My dad was with the Merchant Marine in WWII and made the Murmansk runs. Came back with all kinds of tales.
Butter was rationed here in the States Big Time. He said the Russians had never seen butter wrapped in one pound packages and were peeling them open and slapping them on the axles of wagons, thinking it was grease.
The Russians had a lot of hotshot fighter pilots and one of the tricks they would pull on taking off was to just retract the wheels to become airborne instead of pulling up. A lot of them never made the end of the runway.
When they were attacked on the way up, the shop steward would be running around on deck counting the number of bombs dropped and torpedoes fired at them. Seems they got a bonus for each bomb or torpedo.
When they were strafed, everyone headed below decks, except the poor Armed Guard (Navy personnel) who had to try and shoot back. These guys were getting $60 a month while the merchant guys were raking in the dough. They usually passed the hat at the end of the trip and gave it to the sailors. On some ships that didn't happen.
If you served on an ore carrier or an ammunition ship you didn't bother keeping a lifejacket handy when you went to bed. The ore carrier would sink like a rock and the ammunition ship would just vaporize.
Life expectancy in those waters was about 30 minutes at best if you had to abandon ship - a little longer, not much, in a lifeboat. They were told if they were in the water when depth charges were being dropped, they were to put their hands over their rectums, otherwise the concussion would gut them.
They earned all that big money.
Were these guys were also called Ferry Pilots ?