March 11, 1946

February 1946. World War II is over and wartime production jobs were ending. During the war, Carl and Georgie worked a number of jobs in several places, finishing the war in Pocatello, Idaho. They elected to return to Iowa, where they both had family, but opted to make a grand tour of the west on the way. Georgie wrote a journal of the trip. The story starts here.

The next day we drove to Tucumcari and to Amarillo, Texas. Stopped there and bought as many bananas as we wanted for the first time since the war. Left a trail of banana skins on the Texas Panhandle. We didn’t especially care for what little we saw of Texas as the country was flat with nothing to see. Got a kick out of everyone’s Texas drawl.

Google (ND) [Directions from Santa Rosa, NM, to Dewar, OK] Retrieved February 13, 2021

Went through Oklahoma City and saw the State Capital. Drove north of McAlester and called Pat Pentz, a friend from Pocatello, who was working with a construction company there. However, she had just left on a trip for Pocatello, so we just missed each other.

Walt’s Comments

They put on some miles today!  500+ miles on two-lane blacktop, going through every little town makes for a long day.  And they were in a ‘36 Ford, pulling a trailer.  I wonder how many hours it took.

Banana Boats and WW2

Many of the destroyers built in World War 1 were sold for scrap in the early 1930s.  Four were sold to the Standard Fruit Company and refitted for the shipping of bananas.  Their shallow draft made them ideal to navigate rivers. The boats had enough speed that they could use air flow to keep the cargo at the proper temperature and avoid the need for refrigeration.

One of the boats (renamed the Tabasco from Worden) was wrecked in 1933, but the other three continued to ship bananas from the Caribbean to ports such as New Orleans, Miami, and Norfolk until the start of World War 2.  The ships were then taken over as Army transports and sent to the Pacific.  It was hoped that they could act as blockade runners into the Philippines, but by the time they were refitted in San Pedro, California, the defenders at Bataan had been forced to surrender.

The Mayasa (previously the Dale) was diverted from the Philippines to Australia and was sunk by the Japanese on March 28, 1943.  The Matagalpa (previously named the Osborne) also went to Australia and caught fire shortly thereafter while berthed at Sydney.  She was then scrapped.

The fourth ship, DD-287, the USS Putnam, had been rechristened the Teapa. She had been held up in Honolulu for repairs and was subsequently sent to Seattle, Washington, to be used to ferry supplies to Alaska.  On November 28, 1942, a fire damage the Teapa’s wiring and deck while waiting to dock at Seward, Alaska.  She then served as a training ship in Seattle. The Teapa was used by Army, Navy and Merchant Marines men for engine operation and anti-aircraft practice.

After the war, she was returned to the Standard Fruit Company and was then sold to the McCormack Shipping Corporation.  She was retired in 1950 and scrapped in 1955.

Digging Deeper

The US Naval Institute Magazine has an interesting article about the banana boats.

Did you know that bananas are grown in Iceland? Learn more about it here.

Here is the story of a popular song about bananas.