The ship he served on was a converted railroad ferry used in the Staten Island area. A big open cargo hold with railroad rails in the bottom. They used the open cargo area to shuttle folding wing aircraft from the states to the south Pacific as needed.
He related a story of a time they were having trouble navigating the ship. The rudder was not responding. They made it to a dry dock and found a large, round hole in the rudder. A torpedo has missed the ship and gone through the rudder. Repairs corrected the steering issue.