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Name and location of repository
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Title
E.D. Geddes Maritime Logs
Date(s)
Extent
1 box
(.2 cubic feet)
Name of creator
Biographical history
Edward D. Geddes was born in Marysville but lived most of his life in Tacoma. (1) At his retirement, Geddes had spent 47 years at sea and was the master of 15 ships. In 1919, Geddes began his career as an apprentice seaman on the merchant marine training ship Iris. He worked as a carpenter, messman, quartermaster, boatswain’s mate, and a licensed officer. (2)
Geddes was named captain of the Weyerhaeuser owned steamship Heffron on November 25, 1938. During World War II, the Heffron and 34 other ships made up a convoy to deliver war materials to Murmansk, Russia. (2) The convoy experienced Japanese air and submarine attacks. Near Iceland the convoy was attacked by enemy torpedoes. The Heffron was hit five times by the submarine, but Captain Geddes was able to call for his men to abandon ship and only one man was lost in the sinking. As a result, Geddes was awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal. (2)
From May 1944-November 1945 Captain Geddes served as a navigator for the U.S. Navy on the USS Hermitage and on the USS Europa. (2) The USS Europa was the third largest ship in the world at the time. He retired as a lieutenant commander from the Navy Reserve. (1)
Before his retirement Geddes was a master mariner for the Weyerhaeuser Co. and American Mail Lines. He was in command of ocean cargo and passenger vessels from 1938 to 1966. Edward D. Geddes died February 26, 1969, in Tacoma, Washington at 68 years old. (1)
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Scope and content
Includes Edward D. Geddes’s ledgers used for maintaining a record of operational data relating to a ship. The ledger labeled “Cash Book” tracks Captain Geddes’s arrivals and departures from 1952 through 1960. It also contains of the ship master’s cash account. The black leather-bound book labeled “Journal” also contains the ship master’s expense account during Geddes’s captainship of the S.S. Wendell Phillips in 1942. The composition book tracks the port arrivals and departures of the S.S. Wendel Phillips from 1942-1943.
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Finding aids
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Custodial history
Acquired from Phyllis and George Hoivik, 2023.