Victory shipswere built to transport m

[Music] right here on this peaceful river is where the story starts of a sea voyage that took us halfway around the world a wartime sea Voyage yep it's the Mississippi all Man River himself sort of makes you homesick doesn't it homesick for when you were a kid in the good old summertime when you listen for the steamboat blowing for the [Music] bend remember your first ride on a Stern wheeler with her paddles biting into Mississippi water and thinking maybe how you'd like to run away down the river on one of them to St Louis or Memphis or maybe even New Orleans then aboard a big ship out to sea well that happened to [Music] me it's a long jump from the middle of America to the deck of a seagoing freighter but that's how I happen to know about this voyage that started right here in the town of Hannibal Missouri the hometown that Mark Twain made famous would have tickled old Mark I bet to have been with us he liked to tell about big things things happening and they happened big to us all right he was a great traveler too wherever he went he brought his America the real America of Hannibal Missouri along with him and we did [Music] too we had the kind of Adventures Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer dreamt about there they are looking out across the Big River real American Kids Town of Hannibal has changed since those days I guess paved streets and Automobiles and so forth the people haven't changed when war came they pitched into work and fight so that the American brand of freedom and liberty could survive like every other American Town Hannibal had sent its boys to the battlefronts and her men and women were helping to win the toughest War America had ever been in now when I said the town of Hannibal was the starting point of a wartime sea Voyage here's what I meant somewhere in one of the battle zones the United States Army needed a railroad railroads mean Freight cars and Freight cars need Wheels now railroad people everywhere will tell you Hannibal is famous for making car wheels so all Hannibal's car wheels went to war and the first lap of their Journey was from here in Missouri to the shores of California here's what happened to Hannibal's [Music] Wheels now if the Army wanted a railroad there was only one place for it to come from the good old USA and only one way to get it overseas on ships of the United States Merchant Marine so out here on the docks of San Francisco we began to take aboard our ship car wheels for a railroad somewhere we guessed across the Pacific [Music] Ocean this is early February 1945 lots of things are happening out there west of the Golden Gate un Shore the news boys are yelling that our troops have gone into Manila that our Navy is Plastering the japel China coast and our b-29s are stepping up the fire raids on the nips home Islands so we were in a hurry to finish loading and get this cargo to where it was [Music] needed the great Port of San Francisco was naturally the jumping off place for most of the stuff moving West we were just one of the hundreds of merchant ships taking War Goods aboard we were Mighty proud of our brand new victory ship and look at her name she was one of the bunch named after American towns you remember nobody aboard hailed from Hannibal itself but that didn't stop us from adopting Hannibal as our hometown now we began stacking our holes with great car underframes I guess you'd call them chassis the stors and long shoremen wasted no time fitting them below deck their job was to speed up what they called turnaround time in other words hustle each ship out of port as fast as possible because in war it's the ship at Sea not at the dock that counts in the spaces between our bulky cargo we packed small but badly needed stuff such as K rations CS hospital supplies like bandages and plasma and dozens of other valuable items the boys overseas were hollering [Music] for but this was was the payoff cargo nothing less than eight full grown railroad engines complete with tenders each engine weighed 55 tons and it tender tipped the beam at 20 tons complete with fuel oil the idea was that these Fells would be ready to run as soon as we could set them down on Rails somewhere in the [Music] Pacific we were tied up to the dock where they had the biggest crane in the harbor 100 T job and the way that crane operator handled those babies you'd have thought they were toy electric trains but they weren't they'd have dropped well the Hannibal Victory never would have even sailed from [Music] Frisco one of our mates told me afterwards this Voyage gave him a bad dream he dreamed he was that old Greek king what's his name Dam that's it but instead of a sword always dangling over his head it was a locomotive but one by one they were set into place on the deck on either side of each hatch four hatches eight locomotives [Music] easy easy does it now the last one's down we laid regular Road bids you might say out of Big Pine Timbers to cushion the weight of the locomotives on our steel deck plates the wheel flanges fit those Timbers just like rails and to keep them from shifting in a heavy sea we welded turnbuckle and Steel Rod assemblies to the deck and clamped them tight and wedged Chained and bolted them down we're getting near the end of the loading job now and all hands knew that sailing day was near somebody else knew our time was short too the chief mate had only been married a little while but it doesn't take a woman long to find out that a voyage is likely to be a long one I can remember the chief saying I'm going ashore on a couple of errands when I get back I want to see number one hatch secured well we went ahead with a job and got the big tarps lashed into place [Music] the Embarcadero was windy that day I saw her red hair all ruffled up and him with that baseball cap he always wor I wonder how many million times in history some girl has gone down to the water's edge to watch her seafaring man off for what might be well for the last time anyhow we began lashing down the cargo booms tried to wind up all the light last details before sailing [Music] time sure sailing time was a secret but do you think it could be kept 100% secret from her maybe she didn't know the exact hour oh well all I can say is I'm I'm glad nobody was there to tell me goodbye best thing is to keep busy up to the last minute [Music] you don't have any brass bands on the duck side when you sail in wartime we practically sneaked away that cold February morning but it takes a while to get out of San Francisco Bay and if you've never done it that's an experience you watch the other ships the great City built on Hills slip by like on a movie screen with our cargo out on Deck sticking up like a sore thumb we had a feeling everybody unsh sure was looking at us the Bay Bridge is [Music] ahead there's a hospital ship in from the Pacific and that's a P2 a big new type passenger ship converted to carry troops when war broke out and those bridges [Music] we had two Army corporals aboard nursemaids for the locomotives and that Sparks our radio operator with the Army security officer they've cited the Golden Gate bridge [Music] ahead now we've been LED through the submarine net and the Navy cenar [Music] signals the pilots on the Flying Bridge with a skipper [Music] the talker is checking his telephones he's hooked up to each of the gun stations that's peg leg and Joe on the engine funny how he got attached to those Locos the engines I mean not the [Music] guys now the golden gates a Stern and there's the pilot boat laying to to pick up our pilot [Music] now we know we're on our own dropping the pilot always makes you feel like you've cast off your last line to [Music] sh the engineer opens the main throttle the turbine starts turning smoothly start spinning the big shaft which links up our 6,500 horsepower turbines to the propeller it's gaining speed now you begin to feel the lift of the Pacific this is what a ship is built for I guess this is why a fell goes to Sea [Music] so we're headed west 10,000 tons of steel Cargo in our holds and lash to the deck banging through the Blue Pacific the fast Victory ship was the answer out here all right there's lots of ocean and time is short [Music] we tried out our guns right away so we could turn back if anything was wrong with them we're out at Sea now and anything can [Music] happen it's the first morning out Sun peeped through just enough for the skipper to get our position you got to admire the captain he's already had two ships shot out from under him but he's kept sailing even though he wasn't getting any younger now he'd opened his sealed orders and was plotting our course for the navigation officer to follow we were headed for gate which was an Army code word for a certain point of longitude in Latitude as far as we were concerned it was Destination Unknown as we steamed Westward the Scuttle but began these seagoing rumors had us leading the invasion of the Chinese Mainland at us headed for the Philippines or India for Japan itself but most of us had learned to Discount this kind of talk and just to wait and [Music] see so we settle down to shipboard routine we're on our maiden voyage but the maintenance starts right away you got to like one thing if you go to seea and that is to paint anyhow it's a fine job for the young fellas sort of reminded us of Tom Sawyer how he got the boys not only to whitewash his vents but to pay for the privilege remember we told these Lads it was good experience you know on this trip half our deck crew were making their first voyage they'd been through the government's Maritime training schools but they still had a lot to learn board Shi is always something to be lifted or lowered or moved from here to over there the block and tackle is the answer in l lber language that's a pulley in a rope and a FY block might cause a mean [Music] accident if you're not painting then you're chipping away old paint or so it seems there was one routine job nobody ever tried to get out of keeping the Lifeboat gear in first class shape when you need a Lifeboat you need it in a hurry [Music] that's Peg Leg going aoft it seems like he wanted all the tough jobs just because he did have only one real leg the other was aluminum you see Peg had been in the Navy and around guad Canal somewhere they got his ship when he came to in the hospital he owned one less leg but that didn't stop him somehow or other after he' learned to use his shiny new pgy still wanted to go to see oh there he was more of a man than any of us we thought in peace time you can tell what company operates a merchant ship by the colors on her stack but in war it was gray and black this is a job for a man who knows how and Maxi the boson knew how you got to have tough hands for this he's making a splice in wire rope maybe the day of the sailing ship is gone forever but there's still a couple of miles of rigging strung around on a modern cargo ship and practically all of it is steel wire rope strong enough to lift several tons so a modern sailor has got to know the special tricks of handling [Music] it there's a splice strong as the line [Music] itself the rigging a LOF has to be kept sled down with Tallow and graphite so it won't rust and jam and so the seagoing housekeeping went on all the small jobs it takes to keep a ship sailing no matter whether it's war time or peace red was an ex football player but another of our Lads very new to the seaf fairing profession one day he came AF during his offat to catch some air [Music] so you get paid to watch a goon bird hey Maxi asks maybe you're learning to fly to be a pilot hey oh says red I only came here on the back end to rest up a little on the what he Maxi yells you and me are going to go on a little tour and he lectures as he goes Mist cargo [Music] booms that's not number four [Music] hatch on the bridge de Maxi stops okay is that the stack or the funnel red says G bson I don't know Maxi says I don't know either they make their way forward until they get to the Flying Bridge this is on top of the Wheelhouse and has a duplicate set of controls did they tell you what this was at school Maxi asked that's right the wheel and this correct the binacle Now red says boson I'll show you a thing or two [Music] Lifeboat bhead not wall port hole not window deck not floor forist cross tree [Music] ventilator patch cargo boom [Music] anchor [Music] windless now they're all the way forward red Pets the bwork the front end he says the what oh bosen I'm sorry I mean the bow but Maxi's through be sorry below scram [Music] this was another and very important routine job on the voyage taking care of the locomotives those two GIS groomed those engines like they were prize race horses they spent practically all their waking hours spraying the engines with a gooey mixture of paint and oil which wouldn't dry out and greasing and oiling every moving part otherwise the rust would have ruined them sitting out here in the salt spray funny thing about the two GIS they'd been working for a railroad before they got in the Army and now here they were doing the same thing as they did in peace [Music] time the days went by in a hurry as we knifed Westward through Pleasant Seas the Pacific was living up to its name so far [Music] I remember our first Sunday on that Voyage from the after gun deck came the sounds of singing hymns it was it was the Navy gun crew going to church in the sunlight holding their Sunday services in the shadow of their own guns it was a fine full sound out in the Clean Air the chief Chief mate happened to be making his rounds because Sunday or not we were a cargo ship underway and besides they were waiting for us somewhere on the far side of the Pacific to deliver those locomotives in good shape [Music] [Music] now church services are part of Navy custom but in his own quiet way the chief mate joined in [Music] too and all the while the lookout scanned the face of the waters kept watch upon the heavens [Music] that was a Sunday we had a strange visitor here we were 500 miles from any known land and this long-legged fellow comes aboard somebody said he must be a spy so caught him even a spy gets hungry we thought but he was here on business wouldn't have Chow with us we gave him a lift but what we didn't realize was he had business to attend to then we got it he came aboard to inspect us and with his hands behind his back and his white frock coat he carefully checked over each turnbuckle and ring bolt saw to it that our cargo was lashed down Ship Shape in Bristol [Music] fashion and pretty soon he went back somewhere to make his [Music] report Sunday was a good day for a lot of little personal jobs we took turns cutting each other's hair and some of the lbs did a good job at it too with lots of advice from the customer also you had a little time to repair your seabag for instance with expert assistance of course never see a Good Ship Without a monkey [Music] aboard it was on Sunday you felt domestic turned to on some of your old household chores the oldtimers knew how to take care of their own little problems like this maybe that's why so few Sailors get married they figure they can hand handle this department by themselves each man develops his own technique you might [Music] say but Sunday was the day the boys in the stewards Department showed off what bread those guys baked we all agreed that the Hannibal Victory fed well and a well-fed ship as a happy ship as any sailor knows pies makes my mouth water to think of them the baker was as proud of his Pie as his mother used to be nobody would believe he hadn't ever had any experience before he signed up but he swore that was the truth so I guess he just had natural Talent [Music] Baker was a friendly guy so maybe he didn't care if it was dangerous to leave any slices hanging around convenient [Music] like better watch [Music] out one of the rules aboard our ship was that every man must have plenty to eat the steward's Department totaled about a dozen Cooks Bakers and mesmen all told their job was to feed 80 hungry men this meant serving six meals per day to take care of the men on the different watches with coffee and sandwiches on hand any hour of the night or day food was first class too the war shipping people arranged it so every merchant ship could draw on stockpiles of hard to get Provisions like meat poultry butter eggs and so forth we carried our own Refrigeration of course so we kept our food good and fresh and had a lot of menus so that nobody suffered from not getting all the vitamins or whatever it was they [Music] needed no cover charge and a free floor show compliments of Tokyo Rose the jaaps had been smart enough to realize how much those phony broadcasts tickled us they'd have cut them off the air so officers and men sitting down to the same good Chow we had our Sunday dinner steaming Along on a fair run through the mid [Music] Pacific nobody seemed to have a care in the world but you couldn't keep the engineers from Talking Shop revolutions steam pressures arguing the merits of turbines compared to the up and down engines and the Liberties and so on and on [Music] well a good meal calls for a good [Music] cigar our Navy Lieutenant was an ex football coach by the way even the skipper loosened up after Sunday Chow we were wondering then how long and how Bloody the road to Tokyo would be the thing that you noticed about the armed guard crew was how young they were those were the kids who used to hang around The Corned drugstore when school was out they were filing clerks machinists helpers Farmers Sons these were the soft spoiled Americans who didn't stand a chance against the trained armies of Hitler musolini and Hirohito with chow over those of us offat were swapping lives or otherwise showing off our seaf fairing ability that's Sully the Hawaiian Irishman showing what he learned in Maritime school he's another of the bunch we had aboard from the island Joe was an ex-f fisherman from Monteray when war came along he figured he could serve best in the Merchant Marine and we agreed don't let the beard fool you this was Tony's first voyage but of course the real expert on nautical matters was red as [Music] usual all wedi needed was a skirt then the old Maestro shows how a fancy one is [Music] done to one pair of lads aboard ship Sunday wasn't entirely a day of rest our two Cadet midshipmen had to finish a certain amount of studying by the time they reported back in the States they couldn't help being a little homesick around the edges now and then they were good kids and were going to make good offic Sunday was the traditional day for riding home the mate was pretty good A bu but some of the rest of us just put it off I guess put it off so long we didn't have anybody to write to well the day is nearly over and the watch comes around to bring us back to reality back from our thoughts of home or games or books it's time for blacking out almost dust even a pinpoint of light can be seen Miles Away at Dusk and Dawn all hands report to Battle Stations a flaming Sunset might be a thing of beauty to an artist but to an enemy submarine it's the time of day when he's almost invisible on the dark surface of the water while a ship stands out against the sky like a Target in a shooting gallery so the gun crew goes through their drill before the Knight hides us [Music] word has just come from the bridge Hawaii should be off the starbard bow anytime now the news is spread like wildfire among the Islanders in our crew Maxi goes a loft and finds out it's true and they come running all anxious for a glimpse of home the whole gang swarms up to the top of one of the Samson posts pretty soon they get convinced that we're not headed for Pearl but that we will pass through the island South of aahu and keep our Westward [Music] course there's Diamond Head now Pearl Harbor is just beyond we felt Mighty sorry for those boys for this was was home they were passing by but there wasn't anything we could do about [Music] it it was an old story to Sam the third mate he was a Hawaiian himself but today Diamond Head is only a point on the chart to him our business takes us Westward out where that big Trooper came from [Music] we happen to be batting the breeze in the crews mess when somebody says he we got eight iron mascots topside and the SE and cells don't even have names Chris says he's got an idea this ship is named for Mark Twain's Hometown right and we got a whole set of Mark Twain's books the people of Hannibal gave us right all we got to do is look in there one's got to be Tom Sawyer somebody says yeah and Huckleberry Finn so the christenings take place I wonder what it is makes a bunch of American guys give names to such items as planes and tanks and even trucks and railroad engines [Music] then somebody brought up a serious problem what if some of these were lady engines and somebody else yells Hannah Bella so Hannah Bella it was [Music] we'd left Hawaii a Stern almost a week past and the ocean was getting to look a little different to us so far it had been all smooth sailing this couldn't last much [Music] longer then low on the horizon we picked it up a Pacific Ator and aak one of those Island paradises the Japs made hell on Earth for our Marines to take Ena talk is an almost circular chain of islands the rim of an extinct volcano about 30 m across inside its deadly coral reefs the Deep Lagoon of blue water is protected from the Open Sea and as we rounded the point where the Navy had built a shore station we saw ships of every size type shape and kind warships and Merchant vessels as far as you you could [Music] see there's the Sarah over there the carrier in saratova and there were dozens of other Victory ships like ourselves and big Rusty sided Liberties the seagoing workhorses of this war and long grade tankers fast Destroyer escorts attack transports and attack cargo ships lsts landing craft Patrol boats America's Maritime might all gathered together out here in the middle of the Pacific [Music] pretty soon the harbor boat comes hustling up with orders from the Navy Port director on where we're supposed to Anchor [Music] now here we were 2/3 of the way across the Pacific 5,000 mi from San Francisco but the real tough going lay ahead of us now is the chance to check up on our life-saving equipment to go over the Lifeboat Gear with a magnifying glass almost check the provisions and water first aid equipment and navigating instruments in the boat boats we had the latest kind of rig the boats were launched by gravity and were hoisted by electric powered davits the boson took personal charge of this detail so you can be sure everything was done right for some of us aboard who'd sweated out long blistering hours in the tropics in lifeboats like these before getting rescued or who had nearly frozen to death in them after getting dumped in the North Atlantic but we'd somehow come through luck I guess 5,000 of our Shipmates and the Merchant Marine were never seen again yes we wanted to be sure we had something to Hitch Our Lives to if the Hannibal took a hit from a kamakazi or a [Music] sub anchored at Ana talk life was not so bad we had to wait for other vessels that were to make up our Convoy and so in the meantime you couldn't keep the Fells out of the clear blue water makes you want to dive in and these Lads wasted no time including a little showing off after all some of them were athletes and knew their stuff and as for the kakas and other island boys they were practically born with webbed feet they clowned around gave everybody a lot of laughs while we waited for the serious work yet to come [Music] we didn't have long to wait we broke out the laundry and the Navy began rounding us up for the Convoy aircraft from the carriers Streed low [Music] overhead an escort vessel began to Corral the tankers and it was anchors away for the Hannibal Victory we were going to make the last long stretch of our journey in the strength of each other's presence no longer would we be traveling alone there's one of our sister ships a victory swinging into position everywhere you look the whole surface of the Big Lagoon was busy with ships getting into position to leave through the narrow path between the islands [Music] signalmen were working the big blinkers we all carried this was the way we talked with each other out here but we were under tight orders Not To Break Radio silence we had to keep our exact distance within the pattern of the 50 vessels that made up the Convoy along with us were 10 big tankers all carrying high octane gasoline and Bound for sipan this was the great test of strength our ability to keep the sea lanes open for the steady flow of fuel with the b-29s that were blasting the Japanese home Islands into Rubble made us Mighty proud of our Merchant Marine to realize that air power in the Pacific was directly dependent upon [Music] us now the whole Battle Zone lay ahead the word got around one more stop maybe at an advanced base and then the Philippines we were pretty sure that was where we were headed we realized we were in Indian Territory now and like our forefathers in covered wagon days we had to keep our eyes peeled and our powder [Music] dry the Tropic kns were beautiful and dangerous we were blacked out like the inside of a [Music] cat then one Dawn we made land fall it was L where the defenses had broken during The Landings of a few months ago we exchanged blinker signals and we're told to come to [Music] Anchor the Japs still infested those dark Hills underneath us they were lying dead on the bottom because here they first used their kamakazi planes against our cargo ships while our soldiers hung onto the beach head we weren't going to stay here long the word was passed we were headed for lingayan Gulf that's where they needed the railroad to connect up with Manila this time more ships were joining us a special task force of escorts lsts and a couple of big Navy transports like this fellow Bound for a private invasion of Their Own only a few weeks before this was where one of the great battles of history took place the Navy tried to smash our L Invasion and met instead the gunfire from our battle wagons and planes from the carriers of our third and seventh fleets now all gun stations were manned all Lookouts were posted for the Japs were still holed up in these Philippine Islands even if we have got them on the [Music] defensive and we've got air cover too we all carried valuable cargo but if we thought ours was worth a lot what about that big sea type ship off to starbard she was a trooper with 2,000 American GIS aboard and behind us in colum and alongside to starbard were the lsts [Music] our D's flashed a warning somebody picked up unidentified signals on the sound detectors our Lookouts strained their eyes for telltale signs of a sub there between the trooper and the LST was that a silver streak in the water [Music] we were a juicy Target this Convoy loaded with men and tons of supplies but the japo subs were in even greater danger these Lads wanted bad to paint a jab flag on our funnel to get a gap on our maiden [Music] voyage our escorts are laying a pattern of Deon charges [Music] down here you can feel the concussions from the ashs going off around us the de suddenly veers across our course maybe they've located it [Music] we think we got that one but there may be others We Can't Stop to find out the alert is still on the weather is closing in on us a rain Squall is an ideal time for attack below the surface another nip up may be laying in the gap [Music] [Music] then the planes Street North suddenly the signal leaps from ship to ship all clear all [Music] clear the alert is over and a welcome rest for our nerv strain Crew moving apt for a heartening cup of java for a quick rest before they go on watch except for wedi it's his first attack and we've come through on top the China Seas belong to us now for Hy and his carriers are ranging the shores of Asia off to Port from Saigon to prosa in the islands the Japs are still fighting stubbornly but we have the feeling of power now sea power in the Pacific which means we can keep open the sea routs to our armies keep pouring into them the flood of America's production which is steadily swamping our enemies but behind us are the Liberties 10,000 ton cargo ships symbols of the power and the will to win which have rocked the sons of Heaven back on their heels [Music] we've reached our destination we got saluted too in a way met destroyers throwing a salvo at the enemy back in the hill we're at the head of lingayan Gulf where the Japs first invaded in 1941 and where we landed to drive down on Manila [Music] The Lads are wasting no time unbuttoning our locomotives the enemy is shelling the Anchorage with guns they took from corgador here comes the landing craft they'll take the smaller stuff to shore we need something bigger to handle this floating railroad yard on our decks these fellas can handle the kraes but this baby can take 70 tons at a Time cast it off Jack this Harbor is hot and we don't want to get caught with this stuff on our decks here's the answer an LCT landing craft tanks which will Ferry the locos from us to shore a neat trick if they can swing it remember our lifting beam we brought it along and now the lieutenant in charge is showing them how to Corral it and make it fast to the engine he was an oil well rigger from Texas must have been a cow hand [Music] too and she moves the the first time in a month now the Rolling Stock is foot loose [Music] the locomotives leave us forever but they don't get away in secret we all turned out to watch him go getting the tenders off came next plenty of room had a full inch to spare on either side [Music] now despite the fact that the gulf was getting rougher the word was passed to hurry up the job the military situation asore called for faster Supply from the big base here at lingayan along the road to Manila so we worked late into the day Taking Chances we usually wouldn't to get our Rolling Stock ashore they needed these engines on the rails hauling men and supplies we worked until Darkness caught up with us with Japs all around us we kept Lookouts posted but the night was Inky black he caught a Splat footed a single solitary bomber gliding in low let loose one stick of bombs on the ammunition dump asore you feel like crying watching the sweat and labor of thousands of people in the factories back home go up and smoke and Flame not to mention the guys aboard the ammo ships who risk their necks to get it here all in one night's fireworks it's a pretty rough lesson in what a terrible waste war is [Music] the Dawn was Smoky over the Anchorage but by the time the LCT moved up to the dock with her load the breeze had swept the morning clear this Shore had taken a lot of beating both from us and the Japs but the Army had rigged up a husky Dock and laid rails on it so as to take the engines only the last lifting job now and the transfer would be complete the railroad to Manila would be ready to run you couldn't help wondering how Mark Twain would have told the story of the locomotive that went to sea and flew through the air as Tom soyer buckleberry Finn hanella and the others finally got their wheels on Terra Firma railroad engines with names many a Filipino would wonder about for years to come [Music] touchdown [Music] our ready to run engines are going to get one more left before they're under their own steam by one of the always present Ducks which work on land and water it'll tow our locomotives onto Solid Ground once again it's a strange setting to find our engines [Music] in they'll carry the war Goods first but we know that after this war is over they'll mean a lot in the rebuilding of the Philippines helping our friends get on their feet again maybe she'll have a better world to live in because of those engines right now like kids everywhere in this war it's Hello [Music] Joel now we've got news while our railroad engines are ready to roll to Manila on their own power we're told that Manila Bay is open we're to take the rest of our cargo to Manila where the railroad battalions have set up a shop to put them together so we steam out of lingayan Gulf around the South China Sea into the harbor our Army and Navy has taken back from the nips there's corgador the Rock and batan of proud and sorrowful [Music] memories we see they've begun to Route other Merchant ships into the Anchorage already and since the docks of Manila are smashed we drop the hook offshore and this time unload our cargo into lcms it's almost the end of the journey for the car wheels now we've all heard of what has happened to Manila so those of us who can leave the ship climb aboard the shuttling lcms and head for Shore for some of us this was the first time we'd be able to see the destruction left by Modern Warfare we lay our course into the mouth of the passic River first the Japs wrecked the Waterfront and then we had to blast them out when we came back it'll be many years before these scars are healed [Music] our wheels are coming [Music] ashore the Filipino stors get busy the wheel trucks have to be set on tracks and the car frames fastened to [Music] them here's a Filipino Tom Sawyer to help our railroad men check the bearings and look over the blueprints then get busy for the engines will soon be down from lingayan to pull the freight [Music] cars this is where a wheel belongs on a rail ready to roll in the meantime the chief mate is taking a look at what used to be familiar Street Scenes Manila was once a peaceful prosperous City [Music] some others from the Hannibal Victory are assur too they've looked on ruined cities from mermans to Malta but this is the worst you don't feel very kindly toward the nips seeing something like this [Music] now comes the job of putting the couplings on the car [Music] frames next the frames are lowered onto the wheel trucks after this they'll use them as flat cars and build box cars on the chassis job's nearly done the mate told us afterwards he couldn't help thinking of the difference in what he saw in the broken ruins of Manila and what we'd done by bringing over a cargo that had help rebuild this country The Merchant Marine was a weapon of Peace too our locomotives had pulled into Manila now ready to get their loads rolling to help finish the fight we've left our name behind us here The Voyage of the Hannibal Victory is [Music] complete engineer gets his orders [Music] and the best of luck to you Hannah Bella [Music] so we up the hook and headed home for more it's been a victory for the town of H for all the hometowns of America [Music]