Posted by Judy Westerman on July 10, 2010, 3:38 pm
I am looking for anyone who was on the SS William Eustis when it was sunk on March 17, 1943. My Father, Frank Paskin was on the ship at that time. Thanks
Re: S.S. William Eustis
Posted by Robert (Bob) Ward on November 6, 2013, 4:47 pm, in reply to "S.S. William Eustis"
My dad , Robert Junior Ward was also on this ship when it was sunk. I would appreciate any information that you have come up with regarding this incident. My father is now deceased.
Re: S.S. William Eustis
Posted by Judy Westerman on November 7, 2013, 10:40 am, in reply to "Re: S.S. William Eustis"
Hello, My Dad, Frank Paskin did not talk too much about what happened to him the night the ship sunk. He did say that no one died. He did say it was on St. Patrick's Day and that they spent most of the night in the water. My Dad, who could not swim, kept the life jacket that he wore that night. For years, he displayed the life jacket in our house with the note attached: Life saver, Mine! I now have the jacket.
Re: S.S. William Eustis
Posted by Ron Carlson on July 12, 2010, 8:30 am, in reply to "S.S. William Eustis"
Judy,
I made a search of the subscription website Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com), which includes databases of crew members of ships arriving from foreign ports in certain U.S. ports of entry. I found a record for a Franklin Fredrick Paskin, a member of the Armed Guard crew aboard SS WILLIAM EUSTIS upon its arrival in New York on February 27, 1943. The ship had sailed from Cienfuegos, Cuba, on an unspecified date. This is probably the voyage that immediately preceded the voyage during which WILLIAM EUSTIS was torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic by U-435 on March 17, 1943, while in Convoy HX-229 (New York City to Liverpool). Therefore it is very likely that most of the Armed Guard crew that arrived on the voyage from Cuba were still aboard with your father on the ship's ill-fated next voyage. There were no casualties in the sinking. U-435 was sunk by depth charges off Portugal on July 9, 1943, with the loss of all hands.
In addition to Franklin Fredrick Paskin, who was age 22 and a seaman first class (S 1/c), was described as 6 feet, 1 inch, 190 lbs., the Armed Guard crew included:
Cardwell, Arthur Braurer, Jr. Chaney, Kenneth Lloyd Charter, Harold William [LT(jg), Armed Guard commanding officer] Donovan, Eugene William Downing, John James Freecuf, Rudolph Joseph French, George Franklin Friedman, Milton Jack Furlong, Donald Gabbard, Clifton Galla, John Stephen Heischober, Lester Himmelman, Charles Albert Horton, Argus John Hozey, James Barrow Jones, J. C. Kohut, Joseph Peter Lassiter, Charles Russell Lurding, John Benjamin, Jr. Murphy, James John Pressley, Morris Estace Walton, Donald Fred Ward, Robert Junior Wauschek, William Francis Wilson, George Emmitt
I do not know whether any of these men are still living, nor do I have contact information for any of them, except as noted below. I found several exact or close matches at the Social Security Death Index (https://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com). Several of the names are so common as to make searches for the names meaningless.
I did find an address/telephone listing for an Argus J. Horton at www.switchboard.com, as follows:
Argus J. Horton 3835 Highway 8 W Mena, Arkansas 71953-9501 (479) 394-3563
In addition, Mr. Horton is or was is or was a member of the U.S.N. Armed Guard World War II Veterans Association. You may wish to contact the Association to determine if he is still living and, if so, to confirm the above address. Please contact:
C.A. Lloyd, Chairman U.S.N. Armed Guard World War II Veterans Association 115 Wall Creek Drive Rolesville, NC 27571 Telephone: 919-570-0909 E-mail: clloyd@nc.rr.com
Also, I found records for your father on other ships and on other arrival dates as follows:
1. Aboard SS GULFPOINT, arriving in New York on December 6, 1942, from Glasgow, Scotland; seaman second class (S 2/c).
2. Aboard SS GULFPOINT, arriving in New York on January 4, 1943, from Curaçao, West Indies; seaman second class (S 2/c).
3. Aboard SS CAPE BLANCO, arriving in New York on October 2, 1943, from Panama Canal Zone; seaman first class (S 1/c), serial number 620-63-61.
4. Aboard SS CAPE BLANCO, arriving in San Francisco on January 3, 1944, from Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands; seaman first class (S 1/c), serial number 620-63-61.
Best wishes,
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard website www.armed-guard.com
Re: S.S. William Eustis
Posted by Vicki Murphy-Wauschek on November 24, 2010, 2:44 pm, in reply to "Re: S.S. William Eustis"
Thank you Mr. Carlson! This is so much more than I have ever known. Several years before Dad died, we did take Dad to meet Argus Horton in Arkansas. That was a most memorable experience. Judy Westerman
