Sidebar Information (Alice Harders Sorensen, 2)

SIDEBAR: Lurline
The Lurline sailed from Honolulu for San Francisco on December 5, 1941. Many of the passengers on board were the wives and children of the military who were returning to the mainland either for the holidays or to remain there due to the threat of war. The news of the attack of Pearl Harbor was sent to the ship by wireless operator and received at 10 a.m. on December 7. The captain diverted the Lurline from her course and ordered full speed ahead. The crew was instructed to secure the ship for water-tightness and prepare for blackout, and the military officers aboard took over security at 5 p.m. Later that evening, the passengers were gathered in the ships lounge and told about the attack; for the rest of the trip all personnel and passengers wore life jackets.

At 3:27 a.m., December 10, the Lurline docked in San Francisco. At noon the next day, Matson Navigation Lines handed the ship over to the U.S. Maritime Commission and placed her at the disposal of the government for the duration of the war. The ship was painted gray and turned into a troop transport ship.

Crossing the ocean during the war was a dangerous challenge. Japanese submarines patrolled the waters and some attacks were recorded. Of the women on the Lurline, were some military wives who had no idea if they were widows or not until they reached San Francisco.





SIDEBAR: "Bird of Paradise"
The photo of Alice at www.hnlnews.com/features0603/earlyflight.html is no longer posted. I have a copy and will try to figure out a way to get it posted.The plane that Hans Harders posed his daughter in front of was an Atlantic-Fokker C-2 tri-motor plane dubbed “Bird of Paradise” by its crew. The crew, Army Lt. L.J. Matiland, pilot, and Lt. A.F. Hegenberger, navigator, completed the first non-stop flight from California to Hawaii on June 29, 1927, the day before Alice saw it. One hour into the flight, the plane’s radios failed but the crew decided to continue their trans-Pacific flight relying on Hegenberger’s ability to navigate by “dead reckoning.” The flight took twenty-five hours and fifty minutes.

SIDEBAR: St. Louis College
During the war, St. Louis College (now called St. Louis High School) became the 147th General Hospital, but most Oahu residents referred to it simply as “St. Louis Hospital.” As early as April 1941, the Army was negotiating with St. Louis College to use the school as a medical facility in the event of war. In the final terms of the agreed-upon lease, the Army paid St. Louis College $110,664 for the occupation of its campus through 1943. (Current 2005 equivalent dollars is about $1.4 million dollars.)However, the administration did not inform the faculty of the arrangement, and the first they learned about it was when the Army arrived the night of December 7, 1941. The army made over the school’s chapel into a surgical ward, and the science rooms became the research and testing laboratories for the Mid-Pacific area. Over the course of the war, the hospital cared for 33,000 patients.

SIDEBAR: Maurice Evans
During World War II, Maurice Evans, a great American Shakespearean actor, served in the United States Army Entertainment Section, Central Pacific Theater with the rank of major. In Hawaii, Evans created a theatre program for the enjoyment of the troops and coordinated with other local theatre groups to support the troops. Not only did he organize these productions, but sometimes he starred in them. Hamlet was one of the most popular productions that toured the military installations.

Women of World War II Hawaii