1965 - 1966

Sometimes I believe that inanimate objects have free will. Ample proof is mostly of the digital kind. Digital cameras and cell phones go their way without me initiating their direction. It then becomes difficult to get them back my way.

I also think that sometimes inanimate objects have a way of predicting the future of those involved with them.

ELMA Río Aguapey

After two years in the Argentine Navy I found myself broke as my military pay was the equivalent of 2 US Dollars a month in Argentine pesos.

Because of my over the top feeling of patriotism I had decided to leave Mexico City and do my obligatory conscription in Argentina in 1966. I did not know that while the conscription in the army was one year I had “won the lottery” in the Argentine Navy which amounted to 24 months. Another reason for my going to Buenos Aires was to find my father whom I had not seen since 1953.

How was I going to get back to Mexico where I had lived with my mother? I realized that if I initiated some sort of repatriation, the Argentine bureaucracy might last at least a year.

Next door to my office with the US Naval Advisory Group where I had been a translator and aide to the US Navy Captain, Onofrio Salvia (he was Italian) there was an admiral by the name of Carlos Garzoni. I went to his office and facing him I said,”Permission to talk to the admiral,sir.” I was given permission. I then told him, “I have served my country for two years. My home with my mother is in Mexico. I believe that my country has to serve me.” Garzoni answered, “Conscript you are right.” He picked up the phone and talked to someone. He hung up and told me,  “Tomorrow morning show up at the offices of Lineas Marítimas Argentinas (ELMA a then Argentine Merchant Marine) they will find you a berth in one of their ships."

Contralmirante ARA Carlos Alberto Garzoni

 I did. And a few weeks later I boarded (as the only passenger) a Victory ship called Río Aguapey which was a slow ship that stopped at every port in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, New Orleans and finally in the port of Veracruz. The menu for lunch and dinner every day involved some variation of an Artentine steak.

I had no idea that crossing the Equator in 1966 for the first time, involved an initiation/hazing ceremony. And so I was tied to the yard arm, painted with oil paints, sprayed with seawater and had nasty bandages stuck to my hairy legs. I was given a beautiful certificate that made me officially a Tiburón (shark). The framed and lovely certificate is up on the wall to the left of this monitor in my oficina.
 

It was only about 10 years ago that I found out that my Victory Ship (an improvement of the early WWII Liberty Ships) had been built at the Burrard Shipyards! Edgar Kaiser’s father, Henry Kaiser had pioneered the building of ships (very quickly) which meant that no matter how many of the Liberty Ships were sunk by German submarines in the Atlantic many more took their place.

For me that the Rio Aguapey was built in Canada is a lucky coincidence. Or is it more?