Colleen,

I have information to add to what you have; I will also point out several possible inconsistencies in your most recent message.

The name of the ship you have as MEVANI was more likely MEVANIA, a tanker built in 1920 by the Moore Drydock Company of Oakland, CA. The ship was renamed VINCENZIA in 1944 (likely after being sold to a new owner), then AURANIA in 1947, and PAMAVI in 1956, before being scrapped in 1959. See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/moore.htm and scroll to hull number 2228. I can find no record of a ship named MEVANI.

I notice that you state your father was aboard SAMUEL JOHNSTON from January 22, 1942, through December 21, 1942. However you also note that he was aboard MEVANIA from January 22, 1942, through June 8, 1942. Since the dates when he was aboard the two ships overlap, there seems to be an error somewhere.

You also state he was aboard JOHN J ABEL between January 30, 1943, and April 5, 1943. I have found a record for Clifford R Burnham arriving in New York City aboard JOHN J ABEL on October 13, 1943, from Port of Spain, Trinidad, from which she had sailed on October 1, 1943. He was a member of the Armed Guard unit, a total of 26 men, one of whom had to be left behind in a hospital during the voyage; more about the voyage in a moment. The record is very skimpy in describing any of the Armed Guard sailors other than name, age and a minimal physical description: Clifford Burnham was noted as being age 19, 5'7" tall and 140 lbs. I found this record through a search of the subscription website Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com). The site is more commonly used for genealogical research but contains databases of the names of passengers and crew arriving in certain U.S. ports after having sailed from a foreign port.

The details of this voyage are quite interesting, beyond the final leg from Port of Spain to New York. A careful reading of the six pages of information on this ship and this voyage indicates this was the maiden voyage of the ship.

(Here a diversion for more details about the ship. She was constructed by the Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore in early 1943. Her keel was laid February 20, 1943, she was launched March 24, and she was completed and delivered for service on April 3, 42 days after keel-laying. She was scrapped in 1961 in Hamburg, Germany. See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergency/wwtwo/bethfairfield.htm and scroll to hull number 2110; also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsJo.html#JohnH and scroll to the name of the ship. (The ship on which I volunteer as a crewman and webmaster, JOHN W BROWN, home-ported in Baltimore and one of only two surviving and operational Liberty ships, was built at the same shipyard about six months earlier.) Based on the above construction schedule, your father could not have physically been on the ship as early as January 30, 1943, although he may have been assigned to the ship on paper. (It would have been unusual for him to have "sat around" at some naval base, probably the Naval Armed Guard Center in Brooklyn, for more than two months between January 30 and the delivery date of the ship on April 3. The shipyard would not have permitted anyone to be quartered on the ship before its delivery date.) In any case the merchant marine crew, and presumably the Armed Guard unit, began arriving on the ship in early April. The earliest date I can find in the Ancestry.com record was for many of the merchant marine crew, including the captain, arriving on April 3, the delivery date.)

Anyway, back to the voyage. From what I can piece together from the record, the ship left Baltimore in early April 1943, arriving in Newport News, Virginia, soon thereafter; from personal experience I know this voyage takes less than 24 hours. She remained in Newport News for a number of days, probably loading cargo and signing on additional crew. She then sailed for New York (a voyage of several days depending upon the route taken) and left New York on April 24, presumably in convoy. She must have sailed south as she transited the Panama Canal sometime in early May 1943. From here I surmise she crossed the Pacific Ocean, continuing all the way to Egypt, reaching but probably not transiting the Suez Canal in mid-July 1943. She left Suez on July 20. I had earlier mentioned an Armed Guard sailor being left in a hospital. That sailor was left in Durban, South Africa, on an unspecified date. One member of the merchant marine crew likewise was hospitalized and left behind in Durban as of August 13, 1943. From this date it appears the ship traveled south and made a stop in South Africa after leaving Egypt. In September 1943 she made port in Bahia, Brazil, continuing on, either directly or with other stops, to Port of Spain, Trinidad. She sailed from Port of Spain on October 1 before finally returning to New York on October 13. In other words, this was an around-the-world voyage. So it appears your father was on JOHN J ABEL at least from April 3, 1943, through October 13, 1943. His actual whereabouts between January 30 and April 3, 1943, are somewhat uncertain to me, based on the information you have and the information I have found. But clearly his voyage on this ship must have been rather memorable. Your photographs of him at the Pyramids and on camel-back probably date from this voyage. The ship was scheduled to sail again from New York on November 18 or 19, 1943, although I cannot determine whether your father would have continued aboard the ship for that voyage.

Additionally, another of your father's ships, SAMUEL JOHNSTON, was a Liberty ship also constructed by the Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, in early 1942. Her keel was laid April 14, 1942, she was launched June 14, and she was completed and turned over for service on June 30, 77 days after keel-laying. She was scrapped in 1968 in Green Cove Springs, Florida. See http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/4emergency/wwtwo/bethfairfield.htm and scroll to hull number 2033. Also see http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/LibShipsS.html#SamuG and scroll down to the name of the ship. Again I question whether your father could have been aboard this ship as early as January 22, 1942, from your information; the earliest he could have physically been aboard SAMUEL JOHNSTON presumably would have been June 30, 1942.

I hope this information is useful.

Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com