THE WATERSHED YEAR - PORTLAND, MAINE, & THE UGLY AMERICAN.

We arrived in Portland, Maine, on Thursday, 12th August, 1954 after a good passage across the Western Ocean [i.e.what West Countrymen call the Atlantic Ocean.] The approaches to that port are quite attractive; much of the New England coastline is very attractive despite some of the subsequent developments for tourism.
The pilot took us up to the railhead terminal to load just over 10,000 tons of anthracite for Yugoslavia. It was apparent that this was to be a swift loading process and we would sail in a matter of hours. All American ports handle bulk cargoes with unbelievable efficiency. We then faced the US Customs & Immigration and the effects of the Ugly American.
I really like America but every now and again that nation produces a prize numpty, today it is Al Gore [a Democrat] and back in the 1950's it was the Republican Senator from Wisconsin - one Joseph McCarthy. He stirred up a stupid concept that can be summed up by the phrase "Reds under the Bed" [ a paranoid fear of Communism] , another term you might have heard is McCarthy-ism to denote a rabid bigot rather like Savanorola in the Italian Middle Ages. The result is often that many innocent people are ruined or hurt. It manifested itself for us in the Port Officials.
We were going to be in that port for a matter of hours and nobody was going anywhere except a brief call at the chandlers to buy gear. Nevertheless we were subjected to a protracted personal questioning AND short-arm inspection. For those of you who are not familiar with the term a short-arm inspection is a euphemism coined by the Aussies to describe a cursory examination of a man's penis to determine if that person displays evidence of venereal disease such as syphilis or gonorrhoea. Yes, you read right, we had to stand in front of a port official, unzip,and display Percy. Nobody was impressed, the officers were excused but they lumbered us three young 16 year old apprentices with the ABs and others. The Ugly American is McCarthy, the architect of this indignity amongst other stupidity on a grand scale.
Anyway we did go ashore briefly and I bought a really great pair of work boots.
We were glad to sail and wash the ship clean as a new pin and stow everything away as we headed for Gibraltar to bunker, and thence Yugoslavia with the cargo.
It is a good job that the US officials did not know then that we were ultimately going to the USSR. We did get some revenge [in a way] later but that was to be in the following voyage with a new crew.

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