Joseph McCarthy in Fifties America Immigration

[Stuart Henderson]

Yes i remember arriving NYC and anchoring off Staten Island for Immigration & Customs clearance during those years. I was Purse/CS on Cunard cargo ships then the the Glasgow/NY run with full cargo of finest scotch whisky, no containers in those days, and of course some( cargo )didnt arrive.............. I
used to set up space for immigration and then muster the crew for the questioning. A lot of the crew were Glaswegians of course. One time I got a call from the interviewers asking me to" translate" what one of these guys was saying in answer to their questions. He was f...... and blinding and was really smashed in the end I gave the answers which luckily for the guy they accepted and he could continue his session over at Market Diner.
Being regular I got to know the immigration,customs and police in NY very well and Cunard was good with entertaining allowance. In came in handy a few years later when I took my wife Ann on one of the last Atlantic runs of the original Queen Mary. She was treated like Royalty by all those NY services, no queues, first of f gangway with young son in pushchair.NYPD got her a taxi, she said at time she wondered if onwatchers thought she was being arrested.......
Stuart

[Frederick Lacey]

Hi Stuart, Its great that little snippets of information on here seam to rejuvenate the little grey cells
and bring back memories that have been long forgotten, you mention whisky, we were loading a cargo
which was part whisky in KGV and the dockers decided to go on strike, they wanted Temptation Money,
which was to be paid extra money so that they didn't pinch any of it. Fred.

[Captain Kong]

In 1998, Anne and I were in Niagara for a couple of weeks.
I had a car and we decided to cross the Rainbow Bridge alongside the Falls to have a day in the US. .
When we got to the US side, we stopped at the gate, a big Immigration guy came to my window, 2Wheres ya passports," I handed him mine and then Annes.he looked at mine and was shouting and prodding my passport, and then he looked at Anne`s` and shouted to her, "And you too marm, park your car over by the wall, " We got out and he pulled out a gun and said "follow me" we went into a very large room with a counter across the far end. Half way down was a rope stretched across. We followed him to the counter, "Get back, behind the rope." We got behind the rope, he handed our passports over the desk. we stood there for around 15 minutes. He came back to us and said "Get outside". we went, He handed us the passports and a piece of paper, "Now get in your car and follow that guy over there. Another man with a gun, he walked slowly in front of us.and we turned to face the Canadian side. He leaned through my window and said , "Keep moving and dont come back."
We went back across the bridge wondering what we would do if the Canadians did the same and turned us back to the US,
The Canadian Immigration guy said , "What are you doing, you have only just left Canada and your back already". I told him what happened.
He handed us our passports and said ,"Take my advice, Stay this side of the Border, " . so we went into Niagara and stayed there.
On the piece of paper it just said , `Refused admission to the USA` with our names and passport numbers on. Never did find out why. Tho` we have been to the States many many times since with no problem.
Cheers
Brian

[robpage]

Did you have an up to date Visa before attempting to cross the border Brian ? my guess is you didn't

[gray_marian]

#12, Hi Fred, Re your post did the dockers actually obtain 'Temptation Money'?..
...Thank you

[Ron Kendall]

Glasgow dockers got temptation money, so they left the whisky alone, while I heard that Liverpool dockers got embarrassment money for loading toilets and urinals.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Glasgow dockers got temptation money, so they left the whisky alone, while I heard that Liverpool dockers got embarrassment money for loading toilets and urinals.

During the early 50's, crew members (including cadets) of ships docked in NZ ports were recruited to work on other vessels as stevedores, but never allowed to work as stevedores on their own vessel. Any Master/Ch.Officer who didn't release some crew members found their own vessel without any stevedores at all, as there was a shortage of manpower in NZ immediate post war era. As a cadet I earned more as stevedore in a day than I did as a cadet in a month, accrued quite a bit of money, alas never saw any of it, as it was paid to the Master of the vessel who was supposed to pay it to us, but instead he credited the company with it. This came to the attention of the Stevedores Union (no secrets on a ship) no action was taken whilst the vessel was discharging but when we arrived at the loading port, Bluff, no stevedores were made available to our vessel except when no other vessel was in port, what should have been a five day load took thirty days and company's ships blacklisted. Whilst working as a stevie on other ships I got paid embarassment money for discharging lavatory pans, dirt money for discharging lamp black, other payments for all kinds of things, cool money for loading cheese, freezer money for loading meat etc., but as said never saw a penny because I was indentured to the company and apparently they were legally entitled to it whilst I was so indentured. A case of 'I never had it, so why should you' but on completion of indentures I never even contemplated going back to that company.

[happy daze john in oz]

Security today is good in some places and non existant in others. Heathrow is a nightmare and Australian airports are not far behind. I have recently been tested three times for explosives and had to take half my clothes off to go through the electronis gate. But if you now want strict regulatiosn go to Vietnam, going ashore there is like facing the Gestapo. Three gates to go through and a check at each one. Not sure what they are looking for as they never speak in English just smile and point. More forms to fill in than you could poke a stick at, even one to get back on the ship and Vietnam guards all over the ship.

[John Arton]

Re. U.S. Immigration. As late as 1973 the prat in Jacksonville was still asking those questions. He was a fat ignorant git who refused to even start the process until he had been given and started in on, a case of Guinness and woo betide us if there was not a case ready for him.
He would randomly pick around 50% of the Spanish crew and refuse them entry passes, saying that he was such an expert he could spot the ones he refused would have done a runner if they had been granted shore leave. He was such an expert that of the 50% he did grant shore leave passes to, 30% of them did do a runner!!!.
There was on trip where it almost ended up with no shore passes being issued as after calling the electricians wife "she could be any old hooker the electrician had picked up in Rotterdam" as her visa had been issued in Rotterdam and not the U.K., we all piled into him telling him that if there were any more like him ashore none of us wanted to go ashore anyway. This put his back up even more as apparently the good old USA immigration service did not want to be seen as being nasty by not issuing at least some crewmen landing passes. He then started to plead with us to get our passes but we refused to answer his questions until he apologised to the electricians wife. All this arguing meant that the start of loading of the phosphate cargo was being delayed and the shore side were starting to agitate and it was this plus our determination to get an apology that eventually got him to back down and apologise and issue passes to all on board.
rgds
JA

[robpage]

They have not changed John , I went to tour the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia a couple of years ago , and changed planes at Washington Dullas airport , there was the usual queue at immigration , and I had only one hour forty five to change plane , where are you staying tonight he asked , I said I don't know , I am tight on time to get my connection , but if I get the connecting flight , here is the address of the hotel in Lynchburg , if you don't get your connection where are you staying he asked , I don't know ! , I told him , that answer almost ended up by me being refused entry . I began to think these guys have not only their sense of humor extracted but also their common sense