worldwide until 1974, at which time she was once again laid up, this time in Piraeus, Greece. This was for two reasons, rising fuel costs and the loss of emigration charters to Austrailia (11).
In 1977 the ship was sold to Saudia Arabia's "Philippine Singapore Ports Corporation" for use as an accommodation ship for Philippine workers (10, 11). She arrived at Jeddah on Nov. 1, 1977 (11). Her name was once again changed, this time to the "Saudiphil I" (6, 9, 11).
On June 9th., 1980, sold (apparently) to Philsimport International, Hong Kong, and name changed to "Filipinas Saudia I" (2, 6, 11), or by the name "Filipinas Saudias I" (9)- note minor spelling difference- she was being towed to the breakers for scrapping in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (9, 11). "She left Jeddah in tow of the Panamanian tug "Sumatra". (12) Problems developed during the tow "apparently through various insecure fastenings" (11). The ship rolled over on her port side and sank, stern-first into the Indian Ocean (2,6,9,10), at a position of 07 35 N, 60 12 E (11).
This ended the 41 year saga of the TSS Pasteur.
A stamp for the Pasteur
(With appreciation to David Rheault for bringing this information to light.)
Fitting for her days of future glory, the French Government commisioned a stamp for Her latest ship.
The following is translated from the original French. The url for this informaation is http://www.coppoweb.com/momes/fr.noe_03.php3 .
In 1933, after the burning of the steamer "Atlantic", the South-Atlantic Company orders the construction of a new steamer from the Penhoët shipyards. This steamer displaces 30,447 tons and measures 212, 40 meters. It is launched on 15 February 1938 and is christiened "Pasteur" by Louis Pasteur's godmother Mrs Pasteur Valléry-Radot.
The president of the South-Atlantic Company requests the commission of a commemorative stamp for the inaugural cruising scheduled for September, 1939. Four million of the stamps are printed in mid-August 1939. But the inaugural sailing of the Pasteur was cancelled because of the Declaration of the Second World War on September 2,1939. During this period the steamer was berthed in Landévennec, in roads of Brest.
The Pasteur embarks on June 2, 1940 with more than 200 tons of gold destined for Halifax in Canada. The English seize the boat on July 4, 1940.
The sheets of stamps were stored nearly two years and, in 1941, they made their reappearance overmarked "1F + 1F". The surtax of "1F" required by the Admiral François Darlan, Secretary of State to the Navy, will be versed with the Central Service of Works of Navy (SCOM). The exposure of the SCOM, inaugurated by the Pétain Marshal in the shows of the hotel France and Pasteur in Vichy is the occasion of the handing-over in circulation of this stamp. Some specimens however have escaped with this overload and are very required by the collectors. Attention, however, one can with chemicals remove the red overload, rather easily. It is necessary to consult an expert before any purchase of this stamp.
(From
the collection of William G. Williamson.)
The Pasteur steamer was returned to France on April13, 1946. It was used during the war of Indo-China for the transport of French troops and sank on June 9, 1980 in the Indian Ocean as it was on the way for a demolition site in Formosa.
A book for the Pasteur
Published in November of 2005 this is probably the definitive book on the Pasteur. Written by Mr. Jean-Yves Brouard of France. It is a large book (approximately 9" x 12"), 264 pages in length, and profusely illustrated with over 350 pictures and drawings of the Pasteur- many in color. The book is published in French, and there is little likelihood that it will be translated to English. Having said that, it is worth purchasing for its shear beauty alone- the cover and the numerous illustrations are beautifully done. An order link (in French) is available at http://www.jybaventures.com/~jybaventure/biblio_jybaventures.htm (Shipments outside of Europe will require an additional 10 Euros for postage.)
Another book for the Pasteur
"The Ship That Won World War II"
by Captain Jim Hudson
This book, available on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, chronicles the "race to Cairo, Egypt" betwen German aad Allied forces and how the Pasteur was instrumental in the Allied victory.
Some thoughts on the design of the Pasteur/Bremen
Jim Douglas
"I guess you know that the 'designer' of the Normandie, Vladimir Yourkevitch (1885-1965) was Connected with the Pasteur. He has been mistakenly called the designer of both ships, but in fact was not resonsible for the exterior shape of either. Only the hull form below the water line, and to be more specific,only the bulbous forward edge. I met his widow for a nice afternoon in 1966 at her Manhattan apartment, and she told me endless details of the man, but never informed me as to exactly what Yourkevitch did do, and she most likely wasn't aware of such things. The Pasteur looked unusual with her way forward stack, and I liked her even better as the German Bremen.
Does anyone really know who is responsible for the unique appearance
of the great Normandie's exterior shape? Most point to Albert
Sebille, the French Line's resident illustrator as the one, and
early impressions of her coming out in the early 1930's are often
from his pen. Growing up in the late 50's and early 60's, I accepted
the common info it was Yourkevitch. And now know better. But his
friends called it "his" ship. Most likely the Normandie
was Sebille's concept with input from the French Line execs and
advisers. Now the Pasteur I know much less about, and I expect
Yourkevitch's contribution was now more than that for the Normandie-----being
his then revolutionary bulbous bow.
Only when I come across a photo of her do I give this ship much
thought. But there was a time, from about 1959 thru 1970, she
was much evident in my ship daydreams. It was of course her link
with the more famous Normandie that started it, and the appearance
of a new German flagship in '59 that caught my eye. The Bremen
was a fine ship. Not as ornate as the Italian liners(a good thing,
I'd say), nor as glamorous as the old French ladies, and certainly
a notch above the British. Clean and almost austere, but not "cold".
Did you know the ex-Pasteur was fitted with a somewhat pronounced
bulbous bow in the mid-1960s? Extending forward to the extent
that some of it peeked above the waters' surface just as it sloped
to the cutting edge of the vertical line of the original
bow.
If you're interested, New Yorks' famous tug boat company, Moran,
used to publish an inhouse magazine called "Towline"----I'm
not sure if it was monthly, bi-monthly, or what-----but the Bremen
appeared on the cover. An excellent painting by the Frenchman
Albert Brenet, who was a busy man in those years-----his style
somewhat impres-
sionist yet admirably realistic-----showed the Bremen from the
pier side three-quarter front view. And the new underwater bow
is clearly evident. I had that issue for years, but it's gone
now. Perhaps you could contact them, or the Steamship Historical
Society for more info. And how about "L'Illustration"?
, the French picture magazine of
many decades. I know a 1939 issue, maybe more than one issue,
devoted a generous article on the about-to-be-premiered Pasteur.
Plenty of pictures of her attractive interior, and a large painting,
spread across a double page, I think by Albert Sebille, but I
just can't be sure of that-------it's been over thirty years sisnce
I've seen it.
Finally, a little oddball trivia. There's an early 1940s Columbia
picture, one of the Ellerly Queen or Boston Blackie series with
Chester Morris and Margaret Lindsay, and immediately after the
opening credits fade out, in fades a liner(at sea) followed by
a cut to its' interior----merely a studio set. That liner is the
Pasteur! Of course it's STRANGE, for it's maybe 1941 now, and
the stock footage of the liner used here is one that never actually
entered commercial service.
One tends to think somewhere in French film vaults there repose
reels of what must have been publicity footage of the Pasteur
and just a clip was used for this Columbia programmer. And what
about the newsreels of the day?"
The Pasteur returns troops to Ottawa, Canada- 12 August, 1945
(Contributed by Marilyn Fraser)
The Ottawa Journal, 5 O'Clock Edition, Monday August 13, 1945. (Page 12)
5,200 Return On Pasteur And Letitia
Quebec, Aug. 12 -- (CP) -- While large crowds cheered from atop Dufferin Terrace and the Plains of Abraham, the 23,000-ton troopship docked at Wolfe's Cove here last night, and the roar of a 20-gun salute mingled with the shouts of the some 4,500-returning army and R.C.A.F. personnel aboard the ship.
Among the repatriated servicemen were 2,500 volunteers for the Pacific and a general reaction yesterday, after they had had a night's sleep on the news of Japan's bid for peace, was one of "well, it looks like it's all over. I don't suppose we'll be able to get our crack at them now." On the dock to greet the returning vets were Defence Minister McNaughton, Air Minister Gibson, Brig. Edmond Blaise, officer commanding M.D. 5 (Quebec), Mayor Lucien Borne and Victoria Cross-winner Lt. Col. Paul Triquet of Royal 22nd Regiment.
The first special trains carrying the men to all parts of Canada left Wolfe's Cove at 10.30 p.m. last night, while the majority entrained for home today after spending the night aboard ship. Of the 4,421 repatriated many were from Western Canada and the total included 2,476 army men and 1,945 members of the R.C.A.F. Gen. McNaughton in an address of welcome, recalled the six years Canada was at war during which "we lived from day to day under the menace of impending calamity", and added: "Now that tthe menace, so far as Europe is concerned, has been dispersed and there is certainty that within a scant few short hours we shall see the end of our remaining enemy in the Pacific, and so we ... can turn from war to peace, to live again our lives as individuals and not constrained to use our every effort in the grim struggle for survival."
Fueling the Pasteur in the "Straights of Singapore" (Contributed by Brian Lloyd)
In January 1955 I was an apprentice officer with the Shell Tanker Company serving on board the MV Goldmouth in the straits off Singapore. The Goldmouth was an old tanker which was used as a bunker ship, supplying fuel to vessels. One of the vessels that we supplied fuel to was the Louis Pasteur. She was on her way from Vietnam to France repatriating French troop after the fall of Saigon. I remember that we were aware of her arrival and were looking out for her. The first thing that we saw was her funnel. It appeared over the horizon well before we saw her hull. The size of her funnel was one of the most memorable things about her. She anchored and we went alongside to start fuelling her. We got into conversation with some of the troops aboard. They were legionnaires. They told us that the Louis Pasteur would be stopping in Algeria on her way home to drop them off to continue the fighting that was going on in that country at that time before the ship took the regular French troops home. As a young 18 year old I was very impressed with meeting real Foreign Legionnaires. I was also very impressed with the Louis Pasteur.
Bibliography
1. http://members.aol.com/troopship/shipform.html
2. http://www.shippostcards.co.uk/ChandrisRMagna.html
3. http://www.watersideweb.co.uk/Barham/samuels.htm
4. http://www.wintle.com/de25/diary.htm
5. http://www.uh.edu/~pthompso/liberty/liberty_listL.html
6. http://www.greatships.net/bremen5.htm
7. (translation from the original German)
8. http://stores.yahoo.com/singularselections/bremoclinpap.html
9. http://server2036.virtualave.net/morri/Germany/Bremen5.html
10. "Remembrances of the 1060th. Sig. Co.- 50 years- July,
1992 newsletter". Furnished by Sam Beverage.
11. Don Hazeldine, in a email post to Alice Forster, 3/22/2001
12. Ted Finch, in a email post to Alice Forster, 10/18/2000
13. Jean-Yves Brouard, on-going correspondence
14 Brian Samuels, in his book "Never Make A Sailor", http://www.watersideweb.co.uk/Barham/samuels.htm
15. http://www.coppoweb.com/momes/fr.noe_03.php3
16. Herman van Oosten, 6 December, 2002 in an email.
If you have any additions or corrections to make to this narrative,
please contact me and I will make the changes for future editions.
The history of this proud ship, and those that safely sailed on her, should not pass in vain.
July, 2001
Hal Stoen
514 Rock Springs Drive
Oxford, Mississippi 38655
(662) 236-4440
Hal@stoenworks.com
PERSONAL MEMORIES OF THE PASTEUR
Chris Aitken (submitted by her Niece, Gayle Aitken)
One of nine nursing sisters who returned to Canada in 1945 on the Pasteur. They arrived in Quebec city. I do not have pictures of the boat but do have pictures and names of all nine. They served in the South African Military Nursing sisters. Some served in Italy. My aunt served in North Africa and seems to have been the designated photographer at a time when photographic film was rare.
Albert Allam (Submitted by his son, Pete Allam.)
"... My father Albert Allam ... joined the RAF in June 1941 and sailed on the Pasteur from Gourock on 8th September 1941, arriving in Halifax Nova Scotia on 15th September in preparation for pilot training in the USA.
Bruce C. Allen
"...I sailed on the Louis Pasteur as a Sargeant in the Royal Canadian Airforce R136240 from Halifax to Liverpool on May 26 1943."
Duncan Allen (WW2 veteran, Royal Canadian Navy, ret.)
"..... I sailed on the Louis Pasteur in May(?), 1940- just after France capitulated- from Halifax to Liverpool. We had about 500 or more troops, advanced party of Canada's First Division.
George Alphin
See photograph under the "1060th. Signal Company" listed under "VARIOUS MEMORABILIA FROM UNITS THAT SHIPPED ON THE PASTEUR" below.
Peter Andrew
My Mother and sister came to Canada on the Louis Pasteur
in early Jan 1944. She was one of the first war brides to come
over. My sister was nine months old.
She said that the voyage had been in rough seas and the ship had
travelled in a zig-zag formation.
This is a quote from a Toronto newspaper at the time..
War Brides and Babies Weather Stormy Seas
The ship which brought Canadian soldiers and old country brides
to Canada not long ago must have carried the most remarkable cargo
of the war.
In addition to the 106 soldiers and 200 brides, there were more
that 150 babies, and all rolled into Toronto yesterday morning
after a stormy crossing.
The brides and babies are those of Canadian boys, some of whom
are in Italy, others in Britain and others back in Canada themselves.
Brides Like Canada
The soldiers were back for a variety of reasons,
most of them relating to category. Some are on compassionate
leave. The brides unanimously declared they liked Canada,
its lights, its food and its Maritime snow. The babies didn't
seem to mind one way or the other. Mrs. Peter
Andrew and daughter, Gloria, were among the twenty odd girls who
will live in Toronto. Her husband is in Italy now and she
joined his parents on Woodbine Avenue. The crossing was
rough she said, but "we got here safely, and that was the
important thing. There were eleven Mothers and nine babies
in our stateroom".
This article was published in the Toronto newspaper and retained
in a scrap book which was passed down to me by my parents.
Please note, (the war was still ongoing so the ships name isn't
mentioned in the article, also that the wounded servicemen are
only mentioned as having a category change).
I have just remembered that the troop ship that my father's
regiment embarked on was also the Pasteur, June 25th 1941 from
Halifax. It arrived and they disembarked on (Dominion Day) July
1st,1941 at Greenock. The following two attachment are pages
62 and 63 from the book, "The History Of The Ontario Regiment"
which describes what the ship looked like at the time also who
was on board. It also mentions the names of the destroyer escort
and where they switched escorts at.
George Richard Andrews (DOB: 2/4/1922) (Recorded by Alice Forster, 8/31/2001)
Dad returned from 2 years service in Canada in May 1943. He was an Air Frame Fitter with the RAF their unofficial motto being "You bend 'em, we mend 'em".
The Pasteur was quite a modern ship compared to the ship on which he had travelled to Canada in 1941. This was the SS Ruahine (out of New Zealand). The same ship had taken my Grandfather to Australia in 1909! (In 1909 the Ruahine was nearly sunk in the Canaries and my grandfathers voyage was delayed for 6 months while the ship was repaired).
Dad's first interest on sighting the ship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the single funnel. His memory was that this was much more conspicuous than the photos suggest.
One or two nights into the voyage home, everyone on board woke up because the whole ship was 'thrumming', literally juddering under speed. Dad had had experience of fast motor boats and reckoned she was travelling at a 'tremendous' speed, well in excess of her 26 knots maximum quoted speed.
In 5 days they travelled from near the Arctic, down to the tropics, back up to the Arctic and then down the Irish Sea to Liverpool. It was a lovely calm day coming down the North Channel of the Irish sea and she was 'thrumming' again. "The Liverpool Lasses have got her in tow".
When under way and moving fast, she squatted very low at the stern.
There was a small 'docking' deck towards the stern for taking
in lines. When dad noticed this in dock in Nova Scotia it was
approx 3 feet above the waterline. When under way, she sat so
low at the back that it was below the waterline.
Dad is at a loss to understand why the Pasteur was so obviously over-powered. The quoted speed of 26 knots was very fast for a ship built before the War. The old Mauritania managed about 27 knots and the 'Queens' (especially Queen Mary) were pretty fast. The United States was a fast ship but has been laid up almost since she was built she could work up to 36 knots. Vast amounts of power are needed to attain these speeds.
The Pasteur was supposedly built for the France-South America
route, for which a weekly crossing seems unlikely to have ever
been commercially viable. After the war, it seems no-one could
afford to use the Pasteur on a commercial basis. A Chief Engineer
has to account for every pound of fuel that is used and it is
very important to keep fuel consumption down. On an Air Force
High Speed Launch, hours were spent and all manner of tricks were
tried to use less fuel.
Atlantic Crossings by Civil Aircraft have made fast ship crossings obselete.
Robert Angell
Early in 1942, I was a 20 year old officer in the Royal Artillery of the British Army. I was posted to the RA headquarters in Woolwich on the outskirts of London to join a group of several hundred fellow officers awaiting posting 'overseas' to where we had no idea. Eventually, we marched off to the railway station and boarded a train which trundled through blacked out Britain to arrive at Gourock, the port of Glasgow in Scotland. From there we boarded the troopship Louis Pasteur. We were allocated what were designed as single cabins but were now equipped with two rows of bunks, each four tiers high but this was luxury compared to conditions for 'other ranks', many of whom were below decks in hammocks.
After our long train journey, we fell sound asleep and I do not
remember the ship leaving. We woke next morning to see from the
porthole that we were part of an enormous convoy (said by some
to be the largest of WW11), escorted by two cruisers and countless
destroyers. Life on board for a draft of officers without any
troops to worry about was comparatively easy and the meals in
what was the first class dining saloon, virtually as originally
designed were positively luxurious with Cunard staff in white
mess jackets with even a reasonable supply of wine! Of course,
there was boat drill and,hopefully , an adequate supply of life
rafts for the several thousand on board. A regular entertainment
was Bingo called in the Services, Housey, Housey at sixpence a
go but with many hundred players, quite substantial prizes for
the first one to shout 'House'. All the traditional cries for
the numbers were unfamiliar to me butquickly learnt: 'Kelly's
eye' number 1; 'Doctors orders', number 9 (after
the Army laxative), seven and six 76 ,Bed and Breakfast or 'Was
she worth it?!.
As the weather became increasingly warm, we woke one morning in
a humid sweat to find we were anchored in a tropical estuary which
we learnt was Freetown in West Africa. No disembarkation however
and in a few hours we were off again, still in convoy but with
our destination still unknown. Rumours said that our course took
us almost to South America and then back to Durban which proved
to to be where we said goodbye to that magnificent pride of the
French Line, adopted by Cunard White Star, the HMT Louis Pasteur.
Postscript.
After two very hospitable weeks in Durban, I set off again in
the Troopship 'Dunera' for Bombay and spent the next 3 1/2 years
in India finishing up as a Captain in the Royal Indian Artillery.
My trip home to England in November 1945 was by DC3 Dakota from
Karachi and took seven days!
John Andrew Armitage (Submitted by his son, John Armitage)
My dad, John Andrew Armitage, was in both the Royal and Merchant Navy. He was a passenger on the Pastuer in early '45. He was going from Liverpool to Canada to join a new minesweeper HMS Mamaluke. The Mamaluke was in minesweeping duties in the western approaches of Liverpool and the minefields of Narvik, Norway. Dad moved to Kyneton, Australia 1/3/56 (and is still there).
Mike Armstrong (submitted by his son, Jay Armstrong)
(From a war journal that Mr. Armstrong kept during the War.)
March 29, 1943 (Monday)
Yesterday we (38 of us) came by train down here (West Kirby near
Liverpool - an RCAF embarkation point) to the boat. This afternoon
at five-to-four the tugs pushed us out into the harbour and now
we are on our way. The Pasteur is a French boat, 28,000 tons,
has just come out of drydock after a complete refitting so is
clean as a whistle. I'm told it will do 35 knots flat out so perhaps
we may go over all alone. If we do it will take about six days
or less.
Friday, April 2, 1943
Some time in the early hours of Tuesday last we ran into quite
a heavy storm and all day we rolled and pitched, and crawled along
at a speed of about ten knots. Many people were sea-sick and missed
their meals, but I managed to say on my feet. Early Wednesday
morning the wind died down a bit and we were able to open up to
around 25 or more knots although the seas were still fairly high
and people continued to miss their meals. Thursday we still kept
up our speed, zig-zagging to evade submarines. Today we are rolling
quite badly in the trough of the waves and a few are sick. We
are hoping
that by tomorrow afternoon we will be in Halifax because this
is getting bloody monotonous There's nothing at all to do on this
boat for some reason or other - perhaps we don't know many people
aboard or something. Sherman (a W/O pilot), Don and I have been
playing "Nines", sink the Swiss Navy, and poker solitaire,
but still the time drags very slowly. This afternoon at 2:30 we
are having our money changed to Canadian funds - that might mean
we are arriving tomorrow - I hope it does. The three of us (W/Os)
have to around with an officer on inspections every morning which
takes pace during life-boat drill; we don't mind it particularly
because it helps break up the mornings.
Sunday, April 4, 1943
We've been roving around this damned ocean for so long I'm getting
so sick of the sight of water that I think I'll shudder even at
even a glass of it after this. Gawd! - what I'd give for a sight
of land! I'm beginning to think that Canada must have disappeared
since I left it. However, it now seems pretty certain that we'll
be in harbour tomorrow morning at six. Here's hoping we will anyhow.
From what I can gather, our draft will be disembarking tomorrow
just after lunch, in time to catch the Moncton train from Halifax;
from there we shall be going straight to Montreal, arriving there
around seven Tuesday evening where we perhaps wait until nine
o'clock then catch the Ottawa train for Rockcliffe. The old tub
has been rolling a lot today because we are traveling in the trough
of the waves - she's a flat-bottomed boat which accounts for the
unsteadiness. I've heard that on her last crossing they hit a
very heavy storm and she nearly turned over so while she was in
drydock lately for refitting they put some kind of fins on the
bottom to help prevent those violent rolls. As far as I can tell
they're no damn good at all.
Harry Arnott
I sailed on the Pasteur in 1942. The dates are: Boarded at Gourock 9 May and: Arrived Freetown 22 May.
Ship ran aground entering Freetown but came off on the rising
tide. Remained anchored some distance offshore for a day or two.
Arrived Durban 9 June. Rough calculations made by watching
the ship's officers on the bridge taking their midday sights
showed that we went well south of the Cape of Good
Hope before turning north for Durban. This was the
roughest part of the passage as the Pasteur was sometimes taking
water green over her bows in the high waves.
The conversion to a troopship was little more than adding a few
extra bunks in some of the cabins and putting plywood boxes over
all the Bidets in the toilets. Racks of rockets had also been
fitted to her upperworks in the area of the funnel. If I remember
correctly this was her sole defensive armament.
Robert E. Ayers
I was a member of the 336th HarborCraft Company (attached to the 1st Amphibious Engineer Special Brigade) from Camp Gordon Johnston, Florida. We left from Camp Kilmer (POE) in March or April !944. We traveled on the New Jersey Central Railroad to the ferry pier in Jersey City. We arrived in the late afternoon and boarded a ferry. They put us inside the ferry, where vehicles were carried, I guess for security. We traveled up the Hudson River to a pier (I think it was called Pier 90). The ferry dropped a gangplank, and we off loaded. There was an Army Band to one side of the pier playing swing music of that era. I remember getting off with my Duffel Bag (which weighed a ton). The Band was playing "Choo, Choo, Baby. your Papa's off to the seven seas". I wished I had taken music lessons and could have been a member in NYC!!!
We entered the door at the end of the pier, following the guy ahead of me. It looked like night, no lights, except one at the far end. The place was packed with GIs. The line wove its way up and down. Finally, I reached that little light, I stepped on a scale with all my gear. Someone handed me a card that said something about D-7 Starboard. Another guy marked D-7 on my helmet. Then I followed the guy in front of me out a door which led to the ships gangplank. We entered the ship, it was still daylight, probably late afternoon. Inside the ship, it looked as if they tore out all of the interior. We proceeded to our location, where there were tables and benches attached to the deck. All the portholes were sealed and painted. There were steep steps going up and down to other decks. I assumed our location was deck 7 on the right hand side (starboard).
There was a bathroom (head to sailors) way up forward. I guess that's why they call it the head!! Well then we proceeded to get organized for our voyage. They told us no one could go on deck until the next day, so we didn't see the Statute of Liberty! They told us we would sleep in hammocks. There were bars welded above our heads, from one side of the ship to the other side, with "U" shape grooves that we would string the hammocks to. You could choose whether you wanted your head forward or your feet, either way. Since none of us had experience with hammocks, we had problems. First, I could hardly reach the bars, then I had to make sure the knots were O.K. The first night wasn't too good, because I left too much sag, slept in a "U" shape. I learned and the second night I pulled things really tight, except I had to pull the hammock apart to get in. It was a nice trick and I was scared of falling down one the stair wells, it was the only place that was open was over this stair well. The third night, I learned that you had to find a suitable spot about 3 pm every day, to cover all bases. I really didn't think sleeping would have been such a big deal.
My next problem was whether I would be on guard detail or being a galley waiter. I figured being a waiter would be better. Wrong again! First I had to get up around 4 a.m. Carry a big coffee urn or a large tub down to the galley. It seemed to be miles away, and when you got there 100 other guys from other units were patiently waiting. (Here I should give you some explanations: 1. The Pasteur was sailing under British rules. 2. These rules were foreign to us GIs. 3. The food was came from some place in outer space, cooked by English Chefs. 4. We had two meals a day. 5. For breakfast we had stewed tomatoes and potatoes, slabs of bread and coffee, for dinner it was not describable. Of course many guys were seasick before the ship left NYC. Those of us who had "sea legs", were just plain Hungary. Now our big gripe with British Rules was that the first three graders (S/SSgt, T/SSgt and M/SSgt) were not allowed to live like us vermin. They had their own Quarters and Dining areas, which we Elms thought was unfair, and pushed many us in the direction of mutiny. This was really a sore part for the entire crossing.
Well on with our cruise. We were told there were about 8500 people aboard. The ship traveled without escort. Occasionally we would see a Blimp flying by, as well as some Navy Aircraft. We crossed the Atlantic by the southern route, past Bermuda, close to the Azores, then due north up the Irish coast, around the tip of Northern Ireland, down the Irish Sea, we spent our final night off the Coast of Wales, in the morning we went up the Mersey River and docked at Liverpool, where we had to disembark on a floating pier and lug our gear up a very steep ramp to the quay, where our troop train was waiting for us to take us to Plymouth. I think the trip from NYC to Liverpool took seven or eight days. We had a sister unit that left after us on the Queen Mary and arrived in Plymouth before us. We did a lot of zing sagging during the trip, the ship at times would dip suddenly and the wave would break over the bow and carry back on one side or the other. You had to watch out or get doused. The sudden turn we took at the Azores resulted in an extreme weather change, from balmy to damn right cold. I remember when we came up the Mersey River, there were Antiaircraft sites on stilts in the middle of the river, just something to remind you that "there is war on". I remember when we were in mid ocean seeing a B-17 with British Markings flying around the ship several times with some blinking away, probably antisubmarine patrol.
My unit supported the 1st Engineer Special Brigade on Utah
Beach. Our STs (small tugs), MTLs (motor tow launches), and other
types of craft were used in setting up the Mullbury and Gooseburys.
We pushed and pulled Bk barges loaded with heavy equipment to
the beach. It was mean and nasty at times, but the job was done.
I was proud to have been a part of all this and never had any
regrets. We were good!!! I am 83 years young and still going strong.
rayers@tampabay.rr.com
Robert E. Ayers
10040 Twelve Oaks Court
Brooksville, FL 34613
Harry W. Bachiochi (submitted by his daughter, Heidi Moore)
"..... served in WWII as a field medic. He .... came home on the Louis Pasteur,"
Glenn Baker (submitted by his son, )
My Father's name is Glenn Baker. He went over to Great Britain on the Pasteur. He was telling me a story about when he and some of his fellow soldiers were on the bow of the ship and there was a huge wave that came up and over them and knocked a small building that they had bolted to the deck off and also knocked the cannon they had on deck off of its placement. He said that the captain yelled at them to get inside and that they didn't need any more convincing than that. They were lucky because the wave went right over them and didn't push them into the ocean.
Roger L. Belanger
I was in the European Theater with the OSS as a Radio Operator. After D Day the mission changed and we were sent to the States for reassignment to the far East and other duties. We went from London by train to Liverpool about November 20th, we waited with all of our equipment weapons in a very large covered shed, we waited most of the day from noon until late afternoon, when we embarked a large liner, we did not learn of her name until later the next day, The ship turned out to be the Pasteur.
Our particular group were billeted together, isolated from the rest of the passengers, some were Nurses Invalids and War Brides. It was a large room and we slept in Hammocks, it was the first time that I had slept in a hammock, it made me glad that I had not joined the navy as I thought they were a little uncomfortable but of course better than some of the accommodations that I had experienced in the theater. The next morning we were at sea, we went on deck to see the sights, it had turned very stormy, the waves were perhaps 15 or 20 feet. I saw an escort destroyer over in the distance, perhaps 1/2 to 3/4 mile away, she would be sitting on the crest of a wave, it looked as though the hull was all out of the water except the center of the ship, then she would disappear for some time and later reappear again. I knew that it was rough weather but I did not what was to come. After a day or two it really got rough and we were all very seasick, we could not eat and there was slime all over the floors and it was a little difficult getting around. We were still at sea on Thanksgiving Day, we were served food but it only made us more sick, it was my suspicion that it was tainted, We were told that we were in very bad weather and the ship was trying to maneuver out of the storm, the ships propellers came out of the water frequently, the ship would shudder and you could hear the propellers rev up as they were out of the water.
We finally got to New York harbor about Nov. 28th and were greeted with water salute from escorting Tugboats. In looking over the ship we could see a lot of damaged to the rails and other fixtures. When we were warped into the dock there was a Navy Band Playing, it was certainly was a rousing welcome. We debarked and were shuttled to Camp Kilmer N.J. where we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and phone banks were set up for us to call our loved ones, Free yet. A day later we were taken to our final destination in the D.C. area and given 30 day leaves.
Roger Belanger (veteran of the OSS)
Maine
Gilbert C. Berry
I was with the 87th Infantry Division (with the Golden Acorn Patch), 912th Field Artillery Battalion, A Battery.
We left approximately November 1, 1944,from Camp Kilmer to New York harbor. That morning we passed the Statue of Liberty. On boat, we were assigned the area we were to stay. No bunks - just hammocks. It was an ordeal getting in and ou of these hammocks. The ship was rolling a lot and lots of men were sea-sick - so the ocean was really rough.
I went to the store aboard ship to get some candy and cookies and then came back to our area and it was on the back of the ship and there were other GI's there and we were sitting down and then some of theGI's left the area. It was all enclosed.
Then we were told they were going to fire their gun (boat was English manned and we didn't know why they were going to fire)- and they fired it- and the concussion blew (out) the back end of the bulkhead, wounding me and four other GI's.
I don't remember much after that but laying on the gurney and medics came by and lifted up the towel that had been put across my face and they shook their heads and they had given me a shot to deaden the pain and make me sleep. I don't remember anything until I was on the operating table and they were sewing up my face and nose (my nose was broken and also my cheek bone). They put me in the hospital aboard ship. (The beds there were nice beds because they stayed level no matter what position the ship was in - the beds stayed level.
I stayed in the hospital and the medics would come in and tell us where we were. The day before we landed at Liverpool, they sent me back to my outfit - my face still bandaged.
We landed at Liverpool and taken by truck to Mackelsfield and put into a school house with corn husk mattresses for beds.
Now my experiece over-seas began.
Does anyone have any information on the other GI's that were injured with Mr. Berry? One of them lost his eye and also lost the corner of his head. One fellow had chest injuries and another fellow had a broken leg. Anyone?
Sam Beverage (updated, 12/31/2001)
".....Do any of you recall the British Battleship at the same quay with us? It was said that it had been damaged while coming through the Mozambique Channel. I do not remember the name, but think it may have been the HMS Queen Elizabeth which eventually ended up in the repair dock at Norfolk, escorted there by Destroyer HMS Vimy, which later rescued the survivors of the torpedoed SS West Lashaway, which had sailed from West Africa about the time the Pasteur went by there. Several sagas of the sea entwined, but unknown to us at the time!
A book covering parts of these happenings of Aug. - Sept. 1942 is named "In Peril On The Sea", by Robert W. Bell and D. Bruce Lockerbie. It is well worth reading.
On the lighter side was our crossing of the Equator both N-S and again S-N. Quite surprising that in the midst of wartime that "Shellback" certificates were on hand and were issued to each of us! You will recall that the originals were quite large and that they were kept by our Co officials until some time later.
......We were about 10 days sailing time between each stop with one overnight stop at Freetown but no shore time. Remember how great it was to reach Durban, So. Af. and have two days ashore! Someone discovered that there was a brochure, "Welcome to Durban" available, and it was possible to have a copy mailed home, but no senders name. Many of us took advantage of this, and sure enough they arrived home as the first clue as to where we had disappeared to! I seem to recall that the folders were provided by the famous British "Cooks Tours", but "Barclay's Bank" may have been involved. Does anyone recall?
Another wonderful happening was a free meal with real meat and all the fixings. I believe it was at the Salvation Army "Red Shield Club". In any event it was quite a change from the starvation shipboard diet of such things as smoked herring, biscuits, tea and "library paste" for desert plus soggy vanilla wafers from the NAAFI!
Those of us who had been selected at the last minute to go to Ft. Dix and join the Signal Co. getting ready to go overseas were mostly flat broke, so we couldn't afford to spend much money at Durban, not even the luxury of a ricksha ride up to the main business district so we walked up an back both days, and it was a long way from dockside! By the posted rates, it was 6d. per mile. I recall that as about 12 cents in US money.
Fortunately, we did have enough to pay postage on the "Welcome To Durban, Khaki and Blue, we welcome you. Durban is glad to see you" folders.
We did find the people to be very friendly and helpful there, so personally I was quite unhappy many years later when this country applied "sanctions" on South Africa.
We located a roller skating rink and a bowling alley, but as best we could figure the finances, even if we pooled our assets we couldn't afford to do very much! So what was free? We went down to the aquarium and Snake Park near the beach area, but not even the fish and snakes were very lively!
We were surprised to find a Woolworth's 5 & 10 cent store looking just the same as the ones in Boston or New York, and there were actually some tall buildings! Up to then we had not realized that such places existed in Africa! Our first view of that Continent was of the jungle at Freetown, with waving palm trees. So this is Africa! Wrong impression!
The day we left Durban, the ship pulled out into the harbor and dropped anchor for a while. Looking down along the chain, we observed an ugly looking hammerhead shark, a reminder that we would not want to lose the security of our ship.
While on the subject of the Pasteur, I will mention a few recollections of life on board. As you recall, we were several decks down in what I believe was the 3rd. class dining hall, which was our duffel stowage and sleeping area as well. The ventilation was very poor once the portholes were shut, which happened about mid-afternoon it seemed. One of the British officials came around and cried out "All port'oles closed!" In making his rounds he must have started at the bow, near us, and worked his way aft, and there were a lot of them to check. See the views of the Pasteur.
As much time as possible was spent on deck both day and night, except in the South Atlantic, especially while rounding the Cape of Good Hope. Remember the crash and bang of pots and pans loose in the galley that night?"
Added, 12/31/2001:
".....With all the different outfits aboard it was no wonder that Berlin was out to get us. What a prize we would have been! One of the really nice things that happened was the issue of the little drawstring bags made of GI fatigue cloth. They were made and filled by the Ladies of the Red Cross in New Jersey. A shaving kit, and other toilet articles, a paperback book and a pack of playing cards. Sewn inside was a label giving the name of the RC chapter. Some claimed they also found a name of someone offering to be a Pen-Pal! Those kits were really tough and mine withstood the entire three years and I still have it today!.
The British called it NAAF1 which I recall as meaning "Navy Army, Air Force Institute", something similar to our PX, 'Post Exchange'. It seemed that by the time our Assembly on the forward deck was over that the window was closed or about to close. About the only thing they seemed to have plenty of were those stale vanilla wafers. Most of us vowed never to eat vanilla wafers if we ever got home! I didn't make good on that and am really quite fond of crisp Nilla-Wafers!
Another food item was the can of corned beef which was issued to every other man leaving the ship at Suez.We were told that might be our first meal ashore and we were supposed to split it with the next fellow who didn't get any. As it happened we had hardly got ashore when we discovered a British soup kitchen. The Brits were very good about being sure the troops traveling by boat or train got a bite of food or a bowl of tea along the way. The can of 'Bully Beef'? Mine never got opened and I carried it in my pack all the way and brought it home as a souvenir! The can eventually rusted out and had to be discarded.
There was a nice theater on Pasteur which we went to just once for some orientation. I think that was the time that Berlin had claimed we were sunk. At another lecture, on deck, the Medical Officer told us about the hazards of VD and that it was 100% in most anyplace we might be going. At that time India was rumored to be the destination. I wish they had told us more about the danger of eating certain fruit, such as grapes which the insects had left deposits on. Also that untreated water and milk, if any, were unsafe. Many learned the hard lessons at Rayak, Lebanon! Dysentery, just plain 'GI's' and Hepatitis took their toll.
A great cheer went up from our ship while still at Freetown. An American freighter with the flag flying and some women on the afterdeck was leaving the harbor. We wondered if they ever reached their destination? A lot of ships headed to or leaving that port never made it. We were really lucky to have such a fast ship that survived over 40 years! I have previously mentioned the British troopship Laconia which we crossed paths with. She was torpedoed and sunk SW of Freetown not long after we passed that way! She was a much slower ship than Pasteur and was a smoker and so easy to spot. We believe that the train load of prisoners we saw waiting at quay side Durban may have been the ones lost with her?
Does anyone recall the 'stern chaser' guns on the upper deck? I believe there were two, one a 5 or 6 inch and also a 3 inch. Don't know if they were ever fired but we know the AA funs in the 'tubs' were fired regularly for practice. How many of their size I never found out.
Sleeping on the deck near our life raft station seemed to be a good idea for several reasons. Too hot below decks, handy to the raft, nice starry sky, hum of the wind in the rigging, etc. We always had to keep our 'water wings' with us and they did make good pillows!"
Added, 12/31/2001:
"I notice that the 12th. B.G. is the only one mentioned...., but the entire 323rd. Air Service Group along with elements of (the) 57th. Fighter 98th. B.G. were on it also."
And a question: "Do you know which squadrons of the 12th. went where? Would like to know which was at El Gambuit in January, 1943".
If you can help Sam out on this question, please contact him at:
Sam Beverage
RFD 1
Box 858
North Haven Island
Knox County, ME 04853
Added, 1/03/2003:
I noticed that someone made the statement "after we went through the Canal" etc. It may have seemed like a canal but it was the Gulf of Suez, which is quite narrow as compared to the Red Sea. The Pasteur did not enter the Suez Canal at that time.
Michael Blake (Contributed by his son, M.G. Blake
My father Michael Blake was transported to Casablanca in 1943.
Oryn M. Blashe (See the entry for John M. Kropp.)
Sydney.Booth (80 yrs.)
I sailed on the Pasteur from Liverpool,England on 8th May 1945.I was 18 1/2 years old and was on route to Palestine having enrolled in The Palestine Police.I recall that we had an escort,two navy ships,one each side.The next day the escort left as a U-Boat was on the surface,which I understood had surrendered.I think this was in the Bay of Biscay.( 9th.May 1945).We arrived Port Said nine days later where myself and about 30 others disembarked and prceeded to Haifa.Palestine.(now Israel)
Robert L. Bourland
I was among the many troops she transported during WW2. Our group boarded her at Hampton Roads, VA in Sept. 1943. I had never seen such a huge ship in my life. We zig-zagged for 8 days (so the U boats could not get a fix) all the way to Casablanca.
Chet Bradford
See photograph under the "1060th. Signal Company" listed under "VARIOUS MEMORABILIA FROM UNITS THAT SHIPPED ON THE PASTEUR" below.
John Brayton
See photograph under the "1060th. Signal Company" listed under "VARIOUS MEMORABILIA FROM UNITS THAT SHIPPED ON THE PASTEUR" below.
Geoffrey Brazier
..... at the advanced age of 81+, I am involved an in depth
study of often mispent youth in the Royal Air force. The following
is an extract from my service history.
After a couple of weeks in Blackpool I went on draft to Morecambe,
where I made arrangement to marry, but I sailed from Liverpool
on my proposed wedding day, on the HMTS. Pasteur. We went
from Morcambe like thieves in the night and I remember passing
what seemed like Dante's inferno twice, [Sheffield and Stoke on
Trent] before arriving at 'the Pool' in the cold light of dawn.,
I suppose it was to confuse the enemy, it certainly confused us.
Rumours abounded re our destination, which I had been informed
was West Africa, but at a few days prior to 'D-Day' it was
anybody's guess. The ship rolled like a barrel but I was one of
the few who kept meals down, I was allocated to and trained on
an Oerlikon Gun, more about this later, but it meant a lot of
time on deck watching flying fish and dolphins and getting illicit
info, about our route and destination, from the crew, we actually
passed, about three hundred miles from Brazil, and finally made
landfall at Freetown, Sierra Leone.
I made two other 'troopings' , the first from Freetown - Nigeria.
two weeks after the Pasteur, in the Sibajak and about twelve months
later , from Nigeria to the Gambia in the New Northland which
had pre-war and post war service with Clarke Shipping of Canada,
then went to the Dominican Navy and and finally sank off Cuba.
I am glad that it and the Pasteur evaded the breakers yard, many
thanks for your website.
Thomas Henry "Harry" Broome (Contributed by his widow, Joan Westwick-Broome)
"...my late husband Thomas Henry "Harry" Broome often spoke of sailing across to war on the Louis Pasteur. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force and was stationed at Yorkshire, England where he was a sheet metal worker. (He returned after the war on the Queen Elizabeth). ...Sadly my husband passed away on May 12, 1999...
E. J. Brunanski
Serving with the RCAF I was on board the Louis Pasteur when the ship set sail at 12:30 a.m.or p.m. (my diary is not too clear) on November 4, 1941 from Halifax, arriving at Greenock Nov. 13.
Murray Weldon Burns (Submitted by his sister, Margo MacDonald)
I have this information of my brother Murray Weldon Burns who returned home on the Pasteur on 30 June 1945, he was a private with the North Novies. I do not have any other information.
Margot Carmichael
"...I sailed from Liverpool Dec 12 arriving Halifax December 19th 1944 to join my R.C.A.F. husband in Canada. The ship was full of warbrides and children. We zig zagged across a very rough ocean and many days myself and two friends were the only ones who made it to the dining room. The boat was stocked up in N.Y. white bread and eggs and canned cocktail fruit - got me there. When we were almost ready to land in Halifax subs were sited and we started for New York then back to Halifax. I remember officers suddenly wearing guns. Lots of memories..."
Mrs. Carmichael adds "... who knows, maybe I will hear from my two friends on board with me who got to the dining room with me - Angela Boudreau and Stella Pierce (Pearce?) we lost touch years ago..."
Gordon Carter [G.E.(Nick)Carter]
"After being presented with my wings as a WOP/AG (Wireless Operater/ Air Gunner) in Oct.41 I was transferred to Debert Nova Scotia for further training with Ferry Command. Before this extra training got underway we were given immediate orders to pack and then transferred to Halifax in the dead of night where we boarded this "one huge stacker" the Louis Pasteur. This date was on or about Nov. 5th 1941 and we really didn't have too much time to see or examine our method of transport to the UK. I think we were about four decks below the water line and very cramped quarters.
We shipped out within a day of arrival and set sail for Britain, with two tankers . About three or four days out in the Atlantic we encountered a raging storm. we lost the tankers (we have no idea what happened to them) however the Pasteur rolled so badly that everything that was not nailed down was sliding around the decks etc., Fire extinguishers normally set in boxes about 12 to 18 "high , flew out of the boxes and were speaying everything in sight, the piano in the officers lounge broke loose and was severely damaged. . We were led to believe that the Pasteur did not have "rollimg Chocks" therefore when she was sideways to a large wave the ship rolled to a 45degree angle, causing the loss of a lifeboat and a 20mm Orliken cannon from the top deck!! We were also informed that the Germans (Lord Haw Haw) had reported us as sunk Understandibly we didn't get much sleep for the remainder of our journey , we landed at Greenoch Scotland a few days later quite happy to be on Terra Firma once again.
Ed Cercone
See photograph under the "1060th. Signal Company" listed under "VARIOUS MEMORABILIA FROM UNITS THAT SHIPPED ON THE PASTEUR" below.
Robert Chamberlain
See photograph under the "1060th. Signal Company" listed under "VARIOUS MEMORABILIA FROM UNITS THAT SHIPPED ON THE PASTEUR" below.
Clint Chambers
See photograph under the "1060th. Signal Company" listed under "VARIOUS MEMORABILIA FROM UNITS THAT SHIPPED ON THE PASTEUR" below.
Roscoe Chambliss
I crossed the Atlantic on the Pasteur in March of 1944 on the way England then on to France and Germany.
James C. Chittenden
I was an engineer, gunner on B-24s of the 93rd Bomb Group, Sept. '43 through March '44. Following the completion of my tour I was assigned to an airbase in Northern Ireland as an instructor for new crews. I left England as best I can recall, from Liverpool in late June '44 aboard the Pasteur. We disembarked in New York City. I do not have any records of the time and date of this passage.
Nils Christensen
I was sailing in the Far East as a Merchant Marine when German forces occupied my homeland, Norway. Unable to return home, I enlisted in New York City and was ordered to report to a Royal Norwegian Air Force training facility known as "Little Norway" in Ontario, Canada. When my training was complete in May, 1943, I was sent to Halifax to board a troopship bound for Liverpool, England. The train took us right to the Halifax dock where we disembarked, walked directly through a warehouse and onto the Louis Pasteur. She was loaded up with about 5,000 military personnel and conditions were extremely crowded. Sleeping accommodations were arranged in layers ? on deck level (floor), on the tables and above the tables in hammocks. I became aware that the deck on the ship where I was sleeping was right at torpedo level, which did little to encourage peaceful rest while traveling across the dangerous Atlantic Ocean. We were given two meals a day, one in the morning and one at night, but I don't remember eating much. Most of the passengers appeared to be Canadian, but there was a small contingent of us from Little Norway all bunked together, and it was with these Norwegians that I spent as much time as possible in our quarters, rarely venturing up on deck.
It was stormy when we left Halifax and the ship pitched and rolled in the massive waves. As an experienced seaman, the movement of the ship was not alarming or uncomfortable for me, but for others, who were unaccustomed to ocean travel and tasting their first salty spray, the trip was dreadful and there were men throwing up all over the ship. The crew, desperate to get help cleaning up the stinking piles of vomit called on us Norwegian ex-sailors to help. We tried to pretend that we didn't understand English because we knew what they wanted of us, but our ruse didn't work, and we ended up swabbing the troop's quarters, the infirmary and the most disgusting of places, the latrine. The latrine was a long room with a trough extending the length of it with running water. 2" x 4" boards were placed on each side of the trough for seating and it was common to see 30 or 40 white-faced men sitting on the boards, retching. Unfortunately for those poor souls, the trip was not to be a quick one. Submarine sightings forced the captain to take a drastic zigzag route to get us to our destination and the voyage took about 5 days. We headed north, then south to the tropics, then back north again by Iceland, then south to the Azores Island, Portugal before finally heading north again towards our destination. The Louis Pasteur was traveling alone and was vulnerable ? no convoy, no escort - so we had to be extremely cautious, but she was also a fast ship (third fastest in the world at that time) and often traveled without escorts who would only slow her down. Upon arrival in Liverpool, the disembarking men thanked their particular God for prayers answered and relished the feel of solid ground under their feet.
Joe Chudnow (Sgt., Company B, 30th Sig, 5th Army)
(His son, Donald Chudnow, writing.) ......My father recently passed away at the age of 82. I had attended and taped his Army reunions for the 12 years prior to his death. He served with the 30th Signal Heavy Construction Battalion attached to the 5th Army. One of his stories was about being shipped to North Africa on the troop ship Louis Pasteur. He said it was one of the worst periods of the war for him. The ship was "packed solid" and thousands of soldiers were sea-sick. My father decided to sleep on deck the entire trip despite lousy weather. Apparently, that decision was based upon the stench below, crowded conditions and the fear of U-Boat attacks that would trap him below deck. Discussions with many of my dad's comrades during the renunions verified his story
Joe Cillone
See photograph under the "1060th. Signal Company" listed under "VARIOUS MEMORABILIA FROM UNITS THAT SHIPPED ON THE PASTEUR" below.
Ralph M. Clark
I was with the Royal Canadian Air Force -#163900 while in service,
and with unit 410 R& S. Unit in France. I left Halifax for
England on New Year's day 1944 on the Louis Pasteur. The north
Atlantic was wild and cold, we zig zagged a lot to avoid the German
Submarines.
John Clemens
I sailed on this ship from New York to Haifa Palestein in 1942. I was a S/SGT in the 343 Bomb Squadron 98 Bomb Group. My brother who was wounded in Sicely was returned in this ship to the USA.
Harwood (Woody) Colehour (12th. Bomb Group, 82nd. Squadron)
July 15, 1942 we boarded the Pasteur and went down to our suite? It was a mess-hall with picnic tables on which we slept until we reached warm weather and then it was out to decks. We slept in our fart-sacks as it cooled off in the evening. About 5:00 am, the Indian crews came out with their hoses and said "Washee deck." That meant to get the hell out of the way or get soaked.
The days we spent on deck. At night it was black-out, so no lights or cigarettes. Leaving New Your harbor, we passed debris floating on the water's surface and was told that a plane had spotted a sub and sank same. Our only escort was a couple of planes and they only followed us until we were well out in the ocean. We were told not to be concerned that we didn't have an escort because the ship was one of the fastest afloat, and we would be zigzagging every so often to make us a difficult ship to hit. They issued us life jackets (Mae Wests) as if that made us feel any better.
Near the end of July we put in a Freetown, Sierra leone, Africa. This was to take on oil, which ran the ship. We stayed on board as they told us that the country had a lot of disease. It didn't look too inviting anyhow. The natives always came out in their dug-outs hoping to get some hand-outs such as coins and cigarettes.
I haven't mentioned the "food" that was our chow for the rest of the trip. It was Limy's food that was so terrible that when they threw it overboard the sharks wouldn't eat it! We were supposed to get American food, but that went to the officers (both G.I. and English). Luckily there was a wet and dry canteen on board and we spent our lousy $12.00 on food, such as cookies, fruit juice and Pepsi Cola. Here's the way the Limeys sold it. Pepsi Cola: 50% cola and 50% water. Breakfast consisted of kidney stew and oatmeal that tasted and looked like wallpaper starch. Supper was tea, cheese and mutton pie. Hold on shark- you're getting a change of diet!
I will say that the average English soldier was a good fellow,
including some English and Scotch officers. It was the English
higher command that dictated what we would have.
Going around the Cape of Good Hope was quite something. Here's
where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, and even the sun was
shining and it was a clear day- we hit some rough water. Some
of the G.I.'s hit the rail from being seasick. The boat rolled
back and forth and it was really scary.
We were given short arms inspection while out on the middle of the ocean. Fall out on deck with nothing but your raincoat!
We put in port at Durban, South Africa and was given a 2 day leave. Durban was a welcome sight, after being on ship for weeks. A ride in a rikisha, pulled by a tall decorated Zulu native was quite a ride.
August, 1942 we docked Gulf of Suez. We could look overboard and see hundreds of jelly fish and hammerhead sharks all around the boat. This is where the G.I.'s broke into the food supply storage and broke out juice, food etc. that was denied us en route. We didn't care as we were leaving the ship for good! Our trip alongside the Suez Canal was on-board the Egyptian Express(???).
All in all, we were lucky no submarine or air attacks marred our journey to Egypt.
From Egypt to North Africa along the southern side of the Med,
to Sfax, Sicily, South Italy and then to India. (Three years of
overseas duty.)
Jerome Cohen
See photograph under the "1060th. Signal Company" listed under "VARIOUS MEMORABILIA FROM UNITS THAT SHIPPED ON THE PASTEUR" below.
George McLellan Court (Contributed by his daughter, Marilyn Harrison)
He served in World War II and made the crossing on the Louis Pasteur in Dec. 1941.
Joyce Crosby (nee Bredow)
Western Approaches. This was the Signals Office-nerve center for all operations in the North Atlantic. Here, in what was known as "The Citadel" beneath 12 feet of concrete, every move in the most vital of our defensive battles was studied and plotted.
I subsequently trained as a coder, dealing with signals received in W/T (wireless transmitter- radio) from ships and aircraft operating in the North Atlantic. In 1943 "Wren" coders were invited to volunteer for "special duties." We all volunteered, not knowing at first what this entailed. It meant that in December, 1943 I found myself on the SS Pasteur with the other Wren ratings and two cypher officers. Having signed on for three trips- replacing the Naval ratings who were required for other theaters of war.
The first trip was the most memorable. We had no idea where we were going. We knew only that the ship was carrying about 4,500 troops- British, Canadians, Australians, Americans- Army, Navy and Air Force.
The Pasteur was a DEMS ship- a Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship. The Defensive equipment being one gun positioned on the stern. On our first morning- sailing out into the Irish Sea, without any warning, it seemed that all hell was let loose. They were having gun practice!! It certainly scared us rigid. Fortunately, during my time at sea, they never had to use the gun for real. One day we sailed right through the middle of a convoy. One of the escorts vessels warned us that there were U-boats "...to the rear" but we didn't encounter any.
We sailed each trip out of Liverpool "under sealed orders." This meant that the Captain was given a course to take and had to keep on that course until he received a signal from Admiralty allowing him to open the sealed orders and alter course. Breaking W/T (wireless transmitter- radio) was a mortal sin as any U-boat in the area could pick up our position. On one occasion the signal from Admiralty did not come at the expected time. We were heading further and further North, into worsening weather. The Pasteur had a reputation for pitching and rolling due to her one great funnel and for the fact that she wasn't built for North Atlantic sailing, so the situation became serious- especially when we had to reduce speed to 6 knots. The safety of the ship, and all on board was dependent on her speed- which was usually 22 knots. The Captain was furious and was threatening to break W/T (wireless transmitter- radio) silence. We never did know what happened, all we knew was that to our great relief 24 hours later we were in the Gulf Stream and heading for New York.
On arrival in New York we Wrens had a wonderful time. We were there for five days. We shopped in the first supermarkets we'd ever seen. We were given free tickets to any of the shows on Broadway, had "hair do's" and photographs taken at Saks Fifth Avenue, wined and dined and generally given a great time- especially when they realized we were English.
However, all good things come to an end. On the 23rd. December 1943 we left New York for Halifax, Nova Scotia. We had waved goodbye to the troops some days earlier, sadly, as we realized they were off to a very uncertain future. The Pasteur was like a ghost ship- empty and clanging.
On Christmas Day we arrived in Halifax- a dump in comparison to New York. The ship filled up with another human cargo and we set sail for England.
It was in Halifax that we Wrens were invited to a dance at the YMCA. There I met a Royal Naval Petty Officer named Jack Crosby, and fifty-eight years on- but that's another story!!
I did four more trips on SS Pasteur, the last two towards the end of the war. The Merchant Navy Officers on board were convinced that one day she would "turn turtle," but she didn't- not until she had carried thousands of human souls safely to their destinations.
Laurence Cunningham (Submitted by his son, Peter Cunningham)
"...... regarding my fathers sailing to Canada on the pasteur during WW2. (He) went to Canada as a young RAF pilot to train and get his wings. He returned to England and flew Mosquitos for 151 squadron for the rest of the war.
Ernest Davis (Submitted by his Grandaughter Adele Earnshaw.)
"My Grandfather, Ernest Davis, was crew on this ship throughout her wartime duties. He was an electrician. .... he was a Merchant Seaman rather than in R.N. ...."
John "Dixie" Dean (Submitted by his daughter, Brenda Dean.)
My father John "Dixie" Dean served in the 1st Battalion Beds & Herts Regiment. He and 83 others volunteered to serve as gunners on DEMS. On 6 May 1941, a convoy left Alexandria and reached Malta 3 days later, under escort of half the mediterranean fleet. The men were billetted with the Cheshire Regiment until 23 July when it was considered safe to send the convoy to Gibraltar. The men were then taken to Scotland on "Pasteur" along with civilian families.
Dorsey E. Dent (submitted by his son, Tom Dent)
My father, Dorsey E. Dent was a Chaplain, Captain, assigned to the 323rd Air Service Group and he sailed on the Pasteur on 16 July 1942. I am in the process of writing his personal Biography and I have accumulated a lot of information. I found a declassified copy of an Army Air Force Historical Study involving the Ninth Air Force in the Western Desert Campaign to 23 January 1943. Page 19 of this study states that the ground echelons of the 98th Heavy and the 12th Medium Bombardment Groups, departed Manhattan on 16 July aboard the British-operated troop carrier Pasteur. Page 124, Appendix 3, Change of Station has the following information on the 98th Bombardment Group Heavy.
The Ground Echelon departed Brooklyn 16 July 1942 and arrived
at Suez, Egypt, 16 August 1942 where it was divided and the 343d
and 344th Bombardment Squadrons went to St. Jean, Palestine arriving
there on 21 August 1942. The Headquareters, 345th and 415th
Squadrons departed Suez, Egypt, 19 August 1942 and arrived at
Ramat David, Palestine, 20 August 1942. The Change of Station
Appendix has several pages of information involving the various
groups and squadrons. My father's Group, the 323rd apparently
was traveling with the 98th Bombardment Group, so I have watched
for that information, although the 12th Bombardment Group also
sailed on the Pasteur. The Headquarters and the ground echelons
of the 81st, 82d, 83d and 434th Squadrons departed New York, N.
Y. 16 July and arrived at Kabrit Airdrome, Egypt, 16 August 1942.
The Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell Air Force, Alabama
has a vast amount of information available on the 98th and 12th
Bombardment Groups and the 57th Fighter Group. There is
very little data on the 323rd Air Service Group. I have
searched my father's records and this is what I know:
The 98th Bomb Group Heavy with the 323rd Air Service Group and
associated units entrained and departed Lakeland, Florida Airport
2 for the staging area at Fort Dix, New Jersey on 3 July 1942.
My father's files indicate that he departed the POE Brooklyn on
16 July 1942. The Air force Study states that the units
departed Manhattan and the 12th departed New York, N. Y.
This had me confused for a while because I thought that maybe
there were two different ships. I now realize that perhaps
the Pasteur may have been docked in the Hudson River (Pier 90?)
where they could have loaded the 12th Bombardment Group and then
moved to Brooklyn to load the 98th and associated units.
This is just speculation.
...I have several un-answered questions which may be revealed
in the stories. My father's mother passed away on 15 July
1942 and his brother (my Uncle) sent a telegram on 16 July 1942.
I do not know if this telegram reached my father since the Pasteur
sailed on 16 July 1942. The entire voyage to Suez took 31
days. I am curious about the religious services which were
probably held on the ship.
P.S. The movement of the air echelons and the planes is another fascinating story. The B-24s (Liberators) and the B-25s (Mitchells) flew from Florida to Brazil where they crossed the Atlantic to central Africa. They crossed Africa to Egypt and then Palestine. The 57th Fighter Group crossed the Atlantic on the Aircraft Carrier Ranger and their aircraft were launched off the west coast of Africa.
John Dibello (submitted by his son-in-law, James Quick)
John DiBello, landed in England in January, 1945, after crossing the Atlantic on the Pasteur. He woke up the first morning at sea and all the escorts were gone! About a dozen ships one day and none the next. He knew that the ship would do 25 knots. He fought with Patton's 3rd army and then was an MP in a Wehrmacht POW camp in England once the ETO calmed down. It's kinda funny, I was researching the ship that carried his parents from Italy to Ellis Island in 1920 (the La Touraine) and how it was nick named the Steady Ship by immigrants because it sailed so well in rough seas. He landed in Havre on an LCT, the same port his parents left for America twenty-four years earlier. He then started comparing the ship that took him to Europe and the miserable tub that brought him home in 1946. ... He said he loved the Pasteur (quote "What a ship that was!") and can't even remember the name of the ship (it might have been a Liberty) that took him back to NYC.
Andrew Duncan
I sailed on the Pasteur from Greenock(Glasgow) to Halifax on
November 27th 1940, It's so easy for me to remember the
date since it was my 21st birthday. In these days I was
extremely prone to sea sickness, and spent the next six days lying
and intermittently sleeping, and getting up to make a rush to
the "bathroom". I was one of some 1000 RAF
personel destined for we didn't know where until mid Atlantic
when it was revealed that we were headed for Carberry, Manitoba
, to staff one of the first RAF Stations that pre-dated the establishment
of the British Commonmwealth Air Training Plan.
By co-incidence three years later I believe it was on December
27th 1943. when returning, much to my initial horror it was
the same "Louis Pasteur" ( You were right in your article
- that's what we called her") that was waiting for us at
the dockside in Halifax. My fears , however were unnecessary,
because as far as I can remember the voyage was uneventful, the
Ocean behaved itself and I experienced No Mal de mere. ...I have
now been happilly married to a Manitoba girl for 62 years.
George F. Dupras (Taken from an account published in "The Burlington Free Press" newspaper, May 27th, 2001)
"George Dupras sailed into war in July, 1942 on the deck of the Louis Pasteur, a troop ship longer than the American Woolen Mill building in Winooski where he had worked. He was a gregarious 20-year-old, seeing the world for the first time as a recruit in the 98th. Bomb Group of the 9th. Air Force. Dupras made precise notes in a little book as the crowded ship zig-zagged every two minutes to escape German submarines prowling the Atlantic: 'Crew- 460. 9 decks. Length 696 feet. High: 125 feet.' He noted the ship's itinerary: 'Freetown, Durban, Port Sues. Arrived 8-16-42, 1pm........" (This is the end of any reference to the Pasteur.)
Jack J. Dyer
I sailed from New York to Liverpool on the Louis Pasteur with
the 117th. General Hospital unit US Army. We departed New York
on June 21,l944 and arrived in Liverpool on June 29, l944. Most
of my outfit and the other thousands aboard were seasick the entire
voyage as we cruised into some bad storms and heavy seas. They
had us running back and forth (port to starboard) so as to help
keep the ship from capsizing. Water was running rampart all over
the ship and conditions were so bad that it was impossible to
eat anything and keep it down. At one point of the voyage they
announced that a German U-boat was after us so we turned around
and ran at top speed for approximately 4 hours trying to outrun
the submarine. Evidently they were successful,so they turned back
around for our original destination.
Jean Andre Faure
Here is a summary of my recollections of the Pasteur:
I had been in French Indochina since 1945 as a soldier of the Régiment d'Artillerie Coloniale du Maroc (Moroccan Colonial Artillery Regiment, RACM) and had learned that I was to leave for France on the troop transport Pasteur from Haiphong harbor on November 22, 1947. I remember noticing the immense size of the ship and thought it was like a small city. I joined other soldiers and got on the ship, which left Halong Bay, bound for the Mekong River delta to pick up more soldiers coming from Saigon (also bound for France). All told there were about 4,500 military personnel going back to France-plus 500 crew members on board. As I recall, early on, we were asked to volunteer to take care of some sick and wounded on board. We were cantoned in the hold, everybody slept in hammocks (except for the wounded), and we could not circulate freely around the ship. We watched the ocean from the portholes. I had gotten seasick on my way over to Indochina (on another ship) but nothing like that happened on my return trip on the Pasteur.
While on board, we thought quite a lot about those soldiers who stayed behind in Indochina for one reason or another (i.e., still completing their tours of duty). Days passed quickly attending to sick and wounded soldiers. We told each other stories of our time in Indochina and thought of those who did not make it out alive. We were anxious to see family after two years of absence.
Our first stop was in Singapore where the ship stocked up on supplies and refueled. Around that time, I ran into a young guy from my hometown (Bourgouin-Jallieu) who was also going home. I remember that the ship next docked in Aden where I got off briefly to buy some cigarettes and noticed the "red colored" landscapes of that coast. Next, the ship was piloted through the Suez Canal at Port Said. On board, I ran into my old captain from the France and Germany campaigns of 1944-45 (6th battery). Our original course was to take us directly to Marseille, but this changed due to a dockworker's strike and so we headed to Cherbourg instead via the strait of Gibraltar.
When I finally sighted Cherbourg I heaved a sigh of relief. I was back from Indochina in one piece and no injuries! We bid our good-byes to one another, wished each other good luck in life (civilian life would take some time to re-adapt to but military life forges character), and at dawn got off the ship with our bags. The return trip had taken 22 days and we had arrived right before Christmas.
Added by his Son-In-Law, David Rheault:
He was part of the Régiment d'Artillerie Coloniale du Maroc (Moroccan Colonial Artillery Regiment, RACM). As Morocco was a French colony, Free French forces left Casablanca between July and October, 1943 and landed in Corsica and Elba in Spring of 1944. They then landed on the French mainland by August 1944 and pushed north through eastern France north of Strasbourg until they crossed the Rhine into Germany near Mannheim. They then pushed south through the Black Forest south of Friburg to Lorrach and cut east to Stockach and Tuttlingen and Rottweil. That was the end of their mission in Germany. Some of these were the soldiers who were then sent to Indochina in 1945. My Father-in-law was one of them. He was quite a young man when he went back to France on the Pasteur.
He was only 22 years old.
Roy Findlay (Contributed by his son, David Findlay)
My father Roy Findlay, crossed on the Louis Pasteur from Quebec City to Southampton in 1945. He was an Officer in the RCAF.
Cecil Finnamore
I crossed from Halifax to Liverpool on the Pasteur in March 1945. There were approx 5000 Canadian soldiers and a group of sailors who were going to Ireland to crew the newly built cruiser Ontario. i was in the Canadian Infantry Corp. During the voyage I met a home town friend aboard who was one of the sailors.
Ray Gager
I sailed from Halifax Canada to Gourock Scotland on HMT Loius Pasteur on 20 June 1941 arriving Gourock 30 June 1941 as a member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force and later I served in the RAF, NZ 404657.
Stuart William (Bill) Gerard
I sailed overseas to England from New York sometime around end of June 1943 to first of July on the Pastuer. I remember it being refered to as the "Louis Pastuer". I do not remember the actual date we left new york other that we were 2 days late in reporting in. We were escorted out of New York by a couple of Frigates. On the first morning out the escoerts left us, the loud speskers blared first thing asking for volinteers for lookout duties. Several dozens of us did. As long as you didn't have a sea sickness porblem you were accepted. We gathered on deck and were briefed on our duties and were given the choice of several stations. ie Port and Starboard Bridge positions also Stern lookouts. Then came the Crow's nest positions. These were approx. 60 feet up the Mast. from the deck. I think there was only 8 of us volunteered. We were all Aircrew and didn't have any motion sickness problems. 2 hours on 4 hours off. The trip was great, calm seas with a roll, maybe 15 degrees off perpendicular, we could see over each side as she rolled. We reached Liverpool without ever seeing a sub, thank goodness.
The conditions for a troup ship was not bad. we slept in hammocks
stacked 3 high Which were not bad once you got the nack of
getting into them. The food could have been worse, But what did
you expect ?
Bobbie C. Glass (See the entry for John M. Kropp.)
Henry Glenk
See photograph under the "1060th. Signal Company" listed under "VARIOUS MEMORABILIA FROM UNITS THAT SHIPPED ON THE PASTEUR" below.
Jack Godwin
"........After we arrived in Fort Dix, near Trenton, N.J.,
we didn't do much but wait on transportation. On July the 15th.,
we began to move out. We loaded onto a train which took us to
New York City, where (we) loaded onto a ship. This ship was The
Louis Pasteur. This ship was built in France and was taken over
by the British during the start of the war. It was the third fastest
ship in the world at that time. It had a top speed of 27 knots.
When it was built it was supposed to have been a luxury liner
to run between France and South America.
We pulled out the next day, July 16th, 1942 and went by the Statue
of Liberty.
While we were loading, we could see The Normandy laying on it side, a few piers (from) where we were. That ship was a French ship in the docks for repairs. An explosion of some kind happened and it turned on its side.
As we were leaving New York Harbor, we went by The Statue of Liberty, and thank God we had a couple of destroyers escorting us. Some where out of nowhere, a sub got on our trail. Thanks to those watchful destroyers they spotted it. They had a ball dumping depth charges. You could feel the ship tremble from the concussion of the explosion of the depth charges they dropped. They left a slick on the water, and a B-17 aircraft came over and dropped a depth charge, then you could see an oil slick boil up out of the water, that was an indication that they had hit their target.
We followed the East coast almost to South America, then we turned East and headed toward Africa.
After we were on that course a few days, we spotted a sub about a day out of Freetown, Africa. I and a few others that were riding on the bow shouted to the bridge, and when the captain saw it I thought he was going to turn the ship over, he turned it so quick, and began to zigzag it for several miles. We pulled into Freetown, Africa where we refueled. The next day we headed South. Down around the Cape, an overcoat felt good in August.
We learned later that the debris that we saw on the water, after we saw the sub, was our supplies. We also learned that Axis Sally had put out a report that the Germans had sunk The Louis Pasteur, and that we were at the bottom of the ocean. They knew we were out there somewhere on that ship, but they didn't know where we were, or where we were going.
The next stop was Durban, South Africa, where we refueled again and took on more supplies (mutton), our main food for the journey. We stayed there a couple of days. We were supposed to go to Bagdad, but the Germans were giving the English such a bad time in Africa they pulled us into Egypt on August 20th., 1942, and then on into St. Jeans (Jenin?), Palestine (The Land of Cannon) about 5 miles Northeast of Heifer (Haifa?), a port city located on the Northeast side of Mt. Caramel (Mt. Carmel?). ............"
Harry Goldman
"She" brought me back from Europe in '45.
Marinus Pieter Goudswaard (Submitted by his son, O.Goudswaard)
"My father was transported to India by Pasteur. Regiment 4-3RI .... He was there from March 1947 to February 1950 ..."
Sydney Grant
I sailed on the Pasteur from New York to Liverpool, Nov.30
to December 7, 1944. I was a soldier in the U.S. 788th Field Artillery
Battalion. I was 18 at the time. Also on board were all our artillery
pieces including twelve 8 -inch howitzers and the prime movers
that hauled them. I remember many airforce personnel on board
with us. I believe
there were at least 2000 men on board.
We slept in hammocks that were stored in the dining area where we ate the three meals a day we were served. I think the food was British. The crew were British, as were the gunnery crews that manned the anti-aircraft machine guns and the artillery piece on the stern deck. We took saltwater showers, but not frequently.
We did not have an escort, and we had several lifeboat drills on the way over. During the crossing, on the third day, we ran into a severe storm, and they strung ropes up and placed GI cans in the passageways. It was a very bad storm, and we were not allowed out on deck. The waves were more than forty feet high. The ship seemed very sturdy and powerful. Its mainstairway had a map showing the Atlantic and France and South America, which I thought was its original service route.
When we arrived in the Irish Sea, a big flying boat came to meet us and circled us for about a half hour signaling us with signal flashing.Then a few hours later, two destroyers came up, and took positions, one on either side of us, and escorted us for the last day into the Harbor at Birkenhead. We arrived early in the morning, and it was foggy. I remember the flak towers in the bay on the way in to the dock. We spent all day at the dock while supplies were unloaded. We left the ship in the late afternoon and went by rail to Congleton, Cheshire, where we were billeted in the attic of the Marsuma Cigar Mills, and we slept on straw mattresses.
In February we travelled south to Portland where we took LSTs to Le Havre. and thence to a Cigarette Camp nearby called Lucky Strike. We eventually traveled to Sittard, Holland, where we crossed into Germany and into combat duty, crossing the Rhine at Duisberg on pontoon bridges, at the end of March 1945.
Sam Grenek (submitted by his friend Sam Beverage)
" ...was one of my tent-mates during most of the three years spent overseas. Like myself he came into the 60th Signal Platoon from the 30th Signal Platoon of Manchester, NH. He was a Radio Operator, Repairman and was my boss when I first came into the 30th. I believe it was he who suggested that I be called "Bev" so as not to be confused with "Sam 1" or "Sam 2". There were seven of us taken from the 30th in the wee hours of a hot July night and whisked off to Ft. Dix bound we knew not where. Now 60 years later there are, as far as we know, just the two Sams left, or one "Sam" and one "Bev". In addition to being a Radio Operator he went to Radar School and specialized in repairing the before mentioned IFF's (see the account of Paul Jacob) and became very efficient at making them perform properly despite one of the worst hazards of the desert, very fine sand infiltrating into everything! IFF's of those days were about 50% mechanical so you can guess what problems sand caused! Something which I am not sure if mentioned before. Each of us was given a drawstring bag made of GI cloth. These were assembled by the ladies of the various New Jersey Red Cross Chapters. Each bag contained some toilet articles, a paperback book and a pack of Playing Cards which really got used on that long voyage! Our games were mild compared to those played in some parts of the Ship where small fortunes were made or lost. Those of us from the 30th were bankrupt so it was just some exciting long games of "Hearts"! Oh yes some of those Red Cross bags contained the name of the lady, young or old, not known, who had put it together. Very nice of the Ladies of the New Jersey Red Cross who must have been very busy considering the thousands and thousands they had to supply!..."
Sam Grenek is in the middle. To his left is Leon Hale, Sam "Bev"
Beverage is on the right side. (Sam Beverage: "This picture
of three was taken by a Street Photographer at Rayak, Lebanon
in the Bekaa Valley. He had only a simple film developing and
fixing solution and it is amazing that the picture has lasted
60 years! There was a Photographer with a similar rig who came
to all the Barracks at Ft. Dix but for some reason his pictures
didn't last. He had a limitless supply of "captive"
customers whereas the Street Photog. only had a few.
Frank E. Grogan (See the entry for John M. Kropp.)
Peter Guide (contributed by his son, Jeff Guide
My father was stationed in Mississippi, went to Ft Myers, and then to Holloman in Alamagordo, NM, before shipping out of NYC in August, '42. He was a B-24 Flight Engineer, Staff Sgt, in the 98th, 343rd Bomber Group. My father had no big story to tell about the ship. He mentioned that the ship was reported sunk back home and his parents thought he was dead. At least until the ship "surfaced" in port. He said they seemed to be zig zagging nearly the entire trip and it took forever to get across the Atlantic. He slept on the deck as much as he could as it was hot inside much of the time. My father didn't begin talking about the war until 1991-92, which was apparently typical for the men in the war.
Peter Guide's certificate- issued to individuals that cross the Equator.
Orville Guyer
These remarks are from correspondence between
Orvill Guyer and Sam Beverage. (Items in parentheses are by Mr.
Beverage.)
(Part of a Jan. 1998 letter from Orville Guyer who was First Sgt. on our "Cruise" on the Pasteur. ) Quote "July 16, 1942 -- Long, hot shuffle to the Pasteur. The 2 day Rookie, Brooklyn boy got in our line and went overseas with us. My sleeping Card was a nice cabin. Had just started to settle in when the order came for me to go down below with the men! Hot, smelly, Mess close by, Hamocks to sleep in, Rats sometimes climbing the lines looking for snacks, and during "the big storm" complete chaos. Every pan in that Mess came loose and was bouncing or flying. Seasick Heaven!
I still have my "Passport", my Equator Crossing fancy
Certificate, and a spoon from a Restaurant in Durban! Do you remember
the little stern gun that was our entire protection? And the Spitfire
on deck that some thought would fly out and do battle if needed?
That was a long journey 55 years ago! Memories!" unquote.
(From a letter of Feb. 1998, Orville tells more about the boy
who apparently fell in with the 323rd Group on the way to the
boat and went overseas with no training at all!) Quote "The
walk-on Rookie. I remember watching him take his basic training
on the Parade Ground at the Rayak (Lebanon) Base. I believe Hqtrs.
Co. took him aboard for the journey. He was doing ok." unquote.
(From a letter of March 1998, Orville tells how he became 1st
Sgt..) Quote "Jake" (older brother of Paul Jacob) was
the 1st Sgt. ahead of me. He became a WO. (Warrant Officer) One
da