Thank you for your inquiry. The fate of the crew of S.S. JEAN NICOLET is one of the most appalling wartime atrocities that came out of World War II.
In my opinion it is unlikely that there is an online copy of the crew/passenger list from JEAN NICOLET on her last voyage, which ended in the death of your relative, George M. Hudimac. You may be aware that passenger and crew lists for merchant ships arriving at certain U.S. ports of entry are available online. A notable source is the subscription website Ancestry.com (http://home.ancestry.com/), where I have had considerable success in responding to inquiries such as yours. However the images of the information at Ancestry.com come from forms submitted at the time a ship reached port in the United States at the end of a foreign voyage. (The forms are, in fact, immigration forms even though typically the passengers and crew members of a ship during World War II would not have been immigrating). Since JEAN NICOLET never reached a U.S. port at the end of her final voyage, those forms were never filed.
Similarly, log books from merchant ships would have been turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard in the port at which the ship arrived. Again, since JEAN NICOLET never reached her final port, the log books were never filed. Indeed one can easily speculate that documents such as log books and crew lists would have been destroyed or thrown overboard at the time the ship was attacked and abandoned.
Nevertheless, copies of the crew and passenger lists must have also been filed onshore prior to a ship's departure from the United States. (This would not apply to any log books, of course, which were created during the course of the voyage.) For example, I would presume that the shipping company that operated the vessel would have had copies, and likewise the union(s) that represented the seamen and officers aboard the ship would have had copies. Where those copies would be today, if extant, is something I cannot answer. Many of the shipping companies of the day are no longer in business, as is the case for Oliver J. Olson & Co. of San Francisco, the company that operated JEAN NICOLET. Since your relative, George Hudimac, was not a merchant sailor he presumably would not have been a member of a seamen's union and a union's interest in him would likely have been minimal.
(As an aside, I have always wondered why JEAN NICOLET carried such a large number of U.S. Army and civilian personnel. Her cargo, equipment or destination, whatever they may have been, might have had something to do with the presence of these additional personnel.)
Here is one possibility that you may want to pursue. From information available to me, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has copies of the service record of merchant mariners who died during World War II. The most recent contact information I have is as follows:
Archives I Reference Unit (NWCT1R)
National Archives and Records Administration
7th & Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20408
E-mail: archives1reference@nara.gov
Again, of course, George Hudimac, was not a merchant mariner so it may be questionable whether the above NARA office would have information about him.
On the other hand, George Hudimac was, as I understand it, a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy. Therefore the Navy or the federal government must have or had information SOMEWHERE about him. You may want to pursue this angle by contacting a different NARA staff, as follows:
Modern Military Records Unit (NWCTM)
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
I don't have an e-mail address for this office.
You mention that you had heard that the source of the information you found, Captain Arthur R. Moore, is no longer living. I can confirm that Captain Moore is in fact very much alive although quite elderly; his contact information is below. I cannot say, of course, whether he would have any additional information that would address your questions.
Arthur Raymond Moore
26 Walnut Drive
Hallowell, Maine 04347-3000
Tel: 207-623-9165
Good luck and best wishes.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com
Responses
« Back to index | View thread »