mess and the general mess from 1 January to 31 March 1934. This was not an assignment given as punishment but a detail given to all beginning-level sailors. As one of the newer engineers, it was simply Mac’s time.28
Nine days after McKenna reported to the galley, Gold Star again departed Guam, this time for Hawaii. Thirteen days later, the ship moored at the coaling pier at Pearl Harbor. After receiving coal and other cargo, the ship moored to Pier 5A in Honolulu. In Honolulu a seaman 1st class was brought back on board the ship by the Shore Patrol for fighting and intoxication at the Casino Dance Hall. Mac managed to visit the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, devoted to the history, arts, and culture of the Hawaiian people. However, there is no doubt McKenna probably also had a few drinks with his shipmates.
On the last day in January 1934, Gold Star departed Hawaii for Guam and arrived at its home port the second week in February. After mooring, passengers departed and stevedores began the hard work of offloading coal and other cargo.
On 3 March, with new cargo and another roster of passengers, including Captain Alexander’s wife, two adult daughters, and their servants, Gold Star departed for Manila. The ship anchored off the Cavite Navy Yard on Friday, 9 March. There work was undertaken on the ship before it moved to Pier 3 in Manila to unload cargo and receive more cargo, some for naval activities in Shanghai. While Gold Star was in Manila, four women passengers were transported by launch from the ship to shore. The launch collided with a “sugar barge,” and the passengers received “cuts and bruises”; one woman suffered “a fracture” and a laceration to her scalp.
During this period in the Philippines, Mac found his favorite used-book store in Manila and bought several books, including a one-volume work of Lucius Apuleius’ The Golden Asse (the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety), Titus Petronius Arbiter’s The Satyricon (another Latin novel), and Longus, Daphnis and Chloe (a Greek novel from AD 2). Mac’s interest in classical texts may have been born from his brief exposure to them during college.29
While Mac perused the used-book store, a Gold Star shipmate fell from a window at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and received “a contusion and cuts.” The fall caused him to be absent over leave (AOL), an offense not as serious as AWOL. Not surprisingly, an investigation showed that the sailor had been under the influence of liquor.30
With repairs completed and cargo finally stowed, Gold Star departed Manila for Shanghai on 15 March and anchored off the Dollar Steam Ship Line area on 21 March. Chinese stevedores began the hard work of unloading cargo and then loading new cargoes of cement and sugar into the ship.
In Mac’s scrapbook is a sketch map, drawn with a pencil on a torn sheet of lined paper, that marks the location of the Cathy Hotel at the intersection of Shanghai’s Bund (waterfront) and the busy shopping street of Nanking (Nanjing) Road. (The refurbished Cathy Hotel still sits at the intersection but now is called Fairmont Peace Hotel.) The sketch has two Xs on Nanking Road showing the location of two bookstores: the Chinese American Publishing Company at 78 Nanking Road and the American Book Shop at 160 Nanking Road. On this visit to Shanghai, Mac bought a copy of Pan in the Parlour for $5.00 on 22 March 1934.31
To better understand McKenna’s purchases, one must first understand the money in China, for money was one of the main reasons for the popularity of the China Station. Most of the silver was drained out of China at the end of the nineteenth century, as a result of the opium trade, and it was replaced by silver dollars minted in Mexico. The silver dollars were not reminted but circulated as is and prices were quoted in “dollars mex.” Some Chinese found it profitable to split these silver dollars lengthwise, scoop out most of the silver, and then refill and seal the coins with lead—which was known as a “three-piece mex.” Most shop owners would bounce a coin off a hard surface and listen for the proper ring, known as “dinging,” before accepting a coin.
By the 1930s the silver Mexican dollar had largely disappeared. The official basic unit of Chinese currency, the yuan, inherited the name “mex.” In other words, a price given in dollars mex in the 1930s is equivalent to the price in yuan. Other coins were called “small money” and consisted of copper and silver. The value of both copper and silver coins fluctuated from day to day. Paper money, called “big money,” was made up of currency from various sources and never seemed to be withdrawn from circulation owing to wear. Denominations were usually in less than one dollar and were used for paying rickshaw fares.
Although their pay had been reduced because of the Depression, American troops received more pay than any other Western nation’s troops in China. Army enlisted man Anthony Ingrisano, stationed with the 15th Infantry in Tientsin, China, in the 1930s, remarked that the Americans were considered wealthy. He said some shops had signs that read, “‘Men in uniform not allowed except Americans.’ It was enough to turn your head.”32
Probably one of the most unusual clippings in Mac’s scrapbook covering Shanghai in 1934 is an undated newspaper article in The China Press. A photograph of an attractive blond woman is attached to the piece, which announces the arrival of Gold Star with twenty families of “American naval men aboard.” After detailing the ship’s itinerary, the article mentions the woman pictured. She was Larre (or Larry—both names are used in the article) Alexander, one of the daughters of Capt. George A. Alexander, the governor of Guam. The article pointed out Captain Alexander had been stationed in San Diego when he received orders to his current assignment. According to the account, at the time of her father’s orders, Larre Alexander “was tasting the sweet delights of first-won recognition as an actress in Hollywood.” Captain Alexander, however, “decided that Hollywood was too wicked for a young girl to be in it unprotected, so he brought her along with him.” The article relates how Larre Alexander appeared in a 1933 movie titled Cavalcade, which was based on a play by Noël Coward and directed by Frank Lloyd. The movie won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Art Direction. The account stated that Larre appeared briefly to sing “Military Mary,” and one’s imagination can run away with what the sailors in Gold Star thought of their passenger.33
The ship remained in Shanghai for only a short period, departing on 26 March for Yokohama. By this time McKenna had his circle of friends in the engineering force, although not all have been remembered by history. Most sailors kept their group of friends within their particular division in the ship, as these were the sailors with whom they worked side by side. Engineering and deck force bluejackets have traditionally railed against one another. Mac, however, throughout his career in the Navy sought out interesting people and did not hesitate to make friends outside engineering. In Gold Star, for example, a deck force sailor, SN1 William Jennings Bryans, became his closest friend outside engineering. Bryans had enlisted in Denver, Colorado, about two months after McKenna and reported to Gold Star on the same date as McKenna. Mac found that, like him, Bryans was interested in photography; the seaman eventually became the ship’s photographer.34
Five days after Gold Star had left Shanghai, the ship moored to a buoy at Yokohama, on Saturday, 31 March, and remained there for six days. Sailors took three to six days’ leave while in port at Yokohama, a good indication that it was a favorite port for the Gold Star crew. They seldom took leave in any other port in Japan or China. The only other port sailors consistently took leave in was in the Philippines, and this was largely because the ship moored for extended periods in the Philippine Islands for repair work, plus many of the crew members were from the islands.35
At this particular time Yokohama must have seemed extra special for McKenna, as his time in mess cooking ended on Saturday, 31 March. Once McKenna left the galley, his evaluations improved steadily, thanks
