"I made up my mind I wasnt going to sail the North Atlantic again because it was too
rough." (Audio Interview, 5:16)
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Charles Jesse Phillips
Charles Jesse Phillips in uniform, with his grandmother [1945]
War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Merchant Marine Service Location: Atlantic; Caribbean; Pacific; Baltic Sea; English Channel Rank: Able Bodied Seaman Place of Birth: MO
Charles Phillips World War II stint in the Merchant Marine kept him one step ahead of
disaster. He had a superstition about sailing on the same ship twice, and several times,
ships he was on were heavily damaged. After several perilous voyages across the stormy
North Atlantic, he vowed to sail only the Pacific; on his second Pacific voyage, he rode
out a powerful typhoon near Okinawa that blew away over 8 million feet of lumber he
had just helped deliver. Still, he admits that if he hadnt gotten married, he would have
made a career out of sailing, he loved it so much.