Our first cruise on the West Cressey took us to San Diego to load our ship. We docked next to an itinerant freighter called the Y.S. Williams. It turned out that it was primarily a Copra ship that called once a year on different isolated islands to collect their crops of Coconut shells, or Copra, which was their principle export. I had fantasies about how neat it would be to go to isolated islands that were seldom visited to see them in their native condition.
The operator on the Y.S. Williams and I got acquainted and we discussed swapping radio operator jobs on our ships. We got the permission of both our captains to do this and spent time familiarizing each other with our respective radio equipment. While on his ship, I saw a Copra bug crawl up the wall. I had been warned never to get on a ship infested with Copra bugs as they would get in your bedding, clothes and your hair and were very miserable. That was apparently why the other operator was so willing to swap with me. So, I reluctantly cancelled our arrangement.
The next time I saw the Y.S. Williams, it was in Manilla harbor with the front of the ship caved in after going aground on an island and spending two miserable days without running water or power until they could get the ship loose. The operator and I had kept in touch by radio until then. The next I heard about the Y.S. Williams is that it headed for Hong Kong and was captured by the Japanese. The unfortunate crew of the ship spent the remainder of World War II in a Japanese prison camp. By the time they were finally released, I was married and had several children. I felt it was a blessing of providence that that Copra bug preserved me from a Japanese Prison Camp and allowed me to move on with my life.
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