Raymond F. Downs was born in March 1934 in San Antonio, Texas. He and his brother played sports in school. Downs grew up in an average family. During the depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression], his father was a locomotive driver and could speak Spanish. He applied for a job with the United Fruit Company in South America and got the job because of his experience with trains. The family drove to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana], where they went aboard a cruise ship and steamed down to South America. As a child, Downs thought it was exciting to go to a new place. He remembered the food being good and playing games with his siblings. It took one week to make it to Barranquilla, Colombia, where the ship docked. Downs was excited to go through the Panama Canal. Colombia reminded him of San Antonio. The family lived in a facility provided by the company. There were social activities for the people working for the company. The family traveled around the country. His father played on the company baseball team. Downs was not used to being so privileged. Downs had a sister and a brother, but there were not a lot of playmates. There was a strong German influence in South America at the time. However because of his age, Downs was not aware of anything serious happening in the world. Downs stayed in South America for about a year. There was a banana shortage in Colombia, so his family was relocated to Costa Rica. There was more organization there than in Santa Marta, Colombia.

When the war broke out [Annotator's Note: Downs is referring to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Raymond Downs' father decided to move back to the United States and join the military. However, he was contracted to his job and had to sign a waiver to leave. Downs was in Costa Rica when he heard about the attack at Pearl Harbor. His parents were more concerned about the attack than he was. His 13 year old brother had already been shipped back home. Downs was not concerned about leaving Costa Rica. He remembers his bags and fruit being loaded into a large freighter with guns on it. The ship had more crew members than passengers on it. He was excited to board the ship and see the guns. Six members of the ship were from the Navy and the rest were Merchant Marines. The sailors were friendly to the family and Downs got to know all the sailors. He explored the whole ship and was impressed by the engine. The crew was serious. The trip back to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] was expected to be seven days and nights. Because there was no air conditioning, he slept many nights on the deck. The family had two connected staterooms. He shared his room with his sister. Twice a day there were emergency drills on the ship. Downs enjoyed the food. Many of the Merchant Marines were Filipinos and would wear pea coats, no matter how hot it was on the ship. Downs got close to the crew members and enjoyed spending time with them. He also spent a lot of time with his sister because she was the only kid on the ship. The family was aware of German u-boats [Annotator's Note: German submarines; unterseeboot], but there was not a lot of information in case Germans picked up radio communications. His mother was concerned and would ask the captain questions. The ship went through one or two storms. His father did not show any concern. The children never felt like they were underprivileged.

Raymond Downs had gone through a storm when he noticed the ship was zig-zagging [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver]. There were communications of attacks by enemy submarines. The ship diverted its course from New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] to Corpus Christi, Texas. When it arrived in Corpus Christi, there were so many ships there, she could not enter the bay. The captain was not able to leave the family in Corpus Christi, so they had to make the trip to New Orleans. On the last night, Downs was on the deck when the captain came to see him. He told Downs that at 6:30 the following morning, they would be in New Orleans. He thinks the captain then told his parents about the u-boat [Annotator's Note: German submarine; unterseeboot] attacks. His father would not let him sleep on the deck that night. He asked his dad to sleep in his room that night. Something woke him up from a sound sleep. A bigger explosion woke him up and his dad told him to put on his life jacket. By that time, his father was already standing in water. This scared Downs. His father gathered the rest of the family and they walked through deeper water to the main stairway. While walking towards the stairs, a crewman told them to turn around because that part of the ship was no more. Once they got to the main deck, the ship turned and washed the family apart. His family was scattered. Downs went underwater, and someone grabbed him. He kicked himself free and paddled to a staircase. The Germans shot two torpedoes at the ship, then surfaced to watch it sink. All this happened early in the morning on 19 May 1942. The ship was struck 40 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi [Annotator's Note: the Mississippi River]. At the time, New Orleans was the biggest port in the United States, so the Germans wanted to sink as many ships from there as possible. Downs heard people talking above him near that ladder. His mother was pinned under the same ladder he was trying to climb. The ship went down in eight and a half minutes.

Raymond Downs finally got up the stairs and found the captain in the pilot house. The captain said they needed to get off the ship. There were no life boats available because they were on the back of the ship, which was gone. Downs was put in a raft. He could see the flood lights from the submarine. He was on the raft with one of the other passengers and the captain. Looking at the back of the ship, he saw a person surface and start swimming towards the raft. It was Downs' father. His father was able to get to the life the raft, which was giving the crew a hard time. His dad came up with an escape plan. The captain then informed everyone he cannot swim. The raft was small and had no bottom so everyone had to balance to keep it from sinking. His dad thought the Germans were going to shoot, so he covered Downs. The water was cold and there was wreckage everywhere. His father thought he heard his mother and wanted to go back to the ship, but the crew convinced him not to. They paddled away from the wreckage. His sister was screaming for his mother. The ship's second mate heard her and jumped down to her. The two of them jumped off the ship and started swimming away. Using debris, they made a raft for themselves. His mother had almost given up when the ship rolled a different way allowing her to free herself. She swam over on the main deck towards a window. Struggling to get over the window, a rush of water pushed her up and over 30 feet to the water. She fell into hot oil, burning her eyes. She started swimming as fast as possible when she exhausted herself. A piece of debris floated up to her and she used it as a raft. She later bumped into three sailors, but eventually floated away from them.

Raymond Downs was in the water for almost 20 hours with no food. On the horizon, he could see 27 shrimping boats. He was hot and getting sun burned. His father forced the captain to give Downs his coat to keep him from getting too burned. During the day, they saw a plane, and a tanker. They created a flag but the tanker did not see them waving it. The captain realized the tide was taking them away from the shrimp boats. Around noon, they ate a banana that Downs found. His dad created a game for them to play to keep his mind off of things. At some point, Downs and his father saw a PBY [Annotator's Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat]. The plane spotted them and came in low, dropped a package of water, food, and flares. The plane then radioed the shrimp boats to pick them up. Downs could never forget the pilot. The plane then dropped another package to another group of survivors. Later the shrimp boat picked them up. On the boat, they smelled shrimp jambalaya [Annotator's Note: a traditional rice based Louisiana meal] cooking. Occasionally, the boat stopped to pick people up, sometimes they were dead. One of the people was his mother, who was covered in oil. Downs remembered telling her she was beautiful. They still had not found his sister. It was getting late and the ship was running low on fuel, so they were about to head back to Morgan City, Louisiana. An hour later another ship picked up his sister. [Annotator's Note: Downs shows emotion.]

Raymond Downs and his family were taken to a hospital in Morgan City, Louisiana. They were not allowed to call their family who were waiting for them in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. They stayed in the hospital for three weeks. His mother's eyes eventually healed. His father went to the United Fruit Company office in New Orleans to try and appeal the waiver he signed, but failed. The family eventually made it back to San Antonio, Texas by train. Downs was not allowed to see or say much. He saw the living and dead that were picked up. He was interviewed about the events from his point of view. Downs saw large sharks while he was in the water. They swam around the raft, but never attacked. A school of porpoises was around, which scared away the sharks, but they occasionally came back. Downs' father was bleeding in the water, but they managed to tie up the cuts. His mother saw pilot fish and sharks around her too, but they did not attack her either. The sharks scared Downs. He was told to stay as still as possible and not to look at their eyes. He could not help but look at their eyes and teeth. Downs was interested in seeing the dead bodies at the hospital, but his father would not let him. His family was in adjoining rooms in the hospital. Downs only suffered minor cuts and bruises as well as a bad sunburn. He used these excuses to get extra ice cream and jello. Downs took a train back to San Antonio with nothing but a suit of clothes. His parents never complained about the situation, which Downs admired. They stayed with his aunt for a while, then lived in a house paid for by a Methodist church. His father wanted to join the Marines, but was told he was too old, so he joined the Coast Guard. He was a Fireman 1st Class on a patrol boat off Saint Augustine, Florida. Everyone wanted to hear the story, but his father did not want to talk about it. His mother recorded the story on tape. When he was in the fifth grade, he wrote about the ship wreck for a class project. The teacher failed him because she did not believe it happened. His mother spoke to the teacher and straightened it out. In college, Downs played basketball, which lead to some newspaper articles about him and the shipwreck.

Raymond Downs and a historian wrote a book about the experience. He collected his mother's, father's, and sister's stories, as well as letters his mother sent and the recording she did. Downs was the only living survivor of the ship when he started working on the book. The historian would send Downs a chapter at a time discussing the history of the sinking. He believes his family was drawn closer to their faith. He does not recall having dreams about the event. He does not think the attack lead to later post traumatic stress. He is interested in boats and water. Downs thinks his father was happy to be on anti-submarine patrol off the Florida coast. Downs talks about a u-boat [Annotator’s Note: German submarine; unterseeboot] which was captured off of New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] and how the crew lived in the city.

Raymond Downs thinks the experience made him feel good about living in this country [Annotator's Note: the United States of America] and perseverance. Downs does not feel like the German submariners were truly Nazis, but similar to American soldiers doing their duty. There were a lot of German POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camps in San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas]. He feels like he has a different perspective. Downs became active in his church after the shipwreck. He does not know if World War 2 changed his life more than anyone else. He got used to rationing and blackouts. Downs remembered the Civilian Patrols along the Florida beaches, but he was not allowed to attend. Downs joined the Army ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] when he went to college. After graduating, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and served for two years, but never saw combat. He committed to ten years in the reserve and left as a captain. His brother served in the Korean War. He regrets not seeing any combat. Downs feels fortunate to have lived through the u-boat [Annotator's Note: German Submarine; unterseeboot] attack. He is fortunate that a book could be written about the event. Downs thinks The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is wonderful and that we should continue teaching history. He would like to come to the Museum with his book to tell his story.