US Merchant Marine Messman George Stewart Carlson was born in Opp, Alabama on September 21, 1921, the son of Gustave Aldalphus Carlson Jr. (1883-1940) and Roberta M. Fuller (1897-1941). George's grandfather was Gustave Sr. (1847-1923), born in Oslo, Norway and came to America as a young boy. He would marry Mary Schab (1857-1935) in 1883 and soon became associated with the Medical College of Mobile as a professor of embalming and anatomy. He and Mary were buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile. As to George's father, Gustave Jr. was raised in Mobile and would marry Roberta "Bertie" M. Fuller (1897-1981) there on July 5, 1912. She was from Opp, Alabama and the daughter of a local farmer William M. Fuller and Margaret E. Mims. By 1920, Gus and Bertie had moved in with his parents at 555 St. Anthony Street along with their first-born William. Gus' father had by now become the superintendent of the Mobile Medical College while young Gus ran an ice cream factory.
By 1925, Bertie had remarried to Jerome Merchant (1883-1972) in Opp, Alabama and moved with her new husband to his home in Pensacola. There, he had gone to work for Newport Industries in 1915 and would retire in 1959 as a foreman. George and his brother William Ralph "Red" (1913-1998) were raised in Pensacola from the time of their move here in 1925. William would serve in the military during WWII from 1943-1945 and would eventually become the owner of the W. R. Taylor Brick Company in Pensacola.
By 1942, George had finished one year at Pensacola High School before trying his hand for a while working for a reclamation company. With America now at war, jobs began to open up all over as the country's industrial might began to gather steam. In response, George left his family home at 1608 East Jackson Street and went to work with the merchant marines aboard the steam merchant SS Onondaga as a messman. The ship was owned by the Ford Motor Company and ported out of Dearborn, MI.
On July 23, 1942, the unarmed and unescorted SS Onondaga was sailing from Nuevitas, Cuba to Havana with a cargo of magnesium ore. Along the way, the ship crossed the path of the German submarine U-129 captained by Hans-Ludwig Witt (1909-1980). Just north of Cayo Guillermo, Witt fired one torpedo that struck the Onondaga amidships on the port side. The destruction of the ship was so complete that the vessel sank within one minute. Some of the sailors barely managed to jump overboard and swim to two rafts that had broken free. Some were pulled under by the tremendous suction when the ship sank, and some drowned on the surface. Of the 33 sailors on board, 14 survived and 19 perished. One of those that didn't make it was Pensacolian George Stewart Carlson. The survivors were picked up by a Cuban fishing boat that was in the area and taken to Punta San Juan, Cuba. One passenger that survived was Captain Mellin Respess, who was the master of the SS Thomas McKean that had been sunk on June 29th by the famous U-505. In 2000, Hollywood would make a movie called "U-571" starring Matthew McConaughey and Bill Paxton based on the Navy's famous capture of this German submarine.
In the meantime, Roberta was notified of her son's fate and that there would be little chance of his body ever being recovered.
Comments