First UNRRA Trip of the SS Zona Gale, Part II: Getting to Trieste

Byron Royer served as the seagoing cowboy night watchman on this first UNRRA sailing of the SS Zona Gale. His job was to make rounds every hour or so to check on the horses and to contact the veterinarian if any were in trouble. One of the perks of this job was viewing the sunrise over the Atlantic.

“A funny thing about a sunrise on the ocean,” Royer noted in his journal, “is that the sun seems to pop out of the ocean. . . . As it pulled up and away from the water, the lower part seemed to cling to the water and stretch a part of the sun down into the sea slightly. When it let go it seemed to spring very much like rubber would have and sorta bounce up away from the water. It was a beautiful thing to see.”

Sunrise over the ocean in Nova Scotia. This may be what Royer’s sunrise looked like. Public domain photo by lawepw. https://www.goodfreephotos.com

After ten days on the Atlantic, the ship reached the Straits of Gibraltar. On day seventeen the Zona Gale anchored for a day in the harbor of Augusta, Sicily. “As we were coming in . . . we saw a number of metal things in the water,” Royer said. “Some were ball-shaped and others in the shape of a big circular metal tank.” He said they turned out to be a huge submarine net used in the war to keep submarines out of the harbor. Being only two months after the end of fighting in Europe, the nets had not yet been dismantled. Passing the mast of a ship sticking out of the water as they pulled into the harbor Royer noted, “This was the first casualty of the War that we have actually witnessed and it brought us back down to earth after a rather idealistic life at sea.”

After dropping anchor, Royer said, “our attention was caught immediately by a most interesting sight. Small boats were literally swarming away from the far shore,” racing out to the three ships lying at anchor. The “bum boats” had arrived, with local men wanting to buy American cigarettes that they would then sell on the black market, or to trade goods like guitars and mandolins for cigarettes.

I only have a few photos from this trip, and none of bum boats. But they would have looked like these from a later trip to Trieste in December 1946. Photo by Hank Weaver.

The crew and cowboys didn’t get shore leave in Augusta, but they did have fun that day. After the ship dropped anchor, Royer said the cowboys heard a splash and shouts of exhilaration on the port side of the ship. They ran to check it out. “There below us was the Maintenance Electrician swimming around as if the whole harbor were a special pool for him alone,” Royer said. It didn’t take long for more of the crew, followed by the cowboys, to go down the ladder hung over the side to join him. “I had never been in salt water before and that part of it was thoroughly enjoyable,” Royer said. “There was only one thing which dampened our spirits a little. The scuppers on that side of the ship were still draining a little from the efforts of the boys earlier in the morning to flush the manure out of the holds. The brown parts around the ship were a little disconcerting at times, but after holding the breath and swimming out to the clean water, it was great sport.”

The next day, sailing around the heel of Italy to the Adriatic Sea headed for Yugoslavia, the crew received a change in orders. No longer would they be docking in Split, Yugoslavia, but rather Trieste, the “no man’s land” at that time between Italy and Yugoslavia. “We gather that the load of horses might possibly be a political football in the mighty game of politics that is being waged even yet by the United Nations,” Royer said.

After a short stop in the severely bombed city of Ancona, Italy, the Zona Gale proceeded on to her destination. “We were on ‘hazardous pay’ voyage,” cowboy supervisor Clarence Rosenberger said. The regular crew got bonus pay when traveling in dangerous areas, but not the cowboys.

The cowboy crew of the SS Zona Gale, July 1945. Supervisor Clarence Rosenberger on front left. I think the man second from right standing may be Byron Royer. Photo courtesy of Hugh Muhlnickel family.

“We went up the Adriatic in convoy just behind the mine sweeper. Our sharp shooters would blow up the dislodged mines. We were fortunate as we were the first civilian ship into Trieste.”

The SS William J. Palmer that departed New York with another load of horses for Yugoslavia two weeks after the Zona Gale wasn’t so lucky. The ship hit a mine and sank off the coast of Trieste. All humans survived, but over 300 Yugoslavian farmers did not get the horses they were anticipating.

Next post: Exploring Trieste

Convergence: The Heifer Project, the Monuments Men, and the Seagoing Cowboys in Italy

Happy New Year, dear readers! This year will mark the 80th anniversary of the first shipment made by the Heifer Project, today’s Heifer International. The Heifer Project is related to the seagoing cowboy history, and I will be weaving some of its stories into this year’s posts.

When the Heifer Project’s leaders were looking for a way to ship their animals to war-devastated Europe at the end of World War II, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was in formation to provide relief to Europe, as well. The Heifer Project was a program of the Brethren Service Committee (BSC), the outreach arm of the Church of the Brethren at the time. UNRRA made an agreement with BSC that they would ship Heifer Project animals free of charge and under the terms of the Heifer Project (the animals would be gifts to the neediest of farmers); in return, BSC would recruit all the livestock tenders (dubbed “seagoing cowboys”) UNRRA would need to ship their intended 200,000 head of draft and dairy animals to allied countries in need.

As I mulled over topics to start this new year of blog posts, I pulled out a lengthy account by seagoing cowboy Byron Royer about UNRRA’s fifth livestock shipment to leave the shores of the United States the end of June 1945 – just seven weeks after the end of the war in Europe. The shipment carried horses for Yugoslavia and docked in Trieste, a “no man’s land” at the time that had been a part of Italy before the war.

Photo by Elmer Bowers, February 1946.

For some reason, the focus of my reading of late (both historical fiction and nonfiction) has turned to Italy during and immediately after World War II, which has led to a convergence of ideas for this post. This convergence started with viewing George Clooney’s movie The Monuments Men based on the book by Robert M. Edsel. I then checked out Edsel’s book from the library and learned that he was writing another book specifically about the work of the Monuments Men in Italy (Saving Italy, 2013). This brought to mind a little known piece of history related to the Heifer Project – the spark for the Heifer Project Committee’s interest in shipping cattle to Italy came from a Monuments Man serving in Italy – Angelo P. Lucia. I’ve written a bit about that connection in my post of November 8, 2019. I was excited to find Lucia’s name included in the list of “Monuments Men and Women Serving in the Mediterranean Theater” in Edsel’s book.

The Italian city and surrounding area of Trieste was liberated almost simultaneously the beginning of May 1945 by Yugoslavian troops from the east and the New Zealand 2nd Division from the west. This led to tensions between Italy and Yugoslavia for ownership of this territory. And this was the context in which Byron Royer and his fellow seagoing cowboys found themselves when they reached Trieste July 29, 1945. As I read Royer’s account and with Edsel’s book Saving Italy so fresh in my mind, I couldn’t help but think that here these cowboys were, witnessing the fresh aftermath of war in Italy at the same time that the Monuments Men were at work in the country rescuing the massive collection of works of Italian art stolen by the Nazis and transported north throughout their occupation of the country. History had come to life.

Royer gives a detailed account of the eight days the cowboys were free to roam the area of this “hotspot”, as he called it, “between Italy and Jugoslavia [sic]”. The day they arrived, everything in the city was closed up due to a demonstration, staged by Yugoslavia’s Tito and the Partisans they were told. On his way home Royer wrote, “A couple nights before we pulled out of Trieste, there was another big demonstration and parade and it was reported to us that Tito himself was actually there in the public square for the rally. Frankly, I think that most of us were glad to get out of there just at this time. There was something very threatening about this parade. At different points along the line, leaders would yell out long sentences, probably about politics and the crowd would yell back, ‘Vive’ which is Tito’s cry. It was a stirring of mob strength such as we just do not see in the States.”

I’ll share more of Royer’s observations in coming posts.

How UNRRA’s livestock program saved European lives – Part I

While filing a backlog of reference materials recently, I came across a gem – a report penned by the Director of the Agricultural Rehabilitation Division of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, E. R. Henson, in February 1947. It wonderfully recaps the role played by UNRRA, the Brethren Service Committee, its Heifer Project, and the seagoing cowboys in helping Europe recover from World War II. I’ll be posting the report (minimally edited) in installments, adding images from my files to illustrate it. Here we go!

HOW U.S. WORK HORSES AND DAIRY CATTLE ARE SAVING EUROPEAN LIVES

In Poland they say the sight of livestock coming into the country is the best morale builder UNRRA has. We have sent 130,000 work horses and 16,288 dairy cattle there. When the animals come off the docks, they represent aid in its most tangible form—milk and draft power for immediate use—help for the future in building up war-depleted herds. No time is lost, for even before the milk cows are unloaded, they are met by a special welcoming committee.

Nowy Port, Poland, 1946. UNRRA photo.

The livestock ships put in near Danzig [Gdansk]. . . [F]arm women from the nearby countryside in worn boots and with ragged scarves over their heads come aboard. Some have their children with them. All have pails or milk buckets, and they know how to milk a cow. . . . [T]he women go ashore, each carrying a bucket of milk, happy and excited because for this one day there will be enough milk to go around when the kids sit down to the table.

These animals are part of the most important water-born migration of four-footed creatures undertaken since the days of Noah. By the end of January, close to 270 thousand head of livestock had been brought in by UNRRA to the European countries that receive not only life saving food and clothing through the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, but also numerous boat loads of supplies to help them regain their own food production ability.

UNRRA’s livestock program began in June 1945, when the first boat load of heifers left for Greece where we have landed 4,260 head of dairy cattle and 50,544 draft animals. It will close this July when the last of 8,000 head of water buffalo, heifers, sheep and mules are delivered to China.

First UNRRA heifer unloaded onto Greek soil, July 1945. Photo courtesy of Earl Holderman.

The first Holsteins that went to Czechoslovakia were greeted with garlands of flowers. Since then, 5,444 dairy cows, 115 bulls, 27,504 horses and 44 mules have been brought in by UNRRA. In Naples crowds of people thronged the streets to cheer 330 dairy heifers being transported in trucks from the wharf. These animals were given to Italy through the Brethren Service Committee, whose activities, and those of other cooperating organizations, have played an important part in our livestock rehabilitation project.

This Heifer Project animal was also welcomed with a garland of flowers in S. Pietro Infine, Italy, July 1946, by a specially selected hard hit family in this 100% destroyed village near Cassino. UNRRA photo #3190.

Most of the UNRRA imports go to individual farm families or for community use. About a third are retained for the use of hospitals, orphanages and schools, and the few purebreds we have been able to include are used for breeding.

Yugoslavia has received 28,143 draft and 4,222 dairy animals. About 7,000 were mules from United States army surplus in Italy—fine specimens of work animals in prime condition. Farmers marveled at their prowess, for never had they seen work stock that could plough in one day so many acres so well. In many villages the animals are used cooperatively, and caretakers for them are elected with great care. In gratitude one village held a ceremony for their mule to be christened “Success” by the village priest.

UNRRA mules in Prestranek, Yugoslavia, being led to their farms after being cataloged and checked at the remount depot, 1945 or 1946. UNRRA photo #1490.

I have found people everywhere touchingly grateful for the UNRRA animals. They know where they come from; most of them have the letters U-N-R-R-A hair branded on their flanks for all to see.

A woman brands an UNRRA horse being unloaded off the SS Mount Whitney, August 1946. Photo by James Brunk.

 

~ to be continued

The S. S. Park Victory: Livestock trip #1, Trieste, October 1945

The S. S. Park Victory is one of 531 Victory ships built for transporting troops and materials during the latter years of World War II. Named after Park College (now Park University), the ship was launched April 21, 1945. On her maiden voyage, she carried U. S. Navy cargo around the Pacific, departing May 26 from southern California and ending September 14 in New York City. There, in the Todd Shipyard, she was transformed into a livestock carrier.¹ According to the notes of seagoing cowboy Norman Brumbaugh, this conversion cost $100,000.

A sister ship undergoes transformation from merchant ship to livestock carrier, November 1945. Photo credit: Paul Springer.

Newly outfitted with stalls on three levels and new ventilation and watering systems, the Park Victory headed on down to Baltimore, Maryland. She departed October 26, 1945, for Trieste, Italy, with her full quota of 32 seagoing cowboys and 336 mares, 149 mules, 310 heifers, and 12 bulls. Brumbaugh notes additional cargo of:
640 tons of water for the stock alone
35 tons of hay
30 tons of straw
36 tons of dairy feed
75 tons of oats
3,000 feet of rope
878 buckets.

Seagoing cowboys of the S. S. Park Victory to Trieste, October 1945. Photo courtesy of Paul Weaver.

Except for some rough seas, this first livestock trip of the Park Victory was relatively routine and easy. A week into the trip, Brumbaugh recorded in his diary, “Getting up too early these mornings and losing sleep because we keep moving time up each night for the last while….Been hungry nearly every night for last week, though we get plenty at meals.”

The trip became more exciting when land was spotted on the tenth day. Brumbaugh notes, “We did our best to hurry through our work and take in everything. There it was, Spain to our left, Africa to our right, the Rock of Gibraltar, an immense thing about dead ahead. Further in the Mediterranean we saw the mountains on the left were all snow capped, weather warm. Watching porpoise trying to race our ship was lots of fun. Spirits extra high.”

The ship arrived in Trieste with more livestock than at the start, as twenty calves were born en route and only one horse, one mule, and one heifer lost. The heifer choked to death and was butchered and put in the freezer.

War ruins in Trieste, November 1945. Photo credit: Paul Weaver.

Of Trieste, cowboy Paul Weaver says, “the harbor is pretty well destroyed and buildings near it, but the rest of the town isn’t hit. It is a very nice town but no cars, mostly military trucks and jeeps. Lots of bicycles, mules, donkeys, ox teams, horses, three-wheel motorcycles, half-ton trucks. The British and American Armies are both here. You get mobbed every time you go to town for cigarettes, soap and gum.” Weaver also notes, “This section of Italy is quite a disputed area between Yugo and Italy. General Tito comes down pretty often to try to take it back, but the Americans and British scare him out. There was some rumor of him coming yesterday, but he didn’t.”

Some of the cowboys took a side trip to Venice, November 1945. Photo credit: Paul Weaver.

As with all trips that ended at Trieste, the animals were shipped by rail just across the border to Yugoslavia. Members of this cowboy crew had the opportunity to go to there to see where the animals were taken. Cowboy LaVerne Elliott writes, “We kept winding and going up and finally got to top and we could look down on Trieste. Sure was beautiful with Adriatic Sea as background.” Brumbaugh adds, “I never saw such beautiful Christmas or snow scenery as this.”

To get into Yugoslavia, the cowboys’ were stopped at two guarded barricades, not sure if they would get through. First were the British guards, “of which we gave matches,” Brumbaugh notes. Then, after about a mile and a half across no man’s land, “after persuasion of Yugo soldiers, we gave gum, soap, and matches.”

At a Yugoslavian home, November 1945. Photo credit: Paul Weaver.

Brumbaugh writes, “People very poor up in Mts. with acres of stones. We saw our mules and horses being well taken care of by prisoners in bad need of clothing.” The cowboys stopped at a farm that had received a horse earlier, and Brumbaugh says, “Horse is well off. But people are without fuel and shoes. Came back and missed supper on this cold night, but were much better off than many.”

 

Cracking nuts for Thanksgiving dinner on the trip home. Photo credit: Paul Weaver.

¹ Jouko Moisala, S/S Park Victoryn Tarina, Fandonia Oy, Finland, 2017.

Next post: Park Victory trip #2 – Poland

A Seagoing Cowboy evaluates his trip to Europe

The last days of June 1945 were a busy time for UNRRA and the Brethren Service Committee. In six days’ time, they had five livestock ships complete with seagoing cowboy crews on their way to Europe – three to Greece and two that docked in Trieste, Italy, with animals for Yugoslavia. The fifth was the Liberty ship Zona Gale with 31-year-old Clarence H. Rosenberger on board.

The seagoing cowboy crew of the SS Zona Gale en route to Yugoslavia, July 1945. Clarence Rosenberger is the man on the left leaning against the rail. Photo courtesy of Weldon Klepinger

Clarence was the pastor of the Church of the Brethren in Shelocta, Pennsylvania, at the time. He wrote the following reflection on his trip that appeared in the September 22, 1945, Gospel Messenger, the magazine of the Church of the Brethren.

A “Cowboy” Evaluates the Trip to Europe With Relief Cattle

Our experiences as “the cowboys of the S. S. Zona Gale” is at an end. As I look back I can begin to appreciate what a wonderful opportunity we’ve had.

Primarily, we filled a pressing need by aiding in the moving of relief goods to war-stricken people. Stock tenders are almost impossible to find around a seaport and we spanned the gap. We have the satisfaction of knowing that the stock we cared for is now helping to provide food for hundreds of people.

Some of us whose consciences will not permit us to further the war effort found in this an opportunity to serve Christ, our nation and mankind in a constructive way.

As a result of observation and study, I have gained at least a bit of insight into the physical, economic and political needs of Europe. I have begun to appreciate how much of our good fortune in the United States is due to a combination of circumstances.

We’ve also had the opportunity of knowing intimately hundreds of soldiers and sailors. [The Zona Gale, like the F. J. Luckenbach and the Virginian, picked up soldiers in Naples to bring them home.] We’ve talked with them frankly. We’ve heard their problems, fears and anticipations. We’ve heard of experiences under fire on land and sea. We’ve shared the danger of mine-infested seas.

Finally, we’ve had the opportunity of knowing the joy that comes with setting foot once again on good American soil.

These first trips were a sort of feeling of their way for the Brethren Service Committee as they decided how much of a commitment they wanted to make in servicing UNRRA’s cattle attendant needs. Reflections of the cowboys like this one no doubt helped the B.S.C. sign on for the long haul.

Article used by permission, http://www.brethren.org/messenger.

Next post: The cowboys mingle with soldiers.

 

Extra post: Passing of the cowboys

One of the most difficult parts of my work is receiving obituaries of the seagoing cowboys whom I have interviewed. To sit in their homes and have them share so intimately with me about their experiences at such a formative time in their lives is an honor that I will always cherish. These men become like family to me; so when I lose another one, I grieve.

Today’s notice was the passing of Donald W. Rummel, formerly of Manheim, Pennsylvania, on July 24, 2014. When he was a junior in high school, Don was on the SS Park Victory that left Baltimore October 25, 1945, with 485 horses and 322 heifers on board. The ship docked in Trieste, Italy, where the livestock were transported over ground to Yugoslavia.

Don went on to college and seminary and served as a pastor in the Church of the Brethren for many years. I interviewed Don together with his shipmate Quentin “Queenie” Buckwalter several years ago and was treated to a lovely meal at a local restaurant with their spouses afterwards. Don sent me many cheerful notes through the years I’ve known him. Don, I’ll miss you. Rest in peace.