Lost and Found: World War II Shipmates Reconnect in Chance Internet
Encounter
After 62 years of being out of each other's lives, World War
II shipmates and old friends Ray Ellis and Bill Sprague reconnected to
find that despite the many years gone by, their friendship was still
intact.
Interviews by Kate Brannen
Ray Ellis: "The name of the ship was the USS Corpus Christie.
It was a frigate. They built 55 frigates and had them all manned by the
U.S. Coast Guard. I was the chief quartermaster on board.
"There were 215 men on a 310-foot boat and 30 feet wide. We
knew everybody very well.
"We were as close as two shipmates can be. We did a weekly
newspaper together. I did the drawings and he did the copy. He loved to
write.
"We were good friends, but he wasn't my shore buddy, so
to speak. I had a lot of guys that I'd pal around with, but we
appreciated each other.
"He was always having fun. Before the ship was finished we had
some welders on board to do some of the finishing work. He would take
these welding rods that looked like old sparklers, you know, and
he'd drop them over and he'd say ‘Kaloosh,
kaloosh.' We just had fun with everything, which got most of us
through the war.
"We were slated when we went over - we were to be
shipped up to New Guinea to muster up with other ships to eventually go
into the largest naval battle in the history of the world, the Battle of
Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. But instead, they sent us around to
Perth, Australia, where we spent almost two years doing maneuvers and
escorting subs up to the China Sea. But we never saw the battle.
"We both think that we were very fortunate to miss that,
because one of our sister ships came back into Perth for repairs where
Japanese kamikaze planes crashed into the stern and took the whole stern
out.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2007/07/17/content/two_of_us_ray_sm.jpg" "As much as we wanted to be in the action, we were thankful
that that might have saved our lives.
"We made a big rescue. We rescued 95 guys from a torpedoed
ship in the Indian Ocean. They lost quite a few of them, but we found
them. It took us five days to find them all. That was a big thing.
"It was about 700 miles out from Perth in the Indian Ocean. It
was sunk by German subs. A lot of them were very badly injured and they
were soaked in oil. It was incredible. They were out in the boiling sun
and then cold at night for, I think it was about 12 days before we got
them in and on board the ship.
"Each of us had a talent and we both used it doing the Rough
Log Book. Bill did all the writing and I did the illustrations and the
layout of the book. We put it together, together. We had it printed in
Australia. Each guy got two copies and it was something they could take
home with them of their whole experience. They absolutely treasure it.
"He stayed aboard to serve another year. Most of us left. So
that's the last time I saw him.
"We had a reunion and 65 guys showed up out of 200. That was
1991. It was in Corpus Christie, Texas. We all wondered what happened to
him and now we know.
"I believe he was asked by the Veterans Association or
something to do some memoirs. So he did these and somehow they were on
the Internet and one of his fellow signalmen on the ship saw them and
immediately called him. Two of his signalmen buddies talked to him and
he was flabbergasted. He couldn't believe it. And then they said,
‘You know Ray Ellis lives on Martha's Vineyard.' So he
gave him my number and address. He wrote me a wonderful letter. I might
even still have it.
"He came over on the fast ferry from Quonset Point. I met him
here. I was looking for him to come off the boat. He didn't come,
he didn't come and then all of a sudden this old looking guy comes
and I say, Bill! and it was a trip. You can imagine.
"But we were so delighted. We gave each other a big hug and
said thank God we finally met again.
"He had a great sense of humor. He still does. He's a
funny guy. He writes a column, as a matter of fact. His articles remind
me a little of CBS's Andy Rooney, ‘Why do they do this and
why do they do that?' He loves to criticize. He was a young
curmudgeon.
Anyway, he's aged like I have. It's a shock to see
somebody you remember as a tussle-haired kid to all of a sudden being 83
years old.
"He married a gal and his wife died about two years ago of
cancer and he's just getting over that. He was married 50-some
years to her. He has a son I haven't met yet.
"Lost and found that's what it is."
Bill Sprague: "We first met in Wilmington, Calif., where the
ship was being built. We were there in February 1944.
"Then we took off, heading west. None of us knew where we were
going at that point. They wouldn't tell us until we were 20 miles
off shore and couldn't communicate. It was not frightening. I
didn't think so. We knew we were going where we were needed. We
were anxious to know, just out of curiosity, where the heck are we
going? We went all the way across the Pacific with two other ships just
like ours. It was from Los Angeles to New Caledonia. If I remember
correctly, it was 31 days. We never saw a speck of land. We looked
forward to seeing those tropical islands and we didn't see any.
"We were fairly close. He was quartermaster and I was a
signalman. We stood watch up on the bridge with the officers. We usually
knew what was going on, which was nice.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2007/07/17/content/two_of_us_another_sm.jpg" "The quartermasters are more involved in the navigation of the
ship. Of course, we didn't have stuff like GPS, it was strictly
celestial navigation. They took care of the chronometers, which are
essential, and the other instruments which are used.
"My job on the bridge (I was usually out on the open bridge
all of the time) was visual signaling with other ships or vessels with
either a blinker light or semaphore flags or international flags. The
bridge is the command spot and operation center of the ship.
"He'd been in the Coast Guard a little while longer than
I had. I came in right at the beginning of 1943. He'd had some sea
duty before.
"We went up inside the barrier reef, which was kind of an
interesting experience because we were perfectly safe in there so it was
the only time we ran with the lights on.
"We ended up in Fremantle, Australia, about eight miles from
Perth. It was a pretty big base. An awful lot of Navy guys there. There
weren't too many Coast Guard.
"It was a stopping-off point for ships heading for India and
the River Road. So there was plenty going on. We were used as a training
vessel and an escort vessel for the U.S. submarines based there.
"We probably had more torpedoes fired at us than any ship in
the Navy. But they didn't have any explosives on them and they
didn't hit us. They'd go underneath. We'd watch them
go zipping underneath us.
"The good side, Australia was a great place to be. It was
really a good spot. It was warm most of the time. Never got real cold in
the winter. They were extremely cordial to us. They have very pretty
girls and very strong beer. So you know, that's a great
combination.
"He was a fun-lover. He was a jokester. He was a fun guy to be
around. He was just really lively, happy, like he is now.
"When I met him at the ferry up there about two weeks ago,
once we identified each other, those 62 years just evaporated very
quickly. We got along great.
"We put out like a yearbook, like a high school yearbook, on
the ship when we were on the way back. We worked very closely on that
book. He did all those cartoons. You've got to almost know the
people to get how funny they are. The one with the doctor? He's
talking to a sailor and the sailor is holding his head in his hand and
the doctor is saying, ‘Well, what's your problem?' and
that's funny because our doctor wore coke bottle glasses and he
was color-blind.
"We thought it would be good as a souvenir for all of us. We
each got two copies. One for ourselves and one to give to parents or
somebody like that. Mine's just about worn out, unfortunately.
"It was very obvious the talent he had - that he was a
very talented artist. I sort of figured he'd get into something
involved in that. He's done very well. His paintings are quite
well known.
"He did a painting when we rescued the guys out in the Indian
Ocean. I brought it back home and took it to my local framer and I
unrolled it and she said, ‘Oh that's a Ray Ellis.'
"We have an awful lot in common besides that two years we
spent together on the ship. We didn't have any time to just not
talk. It was talk, talk, talk. And not just about our service, but we
talked about politics, religion, anything. It was just great.
We're very similar in our personalities.
"We've all gotten older, but he's the same guy. He
laughs the same. He looks like he's in great shape, physically,
and he's certainly sharp mentally, no question about that. His
work is just magnificent. He's still doing it. He led a pretty
interesting life and I did too, so we had a lot of fun talking and
comparing notes on that.
"Our careers are very different. My career was in television
and motion pictures. But both of us, I think, have been fortunate enough
to have careers that give you a broad perspective of things, because you
meet all kinds of people and get involved in all kinds of different
things. You get a nice education just working.
"Shortly after I got out of the service, I moved to Chicago to
go to school. Several guys said they tried to find me, but
couldn't find me. So, I was totally unaware of this loop that they
had with the newsletter and the reunions. But I knew nothing about any
of that. I hadn't heard or knew anything about any of my shipmates
for years, many years, until another guy who was also a quartermaster
and close friend of Ray's called me out of the blue from
California.
"It's kind of a weird sensation. This fellow in
California sent me pictures of this reunion they'd had in Corpus
Christie with a picture of the whole gang with their names left to right
and so on and I would not have recognized any of them, because the only
memory I have is what they looked like when they were 19, 20, 21, 22
years old. So it's like they instantly got old. I did it
gradually. I watched it every morning in the mirror. But to see that
picture was kind of a shock. You don't think they change, but they
do. We do, all do."
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