Charles Jesse Phillips |

Charles Jesse Phillips in uniform, with his grandmother [1945] | World War, 1939-1945
Merchant Marine
SS William Dean Howells; SS William James; SS J. B. Miller; SS Jane G. Swisshelm; SS Stephen B. Elkens; SS Alcoa Planter
Atlantic Ocean; Caribbean Sea; Pacific Theater; Baltic Sea; English Channel
Able Bodied Seaman
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Charles Phillips’ World War II stint in the Merchant Marine kept him one step ahead of
disaster. He had a superstition about sailing on the same ship twice, and several times,
ships he was on were heavily damaged. After several perilous voyages across the stormy
North Atlantic, he vowed to sail only the Pacific; on his second Pacific voyage, he rode
out a powerful typhoon near Okinawa that blew away over 8 million feet of lumber he
had just helped deliver. Still, he admits that if he hadn’t gotten married, he would have
made a career out of sailing, he loved it so much.
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