It's Maritime 44-07-08 (x) Charles Simpson

Summary

Harold's Old Time Radio
Episode Summary: "It's Maritime 44-07-08 (x) Charles Simpson"
Release Date: March 12, 2025

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Introduction

In this heartfelt episode of Harold's Old Time Radio, host Joe Weeks presents "It's Maritime," a dedicated half-hour variety show honoring the brave men of the Merchant Marine. Collaborating with the War Shipping Administration and featuring guests such as veteran Roger Ferguson, Able Seaman Charles Albert Simpson, singing star Joan Brooks, and vocalist Tommy Mercer, the program intertwines poignant interviews with stirring musical performances. Accompanied by the Maritime Service Orchestra led by Warrant Officer Philip Lang, the episode serves as both a tribute and a recruitment drive for the Merchant Marine during wartime.

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Interview with Able Seaman Charles Albert Simpson

Joe Weeks opens the episode by introducing Charles Albert Simpson, a 43-year-old stationary engineer with a storied past in naval service. Simpson shares his motivations for rejoining the Merchant Marine amidst the war effort.

• Background and Motivation:
  Simpson reveals his early enlistment in the Navy at 16, embellishing his age to serve during the last war. "I've kept myself in fairly good shape. And once you've been at sea, there isn't much. You forget about it," [08:17] Simpson explains, highlighting his readiness to answer the call once more.

• Personal Connection and Purpose:
  Delving into his personal reasons, Simpson recounts his experiences with the Rainbow Division, emphasizing the profound impact of aiding soldiers returning from the front lines. "I want to go over there and help so that I can bring back some of the boys from over there again," [09:37] he ardently states, underscoring his commitment to both duty and camaraderie.

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Musical Performances

The episode is enriched with soulful performances that capture the era's essence.

• Joan Brooks – "I Don't Want to Love You":
  Joan Brooks graces the show with her emotive rendition, setting a reflective tone and resonating with the audience's sentiments.

• Tommy Mercer – "If You Were the Only Boy in the World and I Were the Only Girl":
  Tommy Mercer's heartfelt performance adds depth to the episode, intertwining themes of longing and hope that mirror the experiences of servicemen and their loved ones.

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Roger Ferguson's War Story

Roger Ferguson, a seasoned liaison officer from Temple, Texas, shares gripping firsthand accounts from the North Africa Campaign and the harrowing days at Anzio.

• Supply Missions and Combat Zones:
  Ferguson details the perilous task of delivering essential supplies under fire. "We were way beyond the front line," [20:35] he recalls a tense moment where a misjudged maneuver nearly led them into a German concentration camp.

• Personal Sacrifices and Resilience:
  Recounting a tragic incident, Ferguson speaks of a comrade lost to a mine, juxtaposed with his own injuries and subsequent discharge. "You can get a job in a defense factory," [22:51] he initially remarks, but his resolve leads him to a vital role in the Merchant Marine instead.

• Call to Action:
  Ferguson passionately urges experienced seamen to enlist, emphasizing the indispensable role of the Merchant Marine in sustaining the war effort. "To win this war, hundreds and thousands of our ships will have to keep a steady stream of supplies going out to the far corners of the earth," [24:35] he implores, reinforcing the critical need for skilled personnel.

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Joan Brooks' Message on V Mail

Interspersed with the narrative are important announcements:

• Support for Servicemen and Women:
  Joan Brooks makes a compelling plea for the use of V Mail, highlighting its efficiency and reliability. "Remember, write tonight and use V Mail the smart and patriotic way," [16:13] she urges, emphasizing the importance of maintaining connections through secure and swift communication.

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Closing Remarks

As the episode draws to a close, Joe Weeks dedicates the marine hymn to all who serve on land and sea, honoring their sacrifices and dedication. The collaborative effort of Joan Brooks, Charles Simpson, Roger Ferguson, and Tommy Mercer is acknowledged, with an invitation extended to listeners to support the Merchant Marine's vital mission.

• Final Call to Support:
  Roger Ferguson reiterates the urgent need for experienced mariners, encouraging immediate action. "If you're one of them guys, why don't you ride or go down to the Office of the Recruitment and Manning Organization of the War Shipping Administration," [24:35] he advises, leaving listeners with a clear directive to contribute to the war effort.

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Conclusion

This episode of Harold's Old Time Radio masterfully blends personal narratives, patriotic calls to action, and evocative music to celebrate and support the Merchant Marine. Through the compelling stories of Joe Weeks' guests and the melodic interludes by Joan Brooks and Tommy Mercer, listeners gain a profound appreciation for the indispensable role of mariners in wartime. The program not only honors those who serve but also inspires others to join the cause, ensuring that the steady flow of supplies continues to sustain the fight for victory.

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Notable Quotes

• Charles Albert Simpson:
  "I want to go over there and help so that I can bring back some of the boys from over there again." [09:37]

• Roger Ferguson:
  "To win this war, hundreds and thousands of our ships will have to keep a steady stream of supplies going out to the far corners of the earth." [24:35]

• Joan Brooks:
  "Remember, write tonight and use V Mail the smart and patriotic way." [16:13]

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Credits

Produced and directed by Charles Herbert, written by Robert Sloan, and presented by Joe Weeks for CBS Columbia. Special thanks to the U.S. Maritime Service Training Station at Sheepset Bay, Brooklyn, and the Maritime Service Orchestra under the direction of Warrant Officer Philip Lang.

Transcript

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[Joe Weeks]

All hands on deck. Stand by. It's maritime. In cooperation with the War Shipping Administration, Colombia brings you its maritime a half hour variety dedicated to the men of the merchant marine. On board are Roger Ferguson, the veteran of Anio, Sicily and North Africa, Able Seaman Charles Albert Simpson, Joan Brooks, Columbia singing star. And by Courtesy of the U.S. maritime Service Training station at Cheapside Bay, Brooklyn, the Maritime Service Orchestra under the direction of Warrant Officer Philip Lang and yours truly, Joe Wheat. On deck right now. As we cast off and head out to sea, the orchestra salutes of proud and mighty warships and the grand state for which he was named, Oklahoma. Seamen aren't usually as keen on pinup girls as men in other branches of the service. However, a girl they'd like to see in every port, the girl they often hear on their ship's radio is Columbia's special guest for this evening, Miss Joan Brook.

[Joan Brooks]

Ahoy.

[Tommy Mercer]

Ahoy, mate.

[Joe Weeks]

Ah, now wait a minute, Joe. Just because we're both land lovers, you don't have to give us away with that ahoy stuff. Don't you know seamen don't talk like that?

[Joan Brooks]

Don't they ever say ahoy, Joe? Not even to a member of the opposite sex. Well, what do they say when they see an attractive girl? Oh, I always thought they greeted a flat foot fluji with ahoy hoy.

[Joe Weeks]

Oh, brother. So early in the show, too. Oh, what's it going to be, Joan? What are you going to sing, Joe?

[Joan Brooks]

Now, I don't mean this as a pun, but I thought I might hit the high seas with a little tune called I don't want to love you.

[Tommy Mercer]

I don't want to love you Please don't let me care this heart of mine is leading me nowhere if I only knew there was a chance that you could feel the way I you how different it would be But I don't want to kiss you Crazy as it seem I just be getting deeper in my dreams Dream and If I not sure my dreams are your dreams too Then I don't want to love you like I do I don't want to kiss you Crazy as it seem I just be getting deeper in my dreams and if I not sure my dreams are your dreams too When I don't want to love you My God, they do.

[Joe Weeks]

At times like these, with every available ship in the Merchant Marine being loaded to the gunwales with war materials and sent to our troops across the seven seas, the War Shipping Administration is calling on civilians with extreme experience at sea to return to their former jobs and to man the ships which must be sailed for victory. Thousands of men all over the country are answering this call. Mates, oilers, able bodied seamen, engineers, cooks, men who have not been aboard ship for years. Men like this patriotic American who stands before me now, Able Seaman Charles Albert Simpson. How old are you, Mr. Simpson?

[Charles Albert Simpson]

43.

[Joe Weeks]

You married?

[Roger Ferguson]

Yes.

[Charles Albert Simpson]

I have a wife and two children, a boy and a girl.

[Joe Weeks]

Fair enough, fair enough. Have you been at sea much?

[Charles Albert Simpson]

Well, not very much lately, but I was in the Navy for three and a half years. I joined up during the last war.

[Joe Weeks]

The last war? Hey, wait a minute now, you're only 43. Weren't you a little young for that last war?

[Charles Albert Simpson]

Well, I was 16 when I joined up, but I didn't exactly tell the Navy that. I sort of added a couple of years.

[Joe Weeks]

I see. You're not subtracting a couple years now, are you, to get into this war?

[Charles Albert Simpson]

No, I'm really 43. Besides, there's no maximum age limit for seamen. Experienced men are needed badly. It doesn't matter how old they are.

[Joe Weeks]

Well, tell me, Mr. Simpson, what did you do in civilian life?

[Charles Albert Simpson]

I'm a stationary engineer, Mr. And what does that mean? Well, I work on engines of all kinds, factory engines, power plants. I keep them running in good order and I repair them when they break down.

[Joe Weeks]

I see. Well. And you haven't been aboard ship then, since you left the Navy over 20 years ago?

[Charles Albert Simpson]

Well, I made a few trips on the Great Lakes in 42. The rest of the time I've been on dry land.

[Joe Weeks]

Tell me, how do you feel about going back to sea after all these years? Pretty good.

[Charles Albert Simpson]

I've kept myself in fairly good shape. And once you've been at sea, there isn't much. You forget about it. You see, Mr. Weeks, a merchant Marine needs men who have been to sea because there isn't time enough to train inexperienced men for the job. The war can't wait until new crews can be trained, Ships have To go out now while the big push is on.

[Joe Weeks]

And is that why you're signing on again?

[Charles Albert Simpson]

That's the main reason. But I've got a kind of special reason of my own.

[Joe Weeks]

What do you mean?

[Charles Albert Simpson]

Well, during the last war, my ship brought back most of the Rainbow Division after the armistice, and they'd seen plenty.

[Roger Ferguson]

I should say so.

[Joe Weeks]

The Rainbow Division was really a rugged outfit.

[Charles Albert Simpson]

Yep. They'd been through everything. And they kind of looked it, too. Many of them were casualties, and lots of the men I spoke to were pretty banged up. But you should have seen their faces when they pulled into New York harbor and saw the Statue of Liberty. They looked as if they'd just been born all over again. And I felt the same way.

[Joe Weeks]

I can imagine.

[Charles Albert Simpson]

That's my reason for signing on again, Mr.

[Tommy Mercer]

Weeks.

[Charles Albert Simpson]

I want to go over there and help so that I can bring back some of the boys from over there again.

[Joe Weeks]

Thank you, Mr. Simpson. It's full seat ahead now with Petty Officer Lenny Gaynor at the helm for.

[Tommy Mercer]

A rock.

[Joe Weeks]

In Sheep that day there lives a maid Mark you well what.

[Tommy Mercer]

I said In Sheep's Head Bay there.

[Joe Weeks]

Lives a maid and she doesn't go for the old gold bread I'll run.

[Tommy Mercer]

Tomorrow, RO from you, fair maid A.

[Joe Weeks]

Roving, a roving since roving's been my ruin I'll go no more of roving.

[Tommy Mercer]

From you fairness her eyes are like.

[Joe Weeks]

Who star so bright Mark you will.

[Tommy Mercer]

What I say her eyes are like to star them bright her face is.

[Joe Weeks]

Fair her step is light I go no more A roving from you, fair.

[Joan Brooks]

Man.

[Joe Weeks]

Her cheeks I like a rosebuds.

[Tommy Mercer]

Red Mark you wear what I said her cheeks are like the rosebud red.

[Joe Weeks]

There's a wealth of hair upon her head I go no more or robins.

[Tommy Mercer]

From you Fairness are RO from you.

[Joe Weeks]

I sat her one day upon my.

[Tommy Mercer]

Knee Mark you well what I said I sat one day upon my knee he said, young man, you're rather free.

[Joe Weeks]

I don't know more a RO from.

[Announcer]

You.

[Tommy Mercer]

I'll go no more a.

[Joe Weeks]

Sometimes when you come off watch and pop yourself down in your bunk after a tough grind, it's nice to think about what things will be like after the war. When the Merchant Marine will be carrying passengers again instead of troops. When they'll be having benefit performances on board for seamen and their families. When a stage or radio star like Joan Brooks will be entertaining in the grand salon with a song like if you were the only girl in the.

[Roger Ferguson]

World.

[Tommy Mercer]

If you were the only boy in the world and I were the only girl Nothing else would matter in the world today we would go on loving in the same old way A garden of Eden Just name or two with me Nothing to mar our joy I would say such wonderful things to you There would be such wonderful things to do if you you were the only boy in the world and I were the only girl.

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[Tommy Mercer]

Nothing too much. I would say such wonderful things to you There would be such wonderful things to do who were the only boys and I were the only girl.

[Joe Weeks]

Say here, Joan. Didn't you tell me there was something you wanted to say?

[Joan Brooks]

Yes, Joe. Friends, I'm sure you all know how important a letter can be right now. With our servicemen and women all over the world, letters are the only links to hold families and friends together. It's because they are so important that you want to be sure that the letters get quickly and safely to their destination. And the way to guarantee that safety is always to use the mail. V Mail is the safest as well as the fastest means. It's the only kind of personal mail that is always sent overseas by air. Food, blood plasma, guns and ammunition must reach our men overseas too. And you can help them get these by writing V Mail and saving valuable cargo space. Remember, write tonight and use V Mail the smart and patriotic way.

[Joe Weeks]

Thank you, Joan. Petty Officer Tommy Mercer.

[Tommy Mercer]

Night and day you are the one here to your far Makes no difference, darling, where you are I think of you day, night, night and day why is it so that this longing for you follows wherever I go? In the roaring traffic boom or in the silence of my lonely room I think of you day and night Madam day Under the height of me there's an old such a hungry yearning Burning inside of me and this prom will be free and you let me spend my life making love to you Day and night.

[Joe Weeks]

The men who go to sea today are not the salty, crusty characters whose hoary portraits fill the pages of the Ancient Mariner. The men who Go to sea today are hardy and tough vibrates but it isn't belonging for the smell of oil or brine the night makes them sign on. They go to sea today because there's a job to be done. A job that can't be done without them. This is a true story.

[Announcer]

I was with the British 8th army when Monty, as we called him, pushed Rommel and the famous Africa Corps back across the whole of North Africa. I'm an American, course, a Texan, but at that time I was serving as a kind of liaison officer between an American railway operating battalion and Kent's regiment of the British 8th Army. My job was to get supplies up to the front and keep on getting them there from one end of North Africa to the other. I had the same job in Sicily and in that hellhole of a beachhead we had at Anzio. Delivering supplies has been my job since the beginning of the war. So I know how much enough of everything means to an army that moves. I know how much it means to the guys who fight in that army. I remember one night at Anzio when my assignment was to see that a train load a small arms fire got up to the boys at the front. We were in a wood burning trump locomotive that we'd captured from the trouts. As we chugged along in the dark, one of the boys in the cab comes over me and says, hey Roger, we're going all wrong here.

[Joe Weeks]

We're way beyond the front line.

[Announcer]

That's what I'm beginning to think. So darn dark out here. I can't see any of the landmarks. But we better stop before we ride ourselves straight into a concentration camp.

[Joe Weeks]

We're in the German lines.

[Announcer]

Hey, you're not kidding, brother, those are high anymore. Hey Bill, get this thing in reverse and hurry and give it the gun. A direct hit would have blown that whole train to kingdom come. So you can imagine how fast we back down out of that position. And we couldn't go too fast cause that ammunition had to be delivered. We still had to find the outfit that needed it. At the time I didn't realize how badly it was needed. But about three miles back from when we went into reverse, we pulled up to a stop to have a look around. As soon as the wheel stopped rolling.

[Roger Ferguson]

A head popped up out of a.

[Announcer]

Foxhole and shouted the contact word. Hey Joe, I called out the answer. Yeah, that's you rube, you said it. Oh brother, am I glad to see you.

[Joe Weeks]

Come on, let's have that ammunition, son.

[Announcer]

We're down to our Last three clips. It's kind of hard to describe the way those men fell all over us that night. Just because we brought them the stuff they needed to fight this war with. But they hugged us and kissed us as if we bought them a month's furlough. No, sir, I'll never forget it. It stands out in my mind almost as clear as the night I got here. The night I got my one way ticket out of the army. We were delivering supplies again that night, only it was in trucks and jeeps this time. Three of us were on foot, leading the convoy through a field that had been mined by the Nazis. And all of a sudden, I can't tell you the name of the man who stepped on that mine. But we never saw him again. The man on the other side of me wasn't even scratched. And I got about 10 pieces of shrapnel in my arms, legs and spine. And I was in the hospital over here from July to November. And the day before I got out, a friend of mine dropped in to tell me I was going to get a medical discharge from the army. Well, I guess I got pretty mad. Yeah, I got mad cause he was about to go overseas and I was about to become a civilian.

[Joe Weeks]

Crying out loud, Rod. Stop walking around, will you?

[Announcer]

You're getting yourself all worked up, all pipe down.

[Joe Weeks]

The world hasn't come to an end. And besides, you've done your part. You can get a job in a defense factory.

[Announcer]

Yeah. Listen to me, son. I'll be back in action before you can get into it for the first time. That was just a brag when I said it. But after a while I got to thinking about that train load ammunition we delivered to the front line at Anzio. And then it dawned on me that I could do the same kind of job with a merchant marine. So six days later I was at the War Shipping Administration office with an assignment in my hand. My back wasn't strong enough for the army, but I'd been at Sea in 1929 and they needed experienced men now. So they took me on a ship. I made one trip in January and another in the spring, just in time for D Day. You should have been there for that day. It was some sight. There were ships and boats and landing craft as far as you could see in any direction. And all those ships and boats were manned by full crews. And the men on shore who saw all that heavy stuff moving in to keep them well supplied. Well, for a minute they kind of looked like those boys at Anzio. The ones that threw their arms around us for getting the stuff there. And believe me, the Merchant Marine really delivers the good.

[Joe Weeks]

The man whose story we've so briefly presented just now is here in this studio tonight. His name is Roger Ferguson of Temple, Texas. And I consider it an honor to shake his hand and introduce him to our studio and radio audience.

[Roger Ferguson]

Good evening, everybody. I'm not much of a speaker, but I would like to say that the Merchant Marine needs men. All experienced men it can get, especially deck and engine officers, able seamen, radio telegraphers, cooks and bakers. To win this war, hundreds and thousands of our ships will have to keep a steady stream of supplies going out to the far corners of the earth. And men must sail those ships. What I mean by that, experienced men. So if you're one of them guys, why don't you ride or go down to the Office of the Recruitment and Manning Organization of the War Shipping Administration. If you live in one of our major port cities or see your Maritime union or the United States Employment Service right away and sign on again with the Merchant Marines. Or just send that letter addressed to the recruitment director, Merchant Marines, Washington, D.C.

[Joe Weeks]

Thank you, Roger Ferguson. To the men who fight on land and sea, we respectfully dedicate the marine hymn.

[Tommy Mercer]

SA Satan Cooperation with the War Shipping Administration.

[Joe Weeks]

Columbia has brought you Joan Brooks, Charles Simpson, Roger Ferguson. And to the Courtesy of the U.S. maritime Service Training Station at Sheepset Bay, Brooklyn, you heard vocalist Tommy Mercer and Lenny Gator and the Maritime Service Orchestra under the direction of Philip Light. To all of you, we offer a cordial invitation to be with us again next week when the ship's whistle and the ship bell signify it. Maritime It's Maritime is produced and directed by Charles Herbert and written by Robert Sloan. This is Joe Weeks speaking for CBS the Columbia.

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