Memoirs of 2dLt W. B. Jackson, USMC
HOMEWARD BOUND ON THE
HOSPITAL SHIP COMFORT
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A very few days later word got around that a number of us were going home on the Hospital Ship Comfort then docking at Bordeaux. It turned out that I was one of them. The ward mate in the cast wanted so much to go too. The doctors did not hold any hope of his ultimate recovery or even that he would reach the States but did not have the cruelty to deprive him of the opportunity of going home. He died at the dock at Brooklyn. His home was Hartford, Conn. We embarked. I do not know if it was true or not but rumor had it that the Comfort and the Mercy were the old luxury cruise ships the Yale and Harvard from the Pacific Coast. Sick officers Quarters were on the top deck. We had sizeable windows not port holes so we could see out without restriction. Theoretically we were high enough that there was no danger from waves. I was the only Navy or Marine officer patient. As a result the skipper, Captain Dunbar, made it a point whenever he passed through the ward to stop and chat with me. We finally put out and started back to the U.S.A. As we sent out of the harbor we passed a man-of-war steaming in. Scuttlebutt had it that it was the Texas. It passed on our side with its crew lined up in formation at attention. Their siren blew us three long blasts; Good-bye, Good Luck and God Bless You. It was rather touching.
As we passed through the Bay of Biscay the weather became quite rough. Captain Dunbar requested and got permission instead of heading direct for New York to take us down through equatorial waters, by the Azores, then the islands of the Caribbean, and up the east coast of the U.S. to New York, This wary we would miss much of the stormy North Atlantic in winter. Our first port was Punta Del Gorda in the Azores. As our coal supply had been designed for the direct trip, the skipper decided to coal here. We were something like the 10th ship in line for coaling. So we waited. Coaling here was done by man labor with baskets on their shoulders. A very slow method. We waited for several days. Our ambulatories had a liberty trip ashore. The rest of us watched coaling operations, did bunk fatigue and what have you.
Finally the skipper got disgusted. He figured that with no unforeseen conditions he had enough to make it home. So we told Punta Del Gorda good-bye and steamed away. Generally speaking, it was a nice voyage with good weather most of the way. But a few hundred miles from New York the storms caught up with us. We steamed full speed ahead for nearly two days and Captain Dunbar told me we had change our position on the map less than a league. He told me that our pitch was bad enough that standing clear aft and looking straight down he could see the ocean over the funnels. The seas were so bad that they put up the steel ports over our windows way up where we were. The skipper told me that he had wirelessed our possible need for help. The next morning there were two destroyers near us which had been sent to us in case of need. We had 597 patients aboard. Well, things moderated a bit and we made Brooklyn Navy Yard without any adverse development and on our own power. It was sure good to see old Liberty and the New York skyline again.
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