OLLIE BELL PICTURES-1946 & 47 (Page 1)
STARDUST NOW PLAYING, PLEASE ADJUST SOUND.
OLLIE BELL PICTURES-1946 & 47 (Page 1)
STARDUST NOW PLAYING, PLEASE ADJUST SOUND.
WEBMASTER’S NOTE:Ollie Bell who honorably served on the Tortuga in 1946 and 47 was kind enough to send the following pictures. I’m extremely grateful for his time and efforts, he had a lot of trouble with his scanner and wrecked a few of his cherished old pictures trying to remove them from a 59 year old album. Although there are only a few pictures and the quality of some of them is lacking due to age and water damage, I feel they are wonderful addition to the Tortuga history and the Tortuga website. I know everyone who will view these precious old memories will join me when I say, thank you Ollie for sharing your experiences while aboard the Tortuga with us, we all owe you a debt of gratitude and BIG BRAVO ZULU, WELL DONE SAILOR!
I would like to ask everyone” who sees these pictures to take the time to send Ollie a “thank you e-mail", this is the least we can do for him.
For those who have sent acknowledgements for the past few years I want to personally thank you. For those who have made many trips to the Tortuga website and have enjoyed the vast amount of information and hundreds of pictures and for whatever reasons have never sent Kudos to anyone, please take the time to do so because someone has invested a lot of their time for your enjoyment!
Ollie Bell’s e-mail address…olliebell@earthlink.net
Chuck Westbrook
The following is some of the e-mail that was sent to me from Ollie Bell…
Chuck,
May I add to your history of the Tortuga. I was a crew member in 1946 and '47. The ships duties at that time were to retrieve usable landing craft, munitions,arms and equipment from the Philippines, Iwo and Okinawa and to deliver mismatched equipment to Chiang Kai-Shek of the Chinese Nationalist Government. ( Draw your own conclusion )
I was the MM3 that discovered the oil system in the starboard engine for the reduction gears was built wrong at an East Coast shipyard. Thus the long trek back to the states from Tsingtao in '47 with the port engine only. The burned bearings were replaced after I was transferred.
The "Tooga" survived a typhoon off Formosa (Taiwan).Rolling 30 degrees port to 30 degrees starboard. One “46 degree roll” ! By the Grace of God it righted itself. Now those pictures were a hoot. I regret I have none to send of this. Example: Do you recall the cross hall aft of the galley? Went from one side to the other. We had a 55 gal. barrel of flour roped off at port side. The rope broke. The barrel slid to and fro. Flour fogged the entire ship. Everyone was hot sweaty and scared s---less. We laughed and laughed. A couple of guys got hurt trying to stop the barrel. Cheese and crackers three meals a day was not funny. We took on water down the port stack. Some guys got steam burns. Some of us got religion...
Chuck, thanks for acknowledging my E to you. I do have a few pictures of the Tooga that survived a house fire in '61. The discoloration of the pictures I sent is from being soaked with a fire hose.
Ollie Bell
~~~~NOW FOR A SHORT WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE~~~~
IN 1947, MANY PEOPLE WERE DRIVING THIS CAR AND LISTENING
TO STARDUST ON THE AM RADIO, AH THE GOOD OLD DAYS...
COKE CAME IN A BOTTLE & WAS SERVED
WITH A SMILE AT THE SODA FOUNTAIN
FOR THE PRICE OF A NICKEL.
IF YOU LOOKED SKYWARD, YOU MAY HAVE BEEN
LUCKY ENOUGH TO SEE ONE OF THESE BEAUTIES
This Handsome Swash Buckler is Ollie Bell.
Hasseler,(Ollie Bell), Ramsey.
