Merry Yarns

During the summer, those that would visit Jernee Manor for the day  would gather around Capt. Jernee, (usually the men) while they waited for their families to shower and change .  Capt. Jernee always had a story to tell.  Some of these stories are included in this section.

These stories range from Capt. Jernee’s time as a seaman, when he was in the Coast Guard in Ocean City, and when he served in the Navy during WWII

Of course, there are many family memories of Capt. Jack and Pearl Jernee 

and Jernee Manor.  There were the holidays when Aunts and Uncles and cousins 

would gather and stories would be told.  

Some of the memories remembered by grandchildren from their days spent at Jernee Manor with their grandparents, Jack and Pearl Jernee are recorded in writing as well.

As told by Capt. Jack G. Jernee

Prior to the opening of the Panama Canal, I had signed on as the First Mate of a privately owned sailing vessel that was 140 feet overall and had a 40-ton leaded keel.  We had received instructions from the owner to set sail from Charleston and to proceed to Jacksonville to pick him up. From there,we were to sail down to Panama for the opening of the canal.

We set sail with the tide at approximately eight bells and had up our tops’l, mains’l, spanker and pusher.  We were clearing the harbor and making good way when it was discovered that the ship’s cat was missing.  After an extensive search, it was concluded that the cat had jumped ship.  Well, a large number of our crew were Norwegian “square heads”, a name given to the sailors that had the deep-water experience aboard square-rigged ships.  These men were very superstitious and refused to go any further without the ship’s cat for fear something might go wrong on the transit to Jacksonville.

After some discussion it was decided that I should return to Charleston and look for the cat.  So, the ships boat was lowered, and I made my way to Charleston lighthouse.  There I was able to catch a launch into Charleston.  I looked for the cat high and low, but no cat.  I returned to the lighthouse and left word with the stationmaster to send the cat to Jacksonville if it was found.

When I arrived back aboard ship, we set sail again for Jacksonville.  That night the wind picked up and it looked like we were in for a real blow.  We reefed our sails and the skipper and I went below for the night.  The skipper and I slept in separate quarters in the aft deck house.

In the middle of the night there was a great crash, and I jumped out of my rack and headed topside.  As I was coming out of my quarters, I ran into the skipper who was also headed topside.  Both of us fell down in the companionway that led to the topside ladder. The skipper was on top of me, and we both struggled to get up as the skipper said to me, “Was that crash what I thought it was?” When we emerged on deck, we found that the mast had been blown over the side and the watch reported that the sails had blown off like tissue paper.  We lived off our auxiliary engine which enabled us to maintain some control of the ship.  We could only run before the wind and if it weren’t for our 40-ton keel, we would’ve capsized several times. After a day of running before the sea, the storm died down.  We were able to call for some assistance on our wireless.  The governor on our engine was not working and with our sails gone we could not make it in on our own.  A seagoing tug came out and towed us into Jacksonville.  On the way in we passed a number of sailing ships that had gone down in the storm.  Only the cross trees on their masts were showing above the water.  We felt fortunate to have survived.

When we arrived in Jacksonville, all the “square heads” left the ship.  They thought the ship was jinxed.  The owner determined that the ship could not be refitted in time to make the opening of the canal.  

We never did find the cat.

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 As told by Capt. Jack G. Jernee

When I was a young man, I was working aboard a vessel that made runs up and down the coast. Once our ship was anchored south of Jacksonville off of the mouth of the Banana River (near Cape Canaveral). A shore party went ashore to purchase supplies for the ship. 

While ashore a friend and I met two sisters. They were identical twins. They seemed like really nice girls so my friend and I asked them if we couldn’t meet them in the town sometime. They seemed to like the idea. In fact, they suggested that we meet them that night. They went on to explain that they lived right along the shores of the Banana River and that we could meet them at their house. They said we should row in from the ship around 8:30 PM (2030) and they would hold a lantern on the shore where they live so that we would know where to row.

That night my friend and I set out at 2030 in a skiff for the Banana River. We were both rowing so in about 20 minutes we were at the mouth of the river, and it had become dark. We looked around and noticed up ahead there was a light on the riverbank, so we headed for it. However, after rowing a few more minutes we looked around again and saw that we were off course and not headed toward the lantern. We figured the current had carried us back toward the mouth of the river. We finally got squared off when we notice that once again, we were headed the wrong way. 

This happened several more times which made us think we had underestimated the strength of the river flowing down against us. By this time, it was very dark, and we were getting quite close to land. In an effort to overcome the current we really pulled hard on the oars thinking this with put us on shore at last. As we looked over our shoulders once more to our dismay, we were off course again.

In our confusion we weren’t paying attention to the rocks that were right before us in the river. Crash! Onto the rocks we went and over we went into the water. All we could think of were alligators in the water, so we climbed up on the rocks as far as possible. I looked around and discovered that the lantern was no longer to be seen. Also, the boat was full of water, and it was too heavy to right it by ourselves. So, there we spent the night on the rocks in the Banana River not budging for fear of alligators while being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

In the morning our ship sent out a boat to look for us and found us on the rocks. When we returned to the ship, we told our story. Some of the crew laughed and asked us if we had been on our way to meet two girls that were twin sisters. We said yes and they told us these sisters were known to invite young men to their home and supposedly direct them with lanterns. What most young men didn’t know was that the girls stood at different locations on the riverbank and would alternately shine their lanterns causing the young men to either give up trying to reach shore or pileup on the rocks. That was the last time my friend and I tried to meet anyone along the Banana River.

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 As told by Capt. Jack G. Jernee 

One day it was determined that the Station’s Cook was drunk.  

He had become over enthusiastic and managed to stick some of the food (pancakes) 

on the ceiling! 

Now the commanding officer was a religious man 

so when he heard of the cook’s condition, 

he had the Station’s crew gather in the galley. 

When the crew had gathered in around the cook, 

he then led the Station’s crew in prayer for the cook.

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 As told by Capt. Jack G. Jernee  

On quite a few occasions the skipper would take the boat crew out through the inlet to practice our life saving procedures.  On the way in many times we would have to negotiate the surf as we crossed the sandbars.  We would maintain control of the boat with the help of a sea anchor, which was trailed out the aft end of the wooden lifeboat boat.

One day the line to the sea anchor parted which meant we had nothing holding us back in the surf.  So, the boat took off like a shot on the next wave.  We got going very fast, and we were doing our best to keep from broaching.  Up ahead we could see we were going to cross a sand bar. The water was very shallow and as we went speeding over it, the oakum packing between the wooden strakes in the bottom of the lifeboat boat was sucked out and the boat promptly sunk.  

The sea anchor – a bucket shaped object with no bottom usually made of canvas.

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 As told by Capt. Jack G. Jernee  

One of the coldest winters I remember was when I was assigned to the Coast Guard Station on 4th St. in Ocean City during WWI. It was so cold that winter that the fire buckets in our barracks were frozen solid. We also would put tons of newspaper under our mattresses in an attempt to keep warm. Of course, we still had to carry out our patrols up and down the beach. It was so cold that there was a quarter mile of parge (slush) ice along the shore.

There is one patrol I remember in particular.  My partner and I were out on patrol that night and what a night it was.  I’m sure there was a partial nor’easter blowing.  I was dressed very warmly and had on foul weather gear complete with my Sou’wester on over my helmet.  However, shortly after the patrol began, it started to hail.  It hailed so hard that my Sou’wester was blown off and my canvas pants were shredded. 

The going got so tough that we decided to go up and walk along the boardwalk. That was okay for a while, but it didn’t take long for my boots to fill up with hail.  So, from time to time I would have to stop and empty my boots.  With great difficulty we continued the patrol and finally reached the station at 36th Street. The stationmaster’s wife let us in, and we warmed ourselves by the stove. It seemed like it took quite a while to melt the ice around my helmet so that I could take it off.

Finally, we got warmed up enough so that I thought we could head on back to the 4th Street station.  We knew that we could not make the trek back along the beach, so we made our way along Central Avenue.  The wind was still blowing very hard so that we would have to struggle from telephone pole to telephone pole and hang on and rest before heading onto the next pole.  Finally, we made it back to the station and that was the coldest winter I can remember.

Note  – In the winter of 1970 the Navy ship to which I was assigned was making a port call in Japan. I had stood a mid-watch on the quarterdeck on a very cold night which I mentioned in an audio tape that I had sent to my parents.  When my grandfather, Capt. Jernee,  heard this audio tape, he passed along the above story on a return audio tape.  - Tom Speers, Jr.

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  As told by Capt. Jack G. Jernee  

Every quarter our lifesaving unit was required to complete a number of practice drills. One of them was the breaches buoy drill. The skipper had held off on this drill because of the bad weather. However, the end of the quarter was coming up, and we had to complete this drill.  So, in spite of the cold weather the skipper ordered us to fall out onto the beach and prepare for the breaches buoy drill.

The drill consisted of firing a bolo attached to a line (rope) from a small cannon over a horizontal spar mounted on a tall pole (simulating a ship’s mast and crosstree) which had been erected on the beach for this purpose.  Once the line was over the crosstree then the breaches buoy could be rigged. The purpose of the breaches buoy was to transport crew safely from the ship to shore by means of a highline. This entire evolution usually took about 20 minutes and on that particular day we thought we would all freeze.

As the gunner’s mate took aim on the mast to fire the bolo, he whispered back over his shoulder to the man standing by on the line, “watch this”.   Boom!  

The gunner’s mate fired the bolo.  The bolo sailed through the air and instead of gliding neatly over the crosstree the bolo hit the mast dead center and knocked it down!  The skipper surveyed the damage and terminated the exercise.  The crew happily return to the warmth of the 4th Street Station.

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As told by Mr. Bill Ofgant – Margate Beach Patrol

I was a lifeguard for the City of Margate and was aware of the Ocean City Beach Patrol and its Captain, Jack Jernee.  One year I represented the City of Margate in the lifeboat races which were being held at Ocean City.  We had practiced hard for the competition and felt we had a chance to win.  All the beach patrols from up and down the coast were represented.  The two men crews walked around their boats and made last-minute adjustments to their equipment.

However, the Ocean City team was just bringing their boat down onto the beach.  It didn’t take long for the other teams to realize that the Ocean City boat was different from their own boats.  The Ocean City boat only had 7 strakes/planks that made up each side of the boat (most boats had 8) which of course made the Ocean City boat a lot lighter.

The other teams protested the entry of a lighter boat than the standard boat which was used on the beaches.  Capt. Jernee was quick to point out that the only rule applicable to the boats used in the race was that the boat had to have actually been used at one of the city’s lifeguard stations/stands.  It turns out that this boat had been used at a remote beach (59th St.) where it had not been observed by the opposing teams.  So, the judges ruled that the boat was okay to use.

At this point the other teams knew they could not come close to beating the Ocean City team and its modified boat so the teams on either side of the Ocean City boat conspired to ram the Ocean City boat as it started out through the surf.  However, as the race began the Ocean City team cleared the surf so fast that the other boats were not able to ram it.

That was not the only contest Ocean City won that day.  There was also a contest where each boat crew had to row a distance and then pick up a victim.  My partner and I had practiced this procedure many times.  We had managed to get our timing down to the point where the first man in the boat knew when to stop rowing and to move to the front of the boat to pull the man in while the other man continued to steady the boat.

When the actual contest took place, it didn’t quite work out as planned.  As we approached the victim, I glanced over my soul shoulder and gave one more pull on the oars.  I put down my oars and jumped to the front of the boat expecting the victim to be within easy reach.  However, the victim was still about 10 feet away. The victim (a member of the Ocean City patrol) had moved!  Meanwhile, the Ocean City team had picked up its victim and was headed for shore.  Other teams were also having trouble getting their victims on board as well.  I must say one thing about Capt. Jernee, when it came to a shooting match, he didn’t leave anything to chance.

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Time: World War II

Place: Fourth Naval District

Told by: CWO Jack Jernee - Naval Intelligence

One day I was walking along the Atlantic City Boardwalk on my way to the Naval Intelligence field office.  As I walked along, I noticed a Navy Lieut. leaning on the rail and talking with some young ladies.  As I walked further it occurred to me that the Lieut. was missing a tooth.  I thought it unusual that an officer would be missing a tooth since the Navy provides dental care for its personnel.

I decided to go back and talk with the Lt.  He was still standing by the rail where I had seen him before.  I walked up and introduced myself and showed him my identification and asked him for his.  He had no identification!  With the assistance of the Atlantic City police we had this gentleman taken downtown for questioning.  It turns out that he indeed had no identification.  He was simply posing as a Navy Lieut. and traveling around the States “living off the fat of the land”.  He was able to do this since during the war people would assume, he was an officer home on leave so they would offer him room and meals wherever he went.

When we determined that he was a fraud, we had him thrown in the “can” minus his uniform.  That’s right, he sat in jail in his underwear, because we didn’t think he deserved to wear the uniform of a United States Naval Officer.

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As told by Capt. Jack Jernee

During World War II, our Naval Intelligence Unit welcomed aboard a new Commanding Officer (CO).  Shortly thereafter on one of my visits to the home office located at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, I was called in by the new CO.  He wanted to know why the morale of the troops was so low.  Everyone in the unit knew that the Executive Officer (XO - 2nd in command) was the cause of the low morale. 

Since the CO had just reported aboard and I hadn’t gotten to know him that well I was hesitant to bilge the XO in front of the skipper.  The CO knew this, so he started to pry it out of me.  He said, “Jernee, you are the senior enlisted man in this unit so if anyone knows what is going on around here it is you.  I want to know why the morale is so low.”  

The CO continued on this track for a while so I figured he was serious and that it would be okay to “spill the beans”.  I told him the XO was being unreasonable.  He was always on the crew’s case about this regulation or that regulation which was frustrating them to no end and making it hard for them to do their jobs.  I gave him a number of examples and quit talking.

The CO sat there a minute and thought to himself.  Then he picked up the phone and called a friend of his in the Bureau of Naval Personnel.  He told his friend the situation and that he wanted a new XO.  The CO hung up the phone, and I was given permission to leave.  

A few weeks later the XO received orders and was sent to Adak, Alaska!  We received the new XO, and the morale of the troops improved, and the CO and I had a good working relationship from then on.

Note:  In 1968 I invited Capt. Jack Jernee, my grandfather, to a dinner at the Philadelphia Navy Yard sponsored by the Naval Academy Foundation.  While at that dinner, grandfather ran into his old Commanding Officer.  Apparently, they must’ve had a good relationship because the first thing the CO said was “Jernee, you are as ugly as ever” after which they both had a great laugh.  In the conversation that followed one of the events they discussed (and laughed about) was “sending the XO to Adak.”  It was great to see old shipmates enjoying each other’s company. 

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