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World War II veteran recounts experiences at sea
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By Leanne M. Robicheau, VillageSoup/Knox County Maine Times News Editor
ROCKLAND (May 26): Like many young men and women during World War II, George Robishaw was taken away from his beloved hometown to fight a war in far away places.
Robishaw, now 87, would rather have stayed right here in Rockland, where he was born and raised and still lives today.
 World War II veteran George Robishaw of Rockland points to an albatross that landed on the rail of his ship, the USS Narragansett, during the war when the ship was disabled at sea. His skipper said the albatross was a good omen. (Photo by Leanne M. Robicheau)
But in April 1944, Robishaw had few choices when his draft number came up.
"I had a choice, either the Navy or Marines," he said. "I chose the Navy."
 Soon, he was on a two-year journey around the world. His assignment aboard the 205-foot USS Narragansett, the U.S. Navy's largest steel tug, brought him to some of World War II's hot spots in France and Japan.
 Navy Yeoman 3rd class George Robishaw in the mid-1940s aboard the USS Narragansett, where he learned office work and how to type. (Image courtesy of George Robishaw)
"That ship was meant to follow the fleet," Robishaw said during a recent interview, when he talked about serving in the military during World War II, a war that claimed the lives of more than 60 million people.
During the war, Robishaw had two close calls, but neither was from enemy fire. One time, a ship maneuver poked a hole in the Narragansett and it almost sank. And one night, a drunken chief boatswain's mate returning from liberty took a knife to Robishaw.
 The front page of the Saipan Beacon after the United States claimed victory over Japan during World War II. (Image courtesy of George Robishaw)
An unwavering faith and a little luck got Robishaw through many trying times during the war.
"It was not easy to be in the service and away from your family," he said. "Always thinking about subs and bullets -- it worried me."
Robishaw witnessed battle and its aftermath.
Injured soldiers, half-wrapped in bandages and bloodied, were carried past the Narragansett to waiting hospital ships, he said. "It's not an easy thing to see."
 George Robishaw holds a very worn prayer book, "My Military Missal," issued by the U.S. Navy during World War II. (Photo by Leanne M. Robicheau)
Often, Robishaw would find a private spot on deck where he would read his military issue prayer book, "My Military Missal," and pretend he was in church. Today, he still has that missal, which is so worn the book cover is barely legible.
His reputation as a religious man brought shipmates to his quarters often when they knew the ship was going into battle. The men would ask Robishaw to lead them in prayer.
Before Robishaw was drafted, he was working on the construction of Brunswick Naval Air Station with his father, running heavy construction equipment. He was told he wouldn't get drafted because of his job, but lo and behold, he was soon in the Navy.
The government allowed him to remain at home until his daughter Mary was born. As soon as that happened, he was off to boot camp in Sampson, N.Y. Boot camp was only 30 days, he said, "because they were anxious to get us overseas."
In Norfolk, Va., he was assigned to a troop ship bound for North Africa. When they stopped in Casablanca, he moved to a train and was told not to stand in the doorways at night or "we might get shot," he said.
In North Africa, he wound up on a troop ship headed to Naples, Italy, where he was assigned to the Narragansett. The tug was making preparations for the invasion of Southern France.
When asked what he'd like for a job, Seaman Robishaw said he would like to work in the office, but didn't know how to type.
The Navy taught him.
"It was the best thing that ever happened to me," said Robishaw, a retired banker.
On the ship, Robishaw also had the collateral duty of loading guns with ammunition.
Shortly after the United States invaded Normandy, the Narragansett was pushing a rocket barge toward a beach in St. Tropez, France.
"[The Narragansett] would pepper the beach," Robishaw said. "After the rockets were released, we'd stand by."
Two large hospital ships were nearby, he said, and wounded soldiers would be transported past his ship. Fortunately, none of the Narragansett crew was injured, he said.
It took three weeks to secure the area, so that soldiers could go deeper into the country to fight. Robishaw later learned that the mine sweepers used in the war there were made in Camden, Maine, he said.
Farther down the coast, the Germans had built a wall on the beach, which was painted to look like trees, he said. The Germans were hiding behind the wall with machine guns.
After a while, the Narragansett made its way to Oran, North Africa, for liberty and to replenish supplies. Most of the crew got off the ship for some time on the beach. Robishaw stayed behind to keep track of who left the ship and who returned. It was then that the chief boatswain’s mate pulled a knife on Robishaw.
"He was quite inebriated," Robishaw said. "He didn’t know what he was doing.”
An officer intervened and later asked Robishaw to testify against the chief in a court-martial. Robishaw refused, saying the chief was a good man.
One night on deck, Robishaw said, he looked up to the sky and said, "Oh Lord, how long will I be away from my family." A voice told him two years, he said, which was almost exactly how long he was gone.
At one point, the ship returned to New York and Robishaw got a week's leave. He hopped on a train to Rockland, but the whole time he was home, he was sick with tonsillitis and had to stay at the Navy base in Rockland.
Soon, the Narragansett departed New York for the Pacific Coast, traveling through the Panama Canal.
When the ship went through the locks to the Pacific Ocean, it picked up a tow with 20 men aboard. It was a huge dry-dock used to repair ships, Robishaw said.
"We were supposed to go to the invasion of Okinawa," he said.
"We ran into a terrible storm,” he said. "It was like a typhoon."
When heavy seas snapped the tow line, the dry-dock went adrift with the men on board.
It was really too rough to come alongside the dry-dock, but the Narragansett's captain insisted.
"Sure enough, it poked a hole in the [Narragansett]," Robishaw said. "We were dead in the water."
The captain ordered the crew to abandon ship.
At that very moment, the chief boatswain's mate – the one Robishaw saved from a court-martial – saved the entire crew.
"If he had been court-martialed, maybe we wouldn't have been saved," Robishaw said. "You can't always judge people; you've got to be careful."
By having the crew stuff their bunk mattresses in the hole and by shifting fuel tanks to make the ship list, so that less water entered the hole, the chief prevented the Narragansett from sinking. The chief also began a "bucket brigade," with crewmen removing water from the engine room.
Radio silence was not supposed to be broken, Robishaw said, but they sent a distress signal, which was picked up by a Miami ham radio operator, who contacted the Coast Guard. For two days the ship and the dry-dock drifted at sea with no power and no refrigeration. Sailors were using spoiled meat on hooks to pass the time fishing. They hauled up a shark.
Robishaw has a photograph of that shark dangling from a hook. In the background, on the rail of the ship’s fantail, is an albatross. The skipper told Robishaw that was a good luck omen. Soon, Dolphins came along and drove the sharks away.
“We had to get out of there,” Robishaw said, because another storm was coming.
Once the Narragansett was patched, it headed for Honolulu to catch up with the fleet. By that time, the ship had missed the invasion of Okinawa, Robishaw said.
At Saipan, a huge armada of ships was readying for the invasion of Japan, he said, noting the Narragansett did get to Iwo Jima.
At Iwo Jima, his crew was shown where the fighting had taken place from high cliffs and caves, making it a difficult battle, he said. The United States had flame throwers that got rid of the Japanese soldiers, he said.
"It was a horrible thing," Robishaw said. "But it had to be done."
On Aug. 15, 1945, Victory over Japan Day, "We celebrated out on the fantail with a bottle of Pepsi Cola," Robishaw said. "We were fortunate nobody was hurt [on the Narragansett]."
When the ship reached New Orleans, the Navy offered Robishaw, then a yeoman second class, first class, if he re-enlisted.
“No. I want to go home,” said Robishaw.
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