Book Six Chapter One

The RMS Queen Mary

The Ship Home

Chapter 1

September 7

1946

Their War Ended, And Our War Began

September in Liverpool, England, not quite winter, but a chill is in the air, it's drizzling, and a westerly wind is coming off the Irish Sea. The temperature is a cool 52. Low clouds block the sun. The air smelled of coal, salt, and diesel fuel.

Thousands waited patiently in line on the gangway for the 14-day trip home. Their uniforms were soaked and heavy from the rain.

Colored with colored, whites with whites.

There was no idle chatter. Each man seemed to be reliving horrific events, either committed or witnessed. Some were silently crying, the tears giving them away. Many prayed.

The Queen Mary carried 15,000 troops and was the largest and fastest troopship in World War II. Taller than 15-story buildings and over a thousand feet long. It was a floating city.

Ben, Caldwell, and Boyd were reminded of what they risked their lives for after two white MPs dressed in heavy coats and shivering from the cold, wet air directed colored soldiers. Pointing and smiling, “You boys take these stairs all the way down to the bottom colored sections.” Their heavy southern drawls are unmistakable.

 There were four stairs; two up to the upper decks for officers and two down to the lower deck for enlisted.  Each is marked, colored  or white.

 Although the Queen Mary was a British ship, once it was placed under U.S. War Department control for troop transport, the U.S. military’s segregation policies applied.

 The converted luxury liner accommodates officers in the upper decks and enlisted men in the mass bunks on the lower decks.

 U.S. Army nurses, Red Cross staff, or Women’s Army Corps were also quartered on the upper deck and separated by race.

MPs made sure women were kept separate from the more than 15,000 men on board the ship.

 Negro officers and enlisted men were required by law to be segregated from whites. For Negros, Officer quarters were better than the enlisted quarters but not equal to white officers. 

    Negro officers ate at the same time as white officers but in a much smaller room.

 The officers’ lounge is reserved for white officers.

White MPs patrolled the passageways to ensure Jim Crow segregation laws were enforced.

Passageways were narrow; two men couldn’t pass at the same time.

The lower deck and bunkroom passageways were 2-3 feet wide, narrow enough for shoulders to brush when two men passed.

 The passageways could easily spark a riot.

To-Be-Continued