and moored to its normal buoy in Guam on Thursday, 12 April. Again, stevedores began unloading the ship into lighters, and shortly thereafter, they began the task of taking on more cargo. It took nine hectic days to load the copra and “commercial cold storage cargo.” By Saturday, 21 April, the ship had departed for an extended period in the Philippine Islands, where it received overhaul work at the Machina Wharf in the Cavite Navy Yard and in the Dewey Floating Dry Dock. While in the Navy yard, McKenna attended a Mother’s Day service at the Service Club at 1000, Sunday, 13 May.
On Monday, 18 June, Gold Star finally ended its long stay in the Philippines and set course for Guam, where it arrived on Sunday, 24 June. The crew did not have much time in Guam, as Gold Star departed on Saturday, 14 July, for Manila. Captain Alexander’s wife, daughters, and servants again accompanied the ship. The ship moored alongside Pier 1 for five days and then departed for Hong Kong, where it arrived on Saturday, 28 July. One of the more unusual cargoes being loaded into Number 5 Lower Hold was “automobiles.” Once the cars were safely stowed in Gold Star, the ship departed on Thursday, 2 August, for Yokohama.
Because there were no offensive weapons on the vessel, the Japanese could issue Gold Star a merchant clearance with which the ship could avoid the long procedures required of a foreign warship entering the nation’s ports. The merchant ship–like environment worked to dull sailors toward potential threats and made them see their service in a different light. Mac observed that crews thought if they were not in combat, they were just being kept in reserve “against not too apparent contingencies.” Furthermore, the crew members thought they were not being paid sufficiently for the necessary ship maintenance of painting and scrubbing decks. McKenna continued, “By some magical inversion, this feeling . . . manifested in a covert hostility toward the ‘taxpayers’ who [came] out in the ships on visiting days.” None of the warship attitude prevailed in Gold Star; instead, the crew knew the ship’s cargo helped Guam in some way. “The ship’s storekeepers handled marketing arrangements and sailors ran the winches. Every man aboard had a job and his usefulness was never in question.” McKenna thought no other peacetime ship in the Navy of that time had a crew with “such an assurance of constructive usefulness.”37
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, 8 August 1934, Gold Star moored to a buoy in Yokohama’s harbor. One of the eight sailors going on leave in this favored port for four to six days was McKenna’s friend Bryans. During the mid-1930s sailors serving in Gold Star committed few infractions of regulations while in Yokohama, probably because no sailor wanted any excuse for stopping liberty in the port.
For the rest of the year, Gold Star continued its normal plodding to and from ports in China, Japan, and the Philippine Islands. This routine was shattered en route to Guam, at 0215 on Wednesday, 24 October, when the radioman in Gold Star received a message from Radio Cavite reporting SS Larry Doheny in distress. Commander Faus ordered full speed toward the ship’s position and quickly issued Special Order Number 1. The commanding officer said that “our greatest economy must be used in order to reach” the ship in distress and all “unnecessary lights must be kept turned off. No machinery, electrical or other, which is not absolutely essential for the safety of the ship will be used, and no fans will under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES [Faus’ emphasis] be turned on.” Commander Faus went on to write “non-compliance with this order may mean the life of a human being.”
Special Order Number 1 was quickly followed by an “Organization for Salvage Operations of S.S. LARRY DOHENY.” Commander Faus outlined the duties of all on board, including the women passengers. Thirteen women, including the wife of Captain Alexander and his two daughters, were to “assist the doctor if called upon.” The “remaining ladies will take personal charge of their children, see that they are kept clear of operations and that they maintain SILENCE [Faus’ emphasis] during operations.”
A lookout in Gold Star spotted Larry Doheny at 0150, Thursday, 25 October. The naval ship began escorting two thousand yards ahead of the civilian ship. The next day, the captain of the merchant vessel released Gold Star, which arrived at the mooring buoy in Apra on 27 October. Larry Doheny moored to another buoy the following day.38
Since being released from mess cooking, McKenna had continued to impress the senior petty officers and officers of the engineering force. His proficiency marks were recorded at 3.8, and his mechanical ability was rated 3.7. These above-average marks were rewarded when, one year and three months after reporting on board Gold Star, Mac received a promotion to fireman 2nd class on 16 November 1934, which meant he now received fifty-four dollars a month.39
Gold Star arrived at Manila on 20 November on its last deployment for 1934 and would touch only at Shanghai and Yokohama. Ashore during the last month of 1934, Mac made his way to 78 Nanking Road and paid the large sum—large for Mac—of $9.75 to purchase three books: George Sylvester Viereck and Paul Eldridge’s My First 2,000 Years: The Autobiography of the Wandering Jew (a novel); Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (a Greek play performed in 411 BC); and Pierre Louys’ Aphrodite: Ancient Manners (a novel). The next day, 7 December, Gold Star departed for Yokohama; it eventually arrived at Guam four days before Christmas 1934.
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