Stop in for a cup of coffee

My dad said the pay was good. Some weeks he could make more than his older brother who worked as a non-degreed engineer or designer. Getting a view from the superstructure of a big ship was a great perk (if you're OK with heights). On the other side was working in a tin can in the heat and the cold, dragging the heavy cables for arc welding through to whatever place you had to crawl. Shipyard could be pretty rough too.

One of the carrier conversions out of Beth Steel Staten Island was commissioned as the Royal Navy's Avenger, April 1942. Worked as escort and cover for North Africa landings and looks like she was sunk by torpoedo off of Gibralter late that year. Tough times.

Another one was USN excort carrier conversion USS Chenango ACV-28. This one started as a civilian tanker built in Chester Pa. It made it through the war and wasn't scrapped until '61 !
Escort Carrier Photo Index: USS CHENANGO (ACV-28)