Two Santa Cruz buddies joined the Merchant Marines together; only one returned home.

Walter Henry Morelli was born in Santa Cruz, California, on October 1, 1921, to Olympio and Mary Morelli. He shared the family home with his parents, his brothers Fred and Anthony and his sister Emma. Following grammar school, Walter attended Mission Hill Junior High School before enrolling in Santa Cruz High School in 1937. He only remained at that school for one semester and in the fall of 1937 transferred to Chaminade High School. During his years in Chaminade, he excelled in basketball and also played on the church league teams. Morelli graduated from Chaminade High School with the class of 1940 and remained in the area.

In 1942 Walter and his buddy, Richard Jeantrout, joined the US Merchant Marines. The two young men were sent to a two-month training program at Port Hueneme and in August were assigned as able-bodied seaman aboard the Standard Oil Company tanker H.D. Collier. Morelli served aboard the tanker enroute to New Zealand and Australia before returning home for Christmas 1942. In January 1943, the ship made its way back to Australia, India and Arabia, and returned to the US in July.

Walter Morelli and the Collier left California in August 1943 for the last time and sailed across the South Pacific carrying oil between Southern Hemisphere countries. Events of March 13, 1944, began the final episode in Morelli's life.

“March 13, 1944. The tanker SS H.D. Collier operated by Standard Oil of San Francisco (Chevron) was en route from Iran to Bombay with 103,000 barrels of gasoline and kerosene when it was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-26 about 300 miles from Karachi, India. The entire stern immediately caught fire, and the radio aerials were destroyed. The forward gun could not be aimed at the sub, and the stern gun was in flames. The sub surfaced and began shelling the ship as the crew abandoned ship. 33 members of the crew and 12 Naval Armed Guard were killed.”

Walter Henry Morelli was on watch when the torpedo hit the ship and disappeared immediately. His Santa Cruz buddy, Richard Jeantrout, was rescued from the Collier and returned home alone. Morelli's body was never recovered. In 1945 Walter was posthumously awarded the Mariner's Medal.

(Merchant Mariners.org, This Week in the History of the Merchant Marines, http://www.usmm.org/this week .html [16 September 2008]; SCHSC Pg. 13; SCSn March, 1944 2:6, January 30, 1945 1:2, SCR April 21, 1944 -1)