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Highlighting Our Heroes: Arthur Watson

Arthur Watson
Arthur Watson

By Luke Lorenz
Manager of Government Affairs
Navy League of the United States

This is part of an ongoing series, where we look at the lives and legacies of U.S. sea service men and women.

If you were ever forced to read “The Odyssey” in high school, you might be able to relate to the epic voyage of Arthur Watson. Stranded at sea for 17 days after his ship was sunk, surviving off of meager rations, maintaining morale and mental stability, all of this and more would be in the cards for young Arthur as he embarked on a brief but memorable career in the Merchant Marine. Not only will this story speak to his bravery, but to the tremendous mistake our nation made in not properly recognizing these courageous men who provided such vital support to our war effort.

Arthur Watson spent most of his life in Cleveland, Ohio, but he would come face to face with the global cataclysm of World War II far earlier than most Americans. Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Arthur was sent to the Hawaiian naval station to begin reconstruction. Pearl Harbor was to be a staging point for the entire Pacific campaign, so they needed warehouses and storage facilities, which Arthur helped to build. He remembers never working less than an 11 hour day. He also remembers the terrible destruction still visible every day as he went about his work. The battleship Oklahoma was tied to the dock being patched, and the Arizona was farther out in the bay completely sunk. He passed the wreckage every day.

He was at Pearl Harbor for two years before shipping off with the Merchant Marine. Starting in Panama he sailed out to Aruba to pick up aviation fuel and bring it to Dakar, Senegal. The ship would never reach its destination. A German submarine fired one torpedo that hit mid-ship and blew a giant hole into its side. There wasn’t much time before the vessel would join the Arizona and so many others at the bottom of the sea.

Arthur was on deck at the time of the attack. The explosion threw him to the ground and the heat blistered his face. Luckily, he had been wearing a rain jacket at the time, and that protected most of his body from burns. He jumped up and saw the entire aft of the ship was in flames. He knew he needed to get out of there. He grabbed a life jacket and scrambled for the boats. Of the 72 men aboard the ship, only 22 would make it off alive.

Twenty-two men sat in a 25-foot life boat. They had rations: a lozenge in the morning, a cracker for lunch and two teaspoons of citrus in the evening. This was their nourishment. Swells would rise and dump water into the boat. The men would race against time to get it out before they sunk. Their bodies were left covered in a layer of salt. Arthur’s pants were bleached completely through.

The captain and the men attempted to keep their morale and their sanity, but for two members of the crew it was already too late. One man, a lieutenant, had lost his nerve and babbled all of his waking hours unable to understand anything. A radio operator sat with his head between his knees, unmoving.

The captain kept track of their movements. According to his calculations they were set to arrive at an island and might even be intercepted by some deepsea fishermen before that. Arthur kept watch, and as dusk settled in he did see the island in the distance. The captain did not want to approach in the dark for fear that an unseen obstacle might sink the boat. They waited, but the next morning the wind had blown them far off course. They journeyed on.

They ended up off the coast of Trinidad, but the wind sheering off the high mountains of Trinidad caught their boat and blew them away. On the 17th day they came up on the shore of South America. The captain checked his map and informed the men that they were 75 miles away from any civilized area. It would be wiser to stay in the boat and sail on. They voted and agreed to stay in the boat. On the 18th day a seaplane flew past them. It flew around three or four times but then left. Another plane did the same later in the day. It seemed that no one would rescue them until they came into the path of another ship. This vessel picked them up, and the next morning they were back in Aruba.

Even after this harrowing experience, the work of young Arthur Watson was not done. He would sail out again, bringing supplies to the forces across Europe before eventually leaving the Merchant Marine and starting a career as a carpenter. He remembers how the Merchant Marine played a critical role in the war effort and hopes that Americans remember as well.

Highlighting Our Heroes