I have found some information that may be useful to you.
There is a subscription website Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com), a website more commonly used for genealogical research but which includes databases of crew members of merchant ships that arrived in certain U.S. ports up to about 1957. The information for some ports, New York for example, is very extensive although less so for other ports.
Anyway, I searched for your name and the name of your ship, and came up with information on several voyages in 1943-1944. Your name (appearing as either William J Nicholas or William Jesse Nicholas) was in each record, along with the names of your Armed Guard shipmates.
The voyages were as follows, for SS FORT LARAMIE:
1. Arrived New York 27 Nov 1943 from Curacao, from which it had sailed on 20 Nov 1943
2. Arrived New York 1 Jan 1944 from Liverpool, from which it had sailed 22 Dec 1943
3. Arrived New York 7 Feb 1944 from Liverpool, from which it had sailed 22 Jan 1944
4. Arrived New York 15 Mar 1944 from Liverpool, from which it had sailed 29 Feb 1944
5. Arrived New York 8 Dec 1944 from Honolulu; departed New York April 1944; arrived Honolulu July 1944; Armed Guard gun crew relieved in Curacao on return voyage on unspecified date
Your fellow Armed Guard shipmates were nearly the same group during each of these voyages. Here are the names of your shipmates, each of whom was on at least one of the above voyages but, in most cases, were on all of the voyages.
Crncevich, Maurice L
Faulks, Sidney Emmanuel
Haberkorn, Adolph J
Hanshaw, Bayliss Fletcher
Mang, Fred E, Jr
Miller, Arthur C
Moore, Edwin Louis
Olin, Bernie R, Jr
Pluim, Harvey John
Raabe, Bernard Lee
Rapchick, Adam
Rapp, Earl William
Reasonor, Alvin Woodrow
Rector, Harold D
Rector, James B, Jr
Respress, James Walter
Ritger, Donald Joseph
Robinson, Craig Elmer
Rodgers, Thomas William
Roth, James Conrad
Royster, Kenneth B
Runyon, William Otis
Rush, Jesse Wayne
Retludge, Joe Henry
Sage, William Roy
Stewart, Willis T, Jr LT(jg), Armed Guard commanding officer
Todrick, Conrad Patrick
Tringale, Charles P
Varney, Donald L
Many of these men are likely no longer living. Nevertheless I searched online telephone websites for the above names. Some names are quite common so it was not possible to determine which of multiple similar names applied to your fellow Armed Guard sailors, if any. But a number of the names are fairly uncommon and, in several cases, I found telephone listings for individuals who may have been your shipmates. If you can provide me with your e-mail address, I will send their names, addresses and telephone numbers to you in a private e-mail. I hesitate to place contact information on a public message board without the permission of the person in question.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com
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