Page 76 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2022 - Online Magazine
P. 76
Louis Schaap
Acta non Verba
by Larry Williams
his sister, and mother a ship and be discharged each
went to live with his time after your assignment was
grandmother. He finished. You could be on a ship
graduated from North anywhere from a few weeks to a
St. Paul High School, few months.” Schaap sailed on
and “I was glad to get steam turbine vessels on both the
out,” even though he Atlantic and Pacific oceans. His
knew it meant he might first assignment was aboard the
be drafted. cargo ship, SS Jacob Luckenbach,
which sailed out of Boston on
Louis had a cousin January 16, 1944, making three
from North Dakota trips across the Atlantic.
who “wanted to join
the Merchant Marine, On July 8, 1944, Schaap headed
so I went along with for the Pacific Ocean aboard
him. We enlisted on the SS Mauna Kea. “We were in
July 28, 1943. Training a convoy that was supposed to
was quite lengthy. help liberate the Philippines, but
New recruits had to we had engine trouble. We made
know everything about it to New Guinea, then sailed to
a ship—from rules the Admiralty Islands to unload
and regulations to fire cargo and then unload supplies
equipment, lifeboat, in the Philippines. We landed
and raft equipment, back in Seattle, Washington on
and from deck training January 29, 1945, and I headed
to gunnery instruction for Ft. Trumbull, Connecticut
and everything in
uring WWII, the U.S. between. Louis graduated from
Maritime Service
D(Merchant Marine) sent the Engine Branch as a Fireman
3rd Class. He was responsible for
hundreds of ships to both sides maintaining boilers and burners
of the globe, carrying equipment, and repairing oil leaks, while
personnel, and supplies needed always being on the lookout for
by the Allies to defeat the “Axis fires.
powers.” Lubbock’s 96-year-old
Louis Schaap served from 1943 Louis noted that, “unlike the
to 1946 on several of those ships. Navy, where you were assigned
He said that he never felt scared to a ship, as a Mariner, you
but also like he never really had to find your own ship.”
“belonged to the armed forces.” The Merchant Marine was not
recognized as a member of the
Louis Otto Schaap was born armed forces during WWII. They
on July 3, 1925, in St. Paul, were basically contract labor
Minnesota to Bill and Leona (with their own union) for U.S.
Schaap. All he remembered about civilian and federally owned
his father was that he was an merchant vessels. “You had to
elevator operator in a high-rise find your own ship through the
building. His parents divorced union. You would sign up for
when he was very young, so he,
76 Lubbock Senior Link
