Beaverbrook to visit U.S.
May serve to coordinate supply problems
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U.S. preparing for offensive
Patterson issues plea for enough weapons
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Labor won’t submit to ban on strikes, Green declares
Right to walk out called ‘one of great freedoms’ which AFL is 'fighting to protect’
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Navy reveals new sinkings by Axis subs
’Fatality list’ of tankers and freighters nears total of 80
By the United Press
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Stimson finds Panama ready to repel Japs
Secretary of War departs after inspection of Canal defenses
By Nat A. Barrows
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On the home front –
War emergency clear up birth, citizenship messes
Many persons learn they are using wrong names, or that they are older or younger than they thought; some ‘citizens’ discover they’re aliens
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Rambling Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
SAN DIEGO – Art Ponsford is an Englishman, tall, slender and neatly dressed. He has been in America since 1912. He is a public-relations man. He is one of these fellows with a perpetual enthusiasm. When you listen to him you’d better just relax and enjoy it, or his vigor will have you exhausted within half an hour.
Everything is dramatic to Art. And one of the most dramatic things in his world is tuna fishing. He has done more than anybody in South California to publicize tuna. He has even made lecture tours over the country, telling tall fish stories. He doesn’t get a penny for it from the tuna industry either; he does it just because he loves it.
So I sat one day for hours listening to Art Ponsford tell tuna stories. I’ll try to recreate a few of them for you, although I can’t put on paper the Ponsford gesture, the Ponsford gleam in the eye, the Ponsford dramatic hush of the voice. Ponsford tells tuna yarns as though he were playing Shakespeare. I’ll just have to give them to you straight.
Pete Szalinski, skipper of the clipper Golden Gate, suddenly found his ship convoyed by four California-gray whales, two on each side of the clipper.
Knowing the sea, he sensed the reason. They had run to his ship as scared chickens run to a hen. For, in a great circle around them were orcas, or killer-whales. The killers were after these helpless California-grays, and the grays knew it.
Well, Pete didn’t mind playing nursemaid to four innocent whales. That is, he didn’t until one of them on the windward side “blew.” Instantly the whole ship was sprayed. And they say they don’t know what those whales had, but halitosis is far too mild a word for it.
Then the others “blew,” and the clipper crew was gasping for breath. It was so horrible the men simply couldn’t stand it.
Grays follow ship to safety
So Pete grabbed the high-powered rifle that clippers always carry, ordered full speed ahead, and literally shot his way through the outer ring of killer whales.
And the bad-breathed grays, repulsive but not so dumb, formed themselves into a convoy behind the clipper and rode its wake right through the killer herd to eventual safety.
Then there is the story of the Bering Sea halibut fisherman who drifted down to San Diego and got a job with the tuna fleet. He had never fished for tuna before.
The very first time he threw out his line, a 300-pounder got hold of it and went away in a flash. This fellow, new to the ways of tuna, was jerked overboard. He landed astraddle the tuna’s back, as though he were riding a horse.
The tuna carried him on a fast and splashy ride until it finally “sounded,” and left him floundering in the water. They picked him up in a skiff. He refused to fish again the entire voyage. The minute they got to San Diego he headed right back for the Bering Sea.
And there’s a similar story, but a more tragic one. A new fisherman hooked a big one that jerked him overboard. For some reason, he went panicky and, like a student at the controls of a training plane, “froze” onto his fishing pole. Simply couldn’t let go.
The tuna dragged him through the water for quite a distance, then started for the bottom. The poor fellow still couldn’t let go of his pole. He went right on down behind the tuna. And he never came up again.
Many experiences with sharks
Tuna fishermen have many shark experiences. Joe Monise, who owns the clipper Endeavor, was once fishing beside a fellow who was jerked overboard and attacked by sharks.
On a tuna clipper, the “racks” where the fishermen stand are very low, almost down to the waterline. In this case, Joe saved his fellow fisherman by reaching down and literally pulling him out of a shark’s mouth by the hair of his head.
Tony Rosa, engineer of the clipper Lusitania, once slipped and half fell over the side. His clothing caught on the rail and he hung suspended against the side of the boat.
Just then, a marlin lunged out of the water toward him, and the marlin’s sword went right through his thigh and pinned him to the side of the boat.
The sword broke off, and the marlin disappeared. They hauled Tony up, pulled the sword out of his thigh, poured iodine into the hole, and then for hours kept sea water running through it, to prevent “fish infection.” He came through in fine shape.
Denny Santos, skipper of the Sacramento, was fishing off the mainland of Mexico. Denny suddenly saw a killer whale coming in to attack the school of tuna. He grabbed his rifle, ran to the stern, and fired point blank at the whale’s head.
In death agony, the whale gave a tremendous leap, climbing out of the water in a great arc, right over the top of the boat. In midair, it lost its momentum and came crashing down right across the boat, smashing everything.
And it took the crew three days to cut the whale into small enough pieces to be handled and thrown overboard.
While they were cutting they looked for Jonah, but they didn’t find anybody.
U.S. launches evacuation of Americans still in India
Efforts continue to help citizens fleeing from Japs in Malaya, Netherlands East Indies
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Burma front is 'stabilized’
British report line held north of Rangoon
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The Pittsburgh Press (March 14, 1942)
Still only 40 hours –
GM workers win fight for double time
Umpire rules that contract calls for extra Sunday, holiday wages
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Roosevelt asks 40-mile speed to save rubber
Governors also requested to issue orders for checking tires
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Enemy broadcast –
Liner hit near Rio, Rome says
Report claims torpedoing of Queen Mary
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Bowler a promoter, too –
Byrd sees commercialism rearing ugly head in OCD
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AEF convoyed to Australia without loss
Attacks by Japs driven off by protecting U.S. warships
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On the home front –
Draft registrant learns ‘mother’ is grandmother
Discovers name he goes by isn’t real name; Selective Service headquarters advised him to re-register at his local board
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5 more ships are attacked near America
2 Norwegian craft sunk; vessels damaged in West Indies port
By the United Press
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Waste charge false, director of CCC says
Findings of newspaper disproved, he asserts
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Viereck given maximum term of 2 to 6 years
German agent says he’s devoted to U.S.
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Axis floats false rumor of Jap-Australian truce
By the United Press
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Japs believed ready to 'take time out’
By Mack Johnson, United Press staff writer
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Ceylon prepares for emergency
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