Schooner Western Union Haul

[@brucesteger2699]

Captain Dick Steadman had a lot of his logs and equipment/hardware in a building on Truman Annex which was a Submarine base during WW II! I was a Caterpillar Marine mechanic working out of Truman Annex driving by the building that was half torn down during the morning. Inside I saw a Binnacle with a large wooden wheel. I pulled into the opening and found file cabinets full of logs for the A K Atkins, Western Union and another vessel I forgot the name of. I just remembered it was the Lightning. I knew that the crew would be back soon to destroy what I was seeing, so I used my truck crane to load the binnacle onto my truck. I then loaded what logs I could and some more ship hardware onto my truck. I then drove to my shop and looked up Captain Steadman in the phone book and called to let him know about what was happening to that building. He was yelling at me that he was going to call the police not letting me mention that I saved what I could! So I hung up on him. I then called the Western Union number and explained to them what I found and presented to that Captain all the logs,the binnacle and extra hardware. When I drove back past that building an two hours latter, there was no building just the foundation.

[@mkl62]

April 7, 1939.