A few weeks ago, I posted a call for information on Jim White.  Although I still don’t have any solid information on his background I did find an interesting report from the USS Owl.  The Owl and Partridge were in a convoy that stopped in the Azores before continuing on to Britain.

Five sailors from the Owl left the ship without authorization and one, Stanley B. Marsh, ended up stabbing two Portugese soldiers while ashore.  Marsh was sentenced to 8 year imprisonment and 20 years in a penal colony.  He died of Pott’s Disease (TB that infects the spine) on March 21, 1948 in a penitentiary at Lisbon, Portugal.

It’s an interesting bit of history from both the Owl and the Partridge.  White’s five page report on the incident points to his cool handling of the situation.

The other men present during the altercation were:

K.L. Busby

T.W. Permenter

E.R. Combs

P.H. Jordon

T. Popovich

C.R. O’Donnell

L.Y. Mon

W.D. Duham Jr.

Reading the report, it doesn’t appear that these men were out for anything but a good time.  Marsh’s behaviour is strange in the context of the report so it’s not entirely clear what happened to provoke such a violent reaction.  As always, if anyone has any further information, please let me know.

By the way, the document was scanned backward so go to the last page and read to the front.

http://usspartridge.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/file0005.pdf