Howard Allred, a Merchant Marine veteran who became one of the first U.S. prisoners of war in World War II when the Japanese seized his ship on Dec. 7, 1941, has died at age 92.

He died June 27 of pneumonia, said his son Roland.

Mr. Allred was a quiet American hero in a rarely told story about the SS President Harrison, a Merchant Marine ship chartered by the Navy in 1941 to evacuate U.S. Marines and archaeological artifacts in China. Eight hours after Pearl Harbor was attacked, the troop transport ship was captured by the Japanese off the coast of Shanghai.

The story of what happened to the crew of 155 men and one woman "got lost," said David H. Grover, author of "Captives of Shanghai," a book about the Harrison. "Pearl Harbor was the big event. The situation in Hawaii dominated the war."

The Harrison crew spent the war in prison camps near Shanghai with other civilians from many countries. Although not forced into labor, they subsisted on starvation diets and had no contact with family or news about the war.

Severe malnutrition left Mr. Allred with a lifelong neurological disorder that caused seizures. But he endured by staying busy until liberation came in 1945. He took accordion lessons from another POW and learned to build model ships inside bottles.

"The crew did better than other civilians," his son said. "They were used to living in close quarters and being away on long voyages at sea."

The Merchant Marine was a lifeline for Howard Ray Allred, who was born in 1917 to Oklahoma farmers who moved to Los Angeles for opportunity. With no jobs to be found after graduating from high school during the Great Depression, he stowed away on a steamer.

"He knew the captain would have to put you to work and feed you," his son said. "They let him off at the next port, and he was able to work on another ship. He joined the union and kept getting jobs."

Mr. Allred traveled in the Merchant Marine to many ports, including Yokohama, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Bombay, Alexandria and Marseille. He also was a harbor pilot at Pearl Harbor and lived on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu.

After World War II, however, he and other Harrison crew members returned home to "shabby treatment," Grover said. As civilians, merchant mariners were denied GI Bill benefits. (In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a law giving military veteran status to merchant mariners who served in war.) Their union had to sue the government – which took over the ship's owner, Dollar Line, during the war – to win back pay for the crew during captivity.

Mr. Allred saved money from odd jobs to build a new life. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Long Beach State University and taught high school woodshop classes in Mojave.

He married Eva Lugner in 1949 and reared three children. He moved to Sacramento in 1957 to work for the State Personnel Board and spent 25 years as an analyst for the Department of Water Resources. He retired in 1982.

Mr. Allred shared stories for Grover's research on the Harrison but rarely spoke of his experience to others. He stayed in touch with a few crewmates for many years and attended annual conventions of the Old China Hands, a group of expatriates who lived in China before 1949.

He revisited Shanghai 45 years after his captivity. He donated two of his bottled ships to the Monterey Maritime Museum and played the accordion until recently.

"He didn't harbor any animosity or grudges against people who did him wrong," Roland Allred said. "He learned as a sailor that you really have to learn to get along with people on the boat. He was always an easygoing man."

Call The Bee's Robert D. Dávila, (916) 321-1077.