Antique photos of Joseph Carvajal, Sr. as a college student at the University of Madrid (engineering major) in the 1920s.  He came to New Orleans on a business trip in 1928, met a French Cajun girl, Vyna Richoux, and got married.  He also met Captain Thorgeson, a Scandinavian (and fellow European) who was skipper of the S.S. Dixiano (home port: New Orleans), and who promptly hired him as the ship's Chief Engineer, which is how young Joe got into the U.S. Merchant Marine.

The Dixiano in Cuba (circa 1930)

The S.S. Doris Kellogg, the ship Captain Carvajal sailed through most of the 1930s, until getting involved in the very dangerous carrying of Lend-Lease military supplies to Russia just prior to U.S. entering World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.