[Annotator's Note: The interview starts on a black screen.] William Nesser was born in Columbus, Ohio in February 1920. They had a large cellar under their house and a coal bin for the furnace in the winter. A big school was built, and he went there for the first grade. His class was the first to graduate. The superintendent made a book for them. Under his picture they wrote "from little acorns, big oaks grow." When he went to high school, he wanted a school that had a good manual arts class. It was during the Great Depression and he knew there was not much chance of college. He really wanted to be a pilot on a commercial vessel [Annotator's Note: sailing vessel]. His father worked for Pennsylvania Railroad, so they got free transportation. His family was split between Columbus and New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] and Baton Rouge [Annotator’s Note: Baton Rouge, Louisiana]. They went back and forth quite a few times. He graduated at 17 and took a trip South. He had a promise of a job when he returned but his mother wrote and told him that Ohio had passed a law that you could not hold a job if you were not 18. A relative knew someone in a shipping company [Annotator's Note: in Louisiana]. Nesser was told he could be a cadet but there were no openings until the following January. There was a passenger ship coming in that he could work on as an ordinary seaman. This was 1937. He went aboard the day after Labor Day [Annotator's Note 6 September 1937]. There was a mix-up. [Annotator's Note: He tells a story that is hard to follow but he got on a ship in Mobile, Alabama.] They loaded lumber. They came to final loading in New Orleans and then went to South America where they picked up coffee in Brazil. He would work 18 months and then go home. The man that was his boss was learning to become a Third Mate [Annotator's Note: also known as a third officer; licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship]. Nesser watched him to learn too. The Delta Line [Annotator's Note: Delta Steamship Line of the Mississippi Shipping Company, New Orleans, Louisiana] got a new vessel called the SS Deltargentino [Annotator's Note: launched 13 July 1940; renamed USAT J. W. McAndrew 28 June 1941] and Nesser went on as AB [Annotator's Note: Able Seaman; deck rating for sea service experience] for one trip. The next trip Nesser was quartermaster [Annotator's Note: aboard merchant ships, quartermasters are assigned to bridge watches]. They knew the war was imminent. Nesser did not have his license yet. He knew of a school to become a Third Mate and went to Dice Island [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. He and three others were watching a movie in San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] when an announcement was made about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He and his friends were civilians, but they thought they should go back [Annotator's Note: to Dice Island].

[Annotator's Note: William Nesser was in training aboard a commercial transport vessel when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He had passed his test [Annotator's Note: to become a Third Mate or Third Officer] and was ready. Due to the start of the war, they sent the men who got their licenses to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] to get them. Nesser went home and went up to the Delta Line [Annotator's Note: Delta Steamship Line of the Mississippi Shipping Company, New Orleans, Louisiana]. He was made a Night Mate [Annotator's Note: unable to find a definition] on an old, World War 1 ship called the USS Kermanshah [Annotator's Note: SS Kalliopi]. It was being outfitted for sea for the British. The British did not want it. Nesser stayed on as Third Mate. They had a three inch 50 [Annotator's Note: three inch, 50 caliber naval gun] on both bow and stern and two .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] on each wing of the bridge. They loaded gas and oil in Texas then went to Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. The stevedores [Annotator's Note: person who loads and unloads ship cargo] there knew the ship was going to Russia and they did not want to load it. They loaded flatbed trailers and went to Halifax [Annotator's Note: Halifax, Nova Scotia]. The Captain was a good friend. They heard about white foxes in Russia and they wanted to get skins to make coats for their wives. They each bought a case of Scotch [Annotator's Note: kind of alcohol] to trade. They got south of Iceland and went into Whale Bay [Annotator's Note: Whale Bay, or Hvalfjörður, Iceland]. Each tide turn, they would fish for cod and catch a lot. The cook would fry the fish every night for them. The British wanted their cargo for a North African invasion. They got as far as Das Island [Annotator's Note: Das Island, United Arab Emirates] and turned around. A German reconnaissance plane came over. Another ship got credit for shooting down the German plane but Nesser's ship actually did it. They had Navy guards on board, a lieutenant and eight sailors. [Annotator's Note: Nesser talks about gun duties but is hard to follow.] In July, it was so bad there were only eight ships of 32 that made it to Russia [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks if he is talking about PQ-17 and he says yes. PQ-17 is code name for a convoy from Iceland to Russia in June 1942.] They had caught an Icelandic schooner that was telling the Germans what each ship was. They went down to Scotland. They had to keep someone on the vessel and were told the Germans might bomb at any time. A plane came over and was shot down. Nesser went to Belfast [Annotator's Note: Belfast, Ireland] and then back to where they started. A fast convoy was put together in September [Annotator's Note: September 1942]. He went to a conference and got their position. They left the next morning to go to Archangel [Annotator's Note: Archangel. or Arkhangelsk, Russia). They got off of Murmansk [Annotator's Note: Murmansk, Russia] and went to the White Sea [Annotator's Note: southern inlet of the Barents Sea, Russia]. They had some big icebreakers, but they could not get them up to Archangel. They went to a port called Molotov [Annotator's Note: now Perm, Russia]. The first night it snowed, and the railroad could not run. About six of them walked down the river and were met by a lady who wanted to go the United States. She was an American citizen, but the Russians would not give her her passport back. They could not help her. A guy in a truck picked them up. There was no heat in their hotel. Nesser slept in everything he had and was still freezing. It was 50 [Annotator's Note: degrees] below zero.

[Annotator's Note: William Nesser served aboard the SS Kalliopi in Russia where they loaded lumber for England.] They went 30 miles in 30 days by moving every six hours and drifting with the ice pack. They missed their convoy. They anchored in an inlet and waited for the next group to come. [Annotator's Note: Nesser says something about losing his antiaircraft fire that is hard to understand.] The Americans had given the Russians big spotlights and antiaircraft guns on both sides of the hills there. The Germans would fly down from the North. That night a reconnaissance plane came over, but they did not shoot him down. Nesser thought if they could not shoot one plane down, how would they be protected. A convoy came along with a British antiaircraft light cruiser. They explained how they approached firing at incoming aircraft. It worked. The Germans had a submarine on the northwest and southwest corners going back and forth. One sub fired four torpedoes across the convoy. They were firing machine guns at the torpedoes but did not hit any. An airplane dropped four bombs and they thought it was going to blow the bow off. They hit about ten feet in front of them. A nearby ship said that when the bombs exploded, Nesser's ship's bow came so far out of the water that they could see the engine room. They made it down to England and then started for home.

[Annotator's Note: William Nesser served aboard the SS Kalliopi, and was returning to the United States from England.] One arm of the steering gear broke south of Iceland. They rigged a tiller. The Captain said to stay in a general direction. They were taking soundings [Annotator's Note: measuring the depth of the sea]. Nesser was standing watch and was told to take a sounding. He had never taken one before. Tied onto the deep-sea lead is a piece of wood that shows the depth and what the bottom is like. His came up but there was nothing in it. It was in the 60-fathom [Annotator's Note: one fathom equals six feet of water] depth area. The Chief Mate was sent to check and got the same deal. They looked on their chart and one little spot was the depth that Nesser had gauged. That let them know exactly where they were, and they made it into Whale Bay [Annotator's Note: Whale Bay, or Hvalfjörður, Iceland]. The Americans had a big repair ship there. They did not want to cast a new one [Annotator's Note: a new steering gear] and sent them over to a British repair ship who did not have the right equipment or material. They then went into Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. The Captain took a man with him whose wife was having trouble with having a child. Once ashore, he was told he had to go New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. They went into Brooklyn [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn, New York]. Their bow had been damaged from the ice. A young Naval officer came aboard and wanted all of their information. Nesser thought the Captain was ready to throw him over the side. They made it to Brooklyn and were paid cash. They were told not to go by themselves to get that much cash as they had been gone 15 months. He stayed in a hotel overnight and then went to the bank. He transferred his money to another bank. When his train got there [Annotator's Note: he does not say where], he went to get his money and the bank said the paperwork had not gone through. He later got his money and bought 6,000 dollar's worth of war bonds [Annotator's Note: debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war]. His wife had not gotten any money from him and she told him he had been reported lost. [Annotator's Note: Nesser tells the interviewer to shut off the camera because he wants to tell him something.]

William Nesser went to the Army Transportation Corps. When he got there, the USS Kermanshah [Annotator's Note: SS Kalliopi; he had been on this ship earlier] was there. The Chief Engineer was on it when the war started, so they kept him on. They were going to Baltimore [Annotator's Note: Baltimore, Maryland] to be converted into a passenger ship. They were given a minimum of food. They were in a six-knot [Annotator's Note: a knot is unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour] convoy so by the time they got to Key West [Annotator's Note: Key West, Florida], they were almost out of food. The Captain asked to go into Key West to get supplies. They went and he said they were not going to rejoin the convoy. They went to Baltimore on their own. In Baltimore was a solid mahogany bar that one of the sailors was going to take home. [Annotator's Note: It is difficult to follow Nesser's storyline.] There was German material being replaced by American and they were going to sell it to Jews in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. One of Nesser's friends from New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] taught ABs [Annotator's Note: Able Seaman, deck rating for sea service experience]. They needed someone to help teach and he asked Nesser. Nesser went back and took over. A mechanical engineer was trying to get more people so he could get a step up. They got a big schooner from a guy going in the Navy. Nesser and some others took it out on a lake and had a nice dinner. The vessel had been for one of the kings in Europe. [Annotator's Note: Nesser describes the details of the ship's construction.] The man who gave them the ship was told he did not have the authority to do it. Nesser had been transferred from teaching ABs to teaching men how to steer and drop anchor. Once a week they would go out at night and he would teach them to take a star sighting.

The draft board sent William Nesser a notice to report. He disregarded it, because he had his time in [Annotator's Note: in the United States Merchant Marine]. The next one said that if he did not report, he would be taken to prison. His wife was in labor with their first son, so he dropped her off at the hospital and went over to the draft board. They said they were going to put him in the Army. He reminded them that if a merchant man were drafted into the Army, they had to match his rate of pay. He said he would be the highest paid soldier in the Army. He went and talked to his office about it. There was tug going to the South Pacific that needed a Second Mate. It would have been a long time though, so he went to the Delta Line [Annotator's Note: Delta Steamship Line of the Mississippi Shipping Company, New Orleans, Louisiana] and they got a ship for him. He made three more trips across the pond [Annotator's Note: slang for the Atlantic Ocean]. Most of his trips were to England. Once, they had a drunken captain. The wireless operator was just as bad. They were anchored in England and got orders to go to France. Nesser was ready to pick up the anchor and saw the rest of the convoy leaving. He told the Mate to do what he told him to. They picked up anchor and Nesser was trying to catch up with the convoy. The captain came out in a stupor and asked where the convoy was. They dropped anchor for a couple of days and then went to France. They were docked where the wine vessels came in. While there, a Southern soldier shot and killed a colored man [Annotator's Note: an ethnic descriptor historically used for Black people in the United States]. That caused a lot of trouble. They came back and he heard later that the captain and the wireless officer went into the South Pacific without any alcohol. They drank the denatured alcohol out of the compass, and it killed them both. After the war everything went differently. He only crossed the Atlantic three times. He had spent a lot of time teaching sailors. He felt that was important to the war effort.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks William Nesser about why he was not part of the Murmansk run PQ-17, an Atlantic convoy where 30 ships were lost.] Nesser always wanted to go to the Pacific. His brother was in the Navy there and his other brother in the Merchant Marine was there too. Nesser was scheduled to go but ended up going to England. When the war broke out, a friend joined the Coast Guard and was on a converted yacht patrolling in the Gulf [Annotator's Note: Gulf of Mexico] and was washed overboard and lost. Nesser was the one person that was a prewar sailor and never lost a ship. After the war, he was able to get almost around the world. He started in the Merchant Marine in 1937 and finished up in 1959. [Annotator's Note: Nesser points to a picture off camera and says that lady caused him to stop. He is referring to his daughter.] He came home once, and she was about four or five. He generally stayed home a month at a time, and she was shy. She was looking at him around her mother's dress and her mother said that Nesser was her father. His daughter looked at his picture on the mantlepiece and said that was her father. Nesser told his wife he would make one more trip and quit. He wanted his family to know they had a father. He sent a letter to the Delta Line [Annotator's Note: Delta Steamship Line of the Mississippi Shipping Company, New Orleans, Louisiana] and said he was quitting. The Port Captain asked him what he was going to do. He said he did not know but his daughter had to know she had a father. Nesser got a job at a plant [Annotator's Note: it is difficult to understand this part of the story]. It was in a shipyard in Port Arthur [Annotator's Note: Port Arthur, Texas]. He went aboard on his first day and was asked what was going to be changed. Another man had changed something every time he came down. He almost got fired. [Annotator's Note: Nesser talks about chemicals and a process that uses them. He then talks about something about using the anchors to pump up mud.] They would weigh it and load their chemicals. He told them it would never work. He proved right.