Page 94 - The Jazzsipper Novel

93

THE JAZZ SIPPER

up and deliver the small laundry bags back to their customers. Vance and
Dino even had what amounted to a sandwich shop onboard the ship. Guys
would order hoagie sandwiches after the mess hall had closed, so Vance
and Dino had guys take the orders and prepare the sandwiches out of the
Chief and First Class mess halls. Vance and Dino sandwiches cost $15.00
dollars. It was split three ways. They made $5.00 per sandwich and $5.00
went to the sandwich makers and $5.00 to the delivery guys.

But their biggest and easiest business venture was what they called the
Filipino Bank Loan, this was where they had hooked up with the Filipino guys
who ran and worked in the disbursing office. This was the office that handled
the pay for all the personnel on board and off board the ship. You were
assigned a personnel clerk by the first three alphabets in your last name. If
you were a member of the secret loan company you could get a guy paid in
advance for three months. Then the guy would sign a statement that he had
been informed of an overpayment and that he had 24 months to pay it back
through monthly payroll deductions. The amounts loaned were always into
the thousands of dollars, they would get loans for anyone. Officer’s, Chief’s,
enlisted personnel, anyone that needed their connections. Vance and Dino’s
cut was 10 percent of the loan and the disbursing clerk’s cut was 15 percent.
The guy getting the loan got 75 percent of the amount borrowed and had 24
months to pay it back. The main stipulation was that an individual had to be
recommended by a secret member of the loan company and had 24 months
left to serve on duty.

Also, they could not have any kind of disciplinary action that would lower
their pay grade. It was through Dino’s connection that Vance learned of the