My maternal grandfather, Robert Julius Ehoff, born in 1899 in Baltimore, began an apprentice engineer program when he was 12. He got his papers @ 16 (my great grandmother almost killed him when he took the tools @ graduation instead of the $400 that he was offered - he needed the tools for his future career). RJE shipped with Sun Oil in the 1920's and 30's rising to Chief Engineer. He came ashore in 1939 due to health issues and took employment @ Bethlehem Ship Yard at Sparrows Point, MD. During WWII, he would take Liberty ships to Norfolk and back on shake-down prior to turn-over to the US. He worked @ BSY until his retirement in 1964. He passed away in 1965. His two sisters married men from Philadelphia and wound up living across the alley from each other in Germantown. He would stay there on short breaks between trips out of Marcus Hook.
