Gulf of Mexico

Antipodean Andy · Aug 18, 2008

World War II activity was closer than many think in the Gulf | HoumaToday.com | The Courier | Houma, LA

Occasionally the question, “Just how close did the war in the Gulf get to Houma?” is asked. This column should answer that.

Guy Pete was 19 years old more than 60 years ago on May 16, 1942 when a torpedo from a German submarine struck a tanker of 43 men. Twenty-nine survived the attack, due to the acts of Pete, his family and other shrimpers who rescued the men and transported them to Houma.

On an evening in May 1942, shrimp trawler Ira Pete and his father, Elie, had an experience that would change their lives forever. Drifting just after dark as they were separating their catch for the day, they saw a German U-boat. It was drifting also, “not too far away.

“I could hear this big diesel engine sound, and finally, I could see the outline of a submarine” Ira said. “We had a short discussion about the situation and decided not to do anything that might cause them to shoot at us.”

Everyone along the Gulf Coast in the spring and summer of 1942 knew how serious the U-boat situation was, especially the fishermen. Debris from sunken ships, stories along the waterfronts, calls for help on the radio and new restrictions on travel, especially offshore, confirmed the suspicions of those who were doubtful.

Each trawler boat captain could expect to be boarded as he left for a fishing trip. They were assigned strict fishing areas, checked for amount of fuel aboard, ice, food, people and the amount of time they expected to stay out.

As the evening grew late and the chore of separating the catch was nearly finished, the jittery fishermen heard an increase of the activity level aboard the submarine. The engines sped up and the U-boat left at high speed on a “southwesterly” heading, Ira said.

The mood aboard the Pioneer became relaxed and they were about to anchor out for the night when an explosion boomed across the water followed by a flash that lit up the sky.

Another tanker hit by a U-boat torpedo, one of 41 ships to be sunk in May 1942, in the Gulf Sea Frontier!

The victim was the National Bulk Carriers ship, Motor/Tanker William C. McTarnahan. She was on a course of 263 degrees, speed 11 knots, four lookouts, completely blacked out, no moonlighting, not zigzagging and radios silent. Her position was 35 miles east of Ship Shoal Light, just south of Last Island.

The chief officer had just come on watch at 0400 when he saw two torpedo tracks headed for the ship off the starboard bow. He only had time to shout “hard right” to the quarter-master at the helm, but it was too late. One torpedo struck the No. 2 cargo tank and the other hit the main engine room and the steering engine room.

“The engine stopped immediately and an incendiary blaze occurred in the engine room, which burned all men aft almost instantaneously” the official record shows.

Of the crew of 43, 29 were taken ashore by the fishing boats Pioneer, Defender and Venture. It was a Pete family performance, Ira Pete and his dad, Elie, on the Pioneer, brother Horace (Ira’s older brother) on the Venture and brother Guy on the Defender, all part of the Versagi fleet.

As the crew of the Pioneer began getting the burned men off the lifeboats for their trip to shore, an officer from the ship yelled at Ira “Hey you can’t just set those life boats adrift like that.”

Ira remembers telling him, “Hey, Podna, that’s yours burning over there. This is mine you’re on; I’ll do whatever I want.”

The worst off of all the burnt men was put on Ira’s bunk. He died four hours later. “I gave him a whole bottle of aspirins, 100 in all, but he was burned so badly … that’s all we had. We scrubbed, cleaned and painted the boat, but the smell stayed. I never went on board that boat again.”

The crew of the Pioneer radioed Port Texaco at Cat Island Pass to have every ambulance available at the Texaco office at Montegut and be ready to transport survivors to the Ellender Clinic on Park Avenue in Houma.

By the time the survivors got counted in Houma and the most serious cases were hospitalized, the Coast Guard, Naval Intelligence, FBI and uniformed police were everywhere. They (the Navy) had just realized that the radio codebook and the secret convoy instructions had not been accounted for because the bridge and the radio room were engulfed in flames.

That night U-506, Lt. Erich Wurdemann radioed U-boat headquarters “one torpedo hit on large tanker. Left her sinking after some gunfire.”

Some men died in the hospital in Houma; some were transported to the Marine Hospital in New Orleans. Those who were not injured were entertained lavishly by Houma families until their company sent them back to New York to board another ship and continue their (the merchant seamen) service to their country. They well deserved the status of hero, but few were ever recognized as such.

As for Ira Pete, at the end of the second day, the Coast Guard officer he had been working with approached him and said “Raise your right hand and put your other hand on this book.”

Ira said, “Wait a minute, what’s that for?”

“Just do as I say,” he was told.

“Yes or no?” Ira said

“Yes,” the officer told him. “You are now in the Coast Guard.”

The officer agreed to call Versagi in Patterson and get Ira two days off and another boat. He was given the Venture and had a Coast Guard radio put on it the next day.

That was not Ira Pete’s last rescue. There were other rescue missions by Ira Pete and his family throughout the summer of 1942.

The war in the Gulf was indeed in “our own back yard.”
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