Today is your lucky day. I have information that may be useful to you.
The website www.ancestry.com, which is more commonly used for genealogical research, contains records of the arrival of passengers and crew in several port of entry in the U.S., notably New York City. A search of the website turns up references to the crew of the SS WEST NOHNO.
The SS WEST NOHNO arrived in New York City on April 9, 1942, returning from Murmansk, Russia, via Reykjavik, Iceland.
Most of her merchant crew signed off upon her arrival in New York. Below are the names of the merchant crew members who signed on for her next voyage (presumably the voyage you mention, between May 1942 and February 1943), along with their ages, and including yourself. You are listed as Donald Jackson Dickens, age 20. The master for this voyage was Robert E. Meek. Other than Captain Meek I do not have the positions of the other crewmen of the WEST NOHNO but in a number of cases I have guessed at their positions, based on the arrival records of men by the same names on other dates and other ships. See if any of these names sound familiar to you.
Adams, Russell E. age 26 deck
Andrews, Harold T. 18
Baldwin, Noel L. 26
Brady, James L. 18 steward
Castro, Raphael 30
Chanduvi, Agripino 48 engine
Chiotis, Stamatis 38 engine
Couchois, James O. 30
DeMaere, Theophil 40
English, James 36 engine
Fernandez, Enrique 41 engine officer
Glesen, William 55 engine
Gould, Geoffrey C. 38
Hewston, John Joseph 29 deck
Hodach, Donald J. 19 deck
Hutchins, Herbert 47 steward
LaVerne, George 32
Limberg, Georges C. 45
Marinchock, Michael H. 44 deck officer
Mariolos, Gregorios 54
Mazzu, Louis 29 deck officer
Noble, Lawrence J. 42 engine officer
Parker, Emery F. 71 deck officer
Permentier, William 47 engine officer
Reklaitis, John J. 30 deck
Ryan, John P. 23
Salvano, Amadeo T. 32 engine officer
Schecter, Harry 24 engine
Siehien, John J. 28
Sien, Daniel F. 20 radioman
Skiba, John 35 engine
Treasvant, Charles 27 deck
Valle, Santiago 32 steward
Vasquez, Emeraldo 30
Windham, John D. 34 steward
Yesek, George 33 engine
On May 16, 1942, WEST NOHNO left New York for an unspecified destination.
As of June 15, 1942, the ship was in Key West, Florida, for repairs, with sealed orders to sail on an unspecified date to an unspecified destination.
A Google search for "SS WEST NOHNO" turns up a number of hits. Wikipedia has a lengthy entry for the ship, including a mention of the voyage on which you sailed; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_West_Nohno.
At http://www.warsailors.com/singleships/britannia.html is this statement: "2nd Mate [of the ship SS BRITTANIA] Henning Vaagsnes saved the lives of 2 American seamen on the WEST NOHNO at Suez on Sept. 20-1942, when he went into a tank and hoisted them up after they had succumbed to gas poisoning while cleaning the tank without gas masks. A 3rd man died, in spite of Vaagsnes' subsequent efforts to revive him for 2 hours. As a reward he received a gift of binoculars from President Roosevelt and a gold watch from the American shipowners." Do you recall such an incident?
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard website www.armed-guard.com
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