John ""Jack" Wilson Maloy Jr. (1900-1980) was born in Pensacola on May 31, 1900, the son of Captain Jonathon "John" W. Maloy Sr. (1867-1925) and Alice Estell Mayo (1871-1944). Both father & son would become well-known harbor pilots in the Pensacola area and both served their nation during WWI as well. As to John Jr., he enlisted in the Navy on September 1, 1917 in Montgomery and reported to a "receiving ship" in Norfolk, VA for basic training. By December, he was assigned to the battleship USS Michigan for advanced on-the-job instruction.
There, on January 15, 1918, they were sailing off Cape Hatteras when struck by a heavy gale with tremendous winds. John Jr. wrote home about the storm, stating that “about 4:00 AM the waves began to grow into mountains. Every man on the ship began to get sick, that is except the old heads. The winds blew harder and harder and the waves grew higher and higher. At breakfast it was too rough to even take down the tables for mess so those who were able to eat took their breakfast on deck. The ship was rolling and rocking so much that you could hardly stand up. You talk about a sick fellow, well I was one. Some of us sick ones scrambled up to the boat deck for some fresh air. About 1:00 PM, I went down on the main deck for a nap. Then I heard a terrible crash up on deck and went up to see. There I saw the foremast had blown over and underneath it was all the seasick guys who had had been crushed to pieces. One of the men had even been decapitated. Three of them were in my company and one was my best friend. I had just been talking to him a few minutes ago.” In all, six men were killed with thirteen injured.
John Jr. survived the rest of the battleship's voyage and was transferred to the cargo ship USS Radnor for the remaining six months of WWI. As for his father, he enlisted as a "Warrant Boatswain" on October 23. 1917, promoted to Ensign on April 18, 1918, and then detached to the submarine base at New London, CT. For the remainder of the war, he was assigned to the submarine chasers our of New Orleans, LA. But as soon as the war ended, father and son returned to Pensacola to take up their chosen profession as bar pilots. John Jr. would spend 48 years as a pilot with a slight detour during WWII as a US Coast Guard Lt. Commander from 1943-1945. He would pass away on May 27, 1980 and joined Theresa and his parents in St. John's Cemetery.
Comments