Wow Bumber. Make through WWII and then to die panning for gold. Must have found some in order to try to remove the mercury. Liesa ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thurmon E. King" <thurmonking@juno.com> To: <SACKETT-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2003 2:25 AM Subject: Re: [SACKETT-L] Tales from my childhood (Oops) > I don't know where the first part of this went to ... So, I'll try again. > > During the past week I was reminded of a visit by one of my cousins after > we were had moved to Yuma, AZ. I had remembered him being in the Navy > and that he told of being on a ship in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and > that a skeleton crew managed to save the ship by getting it out to sea. > Later in the year, Mother told us that his ship had been sunk by the > Japanese. And, as I remembered it, my cousin was lost at sea. But I > couldn't remember who the cousin was. > > So, I called my brother, Donal, who is three years older than me. He > told me that the cousin's name was Claude Bolton, Jr. and that he had > been on the ship USS Astoria. > > Claude, Jr was the son of my mother's sister Emma (Sackett) Bolton > (1899-c1997) who was married, in 1921, to Claude Bolton, Sr. They had > had five children, the youngest was born in Yuma, AZ in 1933. Sometime > after 1933 they were divorced. And Aunt Emma raised her children alone. > > Now, for the story of Claude Bolton, Jr. (1923-1951): > > As stated earlier, he was in the U.S. Navy when the Japanese bombed Pearl > Harbor. But, according to the Navy's website, there were no U. S. ships > that got out of Pearl Harbor during the bombing. One ship tried and was > hit and was beached to keep it from sinking in the channel. So, what I > had remembered about my cousin's shipmates getting their ship out of the > harbor; was either me remembering incorrectly, or my cousin embelished > his story for his younger cousin !! > > However, he was on the ship Astoria when it was sunk by gunfire from > Japanese warships at Savo, Solomon Islands on 9 Aug 1942. After several > hours in the ocean Claude, Jr and the crew were rescued. > > After the war, Claude, Jr. returned to Yuma. Then about 1947 he was > married in Tulare, CA. In 1951 he went to Yreka, Siskiyou Co., CA to pan > for gold. > > One of the processes used to separate gold from other elements collected > from the pannings involves the use of mercury. The mercury will adhere > to the gold thereby collecting it. To separate the mercury from the > gold, the combined elements are placed in a retort and heated to vaporize > the mercury. The mercury vapors are passed into a closed chamber where > they are cooled and condensed back into liquid form and then used again. > This process is called retorting. > > Unfortunately, Claude, Jr. did not know the process, or thought he could > take a shortcut in the process and not bother reclaiming the mercury. So > he heated the mercury in a pan on his cook stove and as the mercury > vaporized he breathed some of the vapor which condensed back to mercury > in his lungs ... causing his death. > > Thurmon > > > ==== SACKETT Mailing List ==== > RootsWeb blocks HTML formatting in email messages. Be sure to set your > email software to text only before posting a message to the list. > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 >