9ieLOOKOUT

NOVEMBER 1954

SEAMEN'S CHURCH INSTITUTE of NEW YOR.K The Lookout THE SEAMEN'S CHURCH INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK is a VOL. XLV November, 1954 No.11 shore home for merchant seamen who are between in this great port. The largest organization of its kind in the world, the Institute combines the services of a modern hotel with a wide range of educational, medical, religious and recreational facilities needed by a profes· sion that cannot share fully the important advantages of home and community life. The Institute is partially self·supporting, the nature of its work requiring assistance from the public to provide the personal and social services that distinguish it from a waterfront boarding house and so enable it to fulfill its true purpose: being a home away from home for the merchant seamen of all nationalities and reli gions. A tribute to the service it has performed during the past century is its growth from a floating chapel in 1844 to the thirteen-story building at 25 South Street known to merchant seamen the world around.

VOL. XLV NOVEMBER, 195 4

The Empire State steams up the Grand Canal af Venice. Copyright 1954 by the SEAMEN'S CHURCH INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK 25 South Street, New York 4, N. Y. BOwling Green 9·2710 The Maritime College Training Cruis e CLARENCE G. MICHALIS President By Gordon Greist, REV. RAYMOND S. HALL, D.O. TOM BAA!! Director Editor Cadet-Midshipman, State University of New York Maritime College THOMAS ROBERTS FAYE HAMMEL Secretary and Treasurer Associate Editor LARGE and pleasantly excited crowd Fort Schuyler, take a crui e aboard the lOc a copy Published Monthly $1.00 yearly II swarmed onto the pier at Fort Schuy­ 6,000-ton training vessel Empire State. Gifts to the Institute of $5.00 and over include a year's subscription ler. The relatives and friends oJ 357 The , commanded by Captain Alfred

Entered aJ "cond clau maller, July 8,1925 at New York, N. Y., under cadets were on hand to wish the boys F. Olivet, visits five or six countries, and th. act of March 3, 1879 well on their annual summer training spends about a week in each. While at cruise. Since I was at the throttle in the sea we get a chance to put into actual after engine room of the Empire State, I practice all the theory of ship operation didn't see my father, mother and small that we learn in the classroom during Lhe brother wave good-bye. But I knew they year. On the cruise we cadets pretty much THE COVER: An A.B. on the 4 to 8 watch stands by the rail of the Esso Ever, were there. I felt a pang of nostalgia, too, run the ship. Of course, we've got trained hoping to sight the pilot scheduled to meet them off Ambrose Light. With because this was to be the last of the three officers on hand Lo watch every move we the pilot aboard, the will pick up a true course of 296°54', which leads Lrainin g cruises that I would go 011. make. But this crui e I must admit that I through Ambrose Channel into . Photo by Tad Sadowski. Every summer cadets sLudyin g to be was feeling kind of cocky : I was a firsL merchant marine officers aL State Uni­ classman, or senior, and this was to be versity of New York Marilime College, my third and last trip. Things were pretty different this time turned a lillie green shortly after the Aiter a stop at Anlwerp, we headed for lowed us to attend these ful1ction~, around from the way they had been Empire State reached open sea. One mug, Rotterdam. The harbor, one of the largest schedules nolwith tanding. when I was a "mug" all my fir t crui e. , ho wa a wiper in my watch, complained in Europe, amazed me. It looked like a Our retuTll voyage was marked by ex­ That' when I 'pent rna 1 of my time adly as the ship 1'0 -ked hea\"ily, "Gee, fore t of teel derrick, hu ge bla k lant­ citement. On August 22, about 2,000 miles making score of pain ·taking one-line I wi h r could sit under a tree." ing booms lining the shore as far as the from few York_ we received an urgent diagram of the ba ·jc steam cycle and For most cadets our great Fourth of eye could see. The harbor had not been message from the supertanker 5.5. Cora. steam power plant. By the next cruise I July parade was one of the high points of destroyed by the Nazis in World War II. Her master, Captain E. Rudino, was criti­ had graduated to more important ta k , tbe trip. TO small maller, it was adver­ though the city was heavily bombed, and cally ill and needed immediate medical and toad watche as oiler, water-tender tised for days over the loud speaker of a great many ships were loading and un­ attention. The Empire State hove to in a and evaporator-operator. lOW I was the ship. Our student public addres sy ­ loading cargos. I liked Rotterdam very heavy ' ea while cadets lowered a boat and ready for more respon ible job, tand.ing tem, by the way, was our special pride. much; It seemed such a neat, clean, and rowed Dr. Joseph E. Bennett, the school's watches as engineer and junior engineer. We played music almost all day, inter­ \'ery modern city. It appeared to be medical officer to the Cora. Dr. Bennet As part of a study group of eight men, I sper ed with the comments of our eight honeycombed by a very efficient trolley gave emergency treatment to Captain would help plan, upervise and prepare di c jockeys, who, it must be said, were system. In one ection of the city, called Rudino and then returned lo the Empire for getling an entire power plant under­ in po ses ion of the world's aIde t jokes. the "Fifth Avenue of Europe," I saw State. Our mercy m) sion had been in way. I knew it was going to be tough At any rate, the parade had been "pro­ the most modern and elegant shops I vain; we learned that Captain Rudino work, but I was looking forward to it. moted," and enthusiasm wa running had seen in Europe. had died later of a heart attack. My pals in the deck department also high. At 1 P.M. contingents from the four From Rotterdam we sailed for San­ \Ve remained in Washington for a few held positions of graded difficulty and watch sections tarted in the forward tander, Spain. a city of 85,000 people. We day while the cadet look part in Ameri­ 1'e ponsibility. They learned about the troop and went through every compart­ arrived on a golden Spani h day, warm can LeO'ion activities and vi ited the ship routine during their first cruise, ment of the ship, ending up on the fantail. and sunny. Shortly after we got there, capitol. A lew intrepid adventurer concentrating on the methods of main­ Records of Souza marches blended with crowds began to gather on the dock. We climbed the lofty Washington Monument. taining a seaworthy ves e1. The next local notices, interviews and commen­ threw open the hip to the public and Some, a little \ i5er, walked down the year, they tudied cele tial navigation taries over the PA system to give the im­ about 1.000 people a day visited u . several hundred tep in tead of up them. and piloting; they stood watche as pression of a great affair. The paraders The Spaniards were very cordial, in­ But al thi . point, ightseeinO' had not it quartermaster and helm man. On this, were dressed in the most bizarre and ex­ viting us to dinners, parties and daJlces. u 'ual sal i faction: we were eager to be their last crui e, they would have the travagant get-ups. Some were ill white The big problem was accepting these in­ back_ On September 6th, aIter 12,170 chance to exerci e leadership and re­ uniforms with stripe painted up and vitations. Social affairs in Santander mile and five foreign countries, we sponsibil.ity by acting as officer-of-the­ down; others were in night hilts-where ~tart very late, sometimes at midnight. ailed up the Easl Ri\'er. under the deck. Underway, they would learn about they got these remains a mystery; sti ll Consequently, oUT watch schedules were bridge, pa t Hell Cate, and finally navigation by loran, radar and decca others wore almo t nothing, but were thrown into confusion. However, Cap­ sighted with affection, Fort Schuyler. We and get training in bandl.ing emergency curiously painted. Watch e lion four tain Olivet, our commanding officer, al- were happily home. fire-fighting equipment and cargo. To ,on the contest for having the rna t top it all off, when the cruise was over, wacky regalia. Their reward was over­ they were headed for two weeks in the night liberty. Since we were aboul 1,000 office of various steam hip companies miles from the nearest port. thi was a to learn about steam hip management. dubious advantage. For the man who Iws everything . .. We all had a full program - and some After a smooth cro ing we made exciting new adventures ahead of u . ' aples on July Hth. We \ ere officially How about a gift subscription to THE LOOKOUT? Just off City I land, not far from our welcomed by 1ayor Lauro, who invited home base on Throgg' eck the . S. us to see a grand opera, "La Traviata, ' Send to: Coast Guard boarded hip to test our Neopolitan style. The next few days we li{e and fire-fighting equipment. were busy being tourists. We visited They watched 1.30 men O'et into a life Pompeii and were surprised to learn that boat whi h hun g on the davits. Our they had "one way" t1'eet just a. ew Your name: equipment wa . found to be in good work­ York ha . A group of u went to Rome ing order and \ e soon got under way where some of the boys had an audience again. I was especially eager to get started with the Pope. Others visited the Colo - becau e our first top was to be Bermuda, eum, Saint Peter's, and the mu eums. Price: $1.00 per year a port J had never een before. Like many another American, we threw We arrived at Hamilton on the 23rd our coin in the Fountain of Trevi and of June after an ea y three-day run. I silently made our wi he to return again Mail to Editor, THE LOOKOUT, 25 South Street, New York 4, N. Y. enjoyed the trip but some of our mugs to the Eternal City. 2 3 From

HANKSGIVI lG and Christma can be two of the best days in the T year. To most of us they mean a time of homecoming, of parties and present, and of holiday dinner with family and friend . But they could also be two of the wor t day in the year, if you had to spend them alon'e To among strangers, in a trange town. 1erchant seamen, more often than mo -t people, find themselve Pier tranger in town. Their work - maintaining the country's lifelines of commerce and defen e - require that they be away from home mo t of the time. And even the brightest lights of the holiday season can seem pretty dismal to the seaman who' left his ship, said aoodbye to his buddies, and ventured out alone into an unfriendly city.

New Dock Climbs In the Port of ew York, many of these men head for the Seamen' Church In titute. This year, as in the past, over 1000 of !.hem will be Out of Water gue t of the Institute at Thanksgiving and Christm as dinner. Our holi· On Its Own legs day activitie expre s clearly the purpose behind the Institute' entire program. 10st all of the men \ e have to dinner for Thanksgiving and Christmas could buy their own turkey and polatoe . But there' something

A workman examines pneumatic jack which more than a meal involved. These men will be our guests. and e\"erything lifts barge up cylinders and aut af the water. possible will be done to recreate for them here at 25 South Street the spirit and atmosphere that gives meaning to these day enjoyed at horne.

600.TO T steel barge floated its way the air, took less than two hours. In the spirit of holiday hospitality, won't you help us "pick up the into Tew York harbor a few week The DeLong dock, already in use in J\ tab" for these dinner and extend a welcome to merchant seamen­ ago, climbed out of !.he waLer 011 it own Thule, Greenland, on the Orinoco River legs, and became a pier for Con olidated in Venezuela and in , was built by trangers in ew York. 1ake check payable to Edison's new generating station in As· !.he DeLong Engineering & Construction toria, Queen . Company to provide a practical method This maneuver was performed by a of raising a pier in remote and difficult million·dollar DeLong dock, which locations. This is the first one to be put talted life as a covered teel barge to commercial u e in the nited State. pierced by several round steel sleeves. A sloping rock river bed and an ab ence HOLIDAY FUND Steel cylinders six feet in diameter were of mud deposit made the con truction of dropped through the sleeves until they the usual·type pier impossible in the hit the bottom. Special ja ks attached to Ea t River spot. Seamen's Church Institute of New York the barge then lifted the barge up the When it is completed in December. cylinders unLiI it was the proper height the dock will be 60 feet wide and 468 feet 25 South treet, New York 4, N. Y. out of the water. The barge was then long. It will support an unloading tower welded to the cylinders, the cylinder which will be capable of handling 14 were firmly attached to tlIe bottom, filled ton of coal a minute. with concrete and cut off flush with the The pier is imilar in con truction to dock. The whole operation, transform· the network of radar \ arning platforms ing the barge into a pier eight feet in at sea recently proposed by the Air Force. 4 5 UNCHIVALROUS been ubstituted for '[ron gel' eamle Known as a ship·borne wave Tecorder, SORRY, WRONG GENERAL tubing, which would have been able to the device has been in talled in the reo A couple of " lawful generals" from What with all the talk about Carol, withstand the !Ugh pressure. An exten· search ship, Discovery II and in th e India got some foreign analysts need· Edna and Hazel, the three terrible isters, sive " avy investigation traced the error ocean weather ship, Weather Explorer. lessly excited a few weeks ago. Learning it seems that a lot of people (mostly back to the fact that both types of pipe A similar model has been ordered by the Lhat a hip broker wa adverti ing for a women) are getting pretty upset about have identical dimensions and a simil aT Oceanographi c Institution at Woods ve el to carry "lawful general " from the Weather Bureau' habit of naming general appearance. Workmen had mjxed Hole, Massachusetts, for use in the re­ India's East Coast to the Russian port hurricanes after the ladies. them together in the warehou e, and thi search. hip Atlantis. of Ode sa, the experts had almost figured E. M. Vernon, chief {oreca tel' of the consequently led to misfiLLing not only The wave Tecorder works by mea ur­ out the full implications of a possible . S. Weather Bureau, has announced in the Nautilus, but also in the second iug and coordinating the effect of two Soviet· Indian military alhance before that the ubject will come up for di . sub, the Seawoll, now under construction. forces - the wave pressure which oper­ -. cussion next January or February when ate below the water line of a ship and omeone told them that they had run the bureau holds its annual conference the "heave," or upward and downward into some charter market jargon. on the reporting of hurricanes at Miami. motion of a ship at the instant of wave The "lawful generals" refer to general A pokesman for the Weather Bureau impact. Electrical coordination bet'ween cargoes of an unrestricted, or nonmilitary in "ew York told us that the orio-inal GONG WITH THE FOG the pressure and the "heave" meter nature, in search of a ship going from rea on for naming the hurricanes after give the re ulting height of the wave. Jndia to Odessa. girls was to have an easily understandable Manually operated £00- gong may be on their way out. At least, that's what the Hydrographers on the Discovery II name which could be tran mitted to have already learned that a 10·foot up· radio operators at sea. It all sounded like people at the C. C. Galbraith & Son Elec· tric Corporation, whose new electronic and-dm n movement is roughly equal to a good idea, but a lot of women just the generation of 20,000 horsepower by ONE BETTER don't seem to like it. At lea t 100 of them fog gong has just been approved by the Coa t Guard, believe. the sea. have called the bureau in the last two or While the ultimate goal of convert· A lone ew Yorker arrived in Pago three monLhs to protest that storms of The electronic gong, whi h i auto· Pago, Samoa a few week ago. His matically regulated from the pilot house, ing some of thi sea-power into eneTgy uch great destruction, violence and ec· means of transportation-a 34-foot balsa makes it unnecessary for a eaman on for commercial purposes is a long way centricity should not bear female names. raft on which he had drifted 6,000 mile watch at the hip's stern to trike the off, the wave recorder are being used Oddly enough, no men have called up across the Pacific for ll5 days. gong with a mallet for five econds of now to secure valuable information in the to complain. William Willis ha been going to ea every minute. Coa t Guard regulation. building of ships and harbor. for 44 year. He undertook the late t require that all anchored laro-e craIt ring voyage, -from Callao, Peru to Samoa, to a bell forward and sound a gong aft duro "show that a lone man can conquer the ing , fog, mist, falling snow, heavy rain· ocean and th e fury of the elements with torm" so that vessels in the vicinity can his bare hands and the most rudimentary PIPE MIXTURE lo cate the position of the anchored ship. VARIETY means of navio-ation." He also succeeded America' fir t nuclear· powered sub· As far as variety goes, oah's Ark had in his plan Lo outdo the Kon-Tiki Expedi. marine, the Nautilus, which wa launched but a small edge on the Cunard Line tion of 1947 which ailed from Callao to freighter Andria, which arrived in New in a blaze of glory thi winter (Lookout, SEA·POWER the Taumotu Archipelago. Willis drifted February '54), met trouble before she York a few weeks ago resembling a float­ past Taumoto .for about 2,000 miles more, even left her dock. The avy' $55 mil· In the hope of eventually harnessing ing zoo. Bearing animals for the on to Samoa. lion A.sub, which extracts enough energy some of the tremendous power of the sea Zoological Society and the ational Zoo· Willis made the voyage alone, except from a tiny lump of uranium to drive for commercial purposes, British scien· logical Park in Washington, D. c., tbe for the company of a cat and a parrot. it elf around the world without refueling, ti t · have developed an intricate wave· Andria had a conglomerate passenger Ii t. However, on hi next raIt expedition, ha been plagued by faulty piping. mea uring instrument which, hydro· It included three zebra, five vultures, one he'll have a ere, member - hi wife. When a steampipe on the Nautilus graphers claim, will enable them to chart. crow, twelve tortoises, two snakes, one i\1rs. Tes Willi of . She told bur t durino- dock ide te ts last month, for the fir. t time, the "exact heiaht" of giant rat, one squirrel, two civet cats, one reporters 0 when she learned of her hus· it was discovered that welded piping had ocean waves. jackal, one hedghog and one mongoose. band's safe arrival in Samoa. 6 7 {rom land often wonders where the ship-lo-shore telephone from th e pier·;; amphibious-looking railroad cars come dispatch office, where four or fiye men from, where they're goin a , and how they and a battery of phones form the nerve

I:> Before the cars get on the water, they the slip, fastens line. to one, or often two have to get on a car float. A typical car floats (one on each side), and mo\'f>~ floating operation begins at the water's out. He may be headed for a routine trip edge of the railroad yard. An average­ of an hour or so, a three or four hour iiized yard will have about four steel float run, or perhaps he is simply moving a hridges, each equipped with a section foreign float (which tben waits (or a of road bed that can be rai ed or low­ foreign tug) to another pier, a trip oC ered to meet the tracks on the float no probably 20 minutes or less. For the matter how high the tide. The empty car benefit of the uninitiated, a foreign float float, which bas been towed into the slip is not one coming from far-off, romantic by the tug, is made fa t to the bridge by places, but imply one belonging to an­ narrow steel blocks about five feet long, other railroad company. Since all the and secured with ropes. Once this oper­ lines switcb carloads among themselves, ation, known as "pinning the float" is it's not unusual to find a New York Cen­ done_ the railroad engineer releases the tral float at a New Haven pier or a Penn­ Creight cars across the bridge and on Lo sylvania tug hauling a Long 1 land float. the float. It sounds simple, but there's Out on the water, the tug's main con­ plenty of room for error. Consider the cern is safety. Freight cars may not look case of the engineer who got hi signals particularly fragile, but on a car float mixed and released three cars of Christ­ they can be as temperamental a any mas trees right into the Hudson. They prima donna. Although the float is COIl­ A long Island Railroad car float swings past the got there just before the car float did. structed wiLh toppers at its bumper lower tip of and heads up the East River. \Vb en the loading is completed, the (stern) to keep the cars from going over noat is the 's baby. The captain backwards, it's not 0 easy to keep them has already received his in tructions via from sliding over the unprotected toggle The Railroad Fleet

WHERE THE TRACKS END, THE CAR FLOATS TAKE OVER Arriving carfloat heads into slip just vacated.

HE DAY :;tart at eight, or four or Freight floats or car floats-squat , teel Tmaybe midnight. For eight · hours platforms bearing freight cars on rails, ~traight, the tug maneuvers ton of pre­ shepherded by heavy tugs - are one of ciou cargo from one pier to another. the most familiar sights in ew York working with the utmost preci ion, for harbor. A nece sity born of the special the slightest mi take can mean an acci­ geography of places like Manhattan Is­ dent and thou ands of dollars worth of land, they offer the only ecpnomical damage. Once a job - which may ha\·e means of interchanging from one rail· taken anywhere from 20 minutes to four road to another the hundreds of freight hours - is finished, the captain radios cars which arrive each day on the line · headquarters for another as ignmenl. surrounding the city. Regular lighterage, \Vhen one crew goes of{, another one the transport of unloaded cargo on immediately takes over. And so it goes. , used mainly in gelling cargo from 24. hour a day, 365 days a year. Multiply ship to rail or vice versa, is impractical the acti ity of one tugboat by a hundred when the contents of a" hole railroad car or 0, and you have orne idea of the vast have to be transferred. Thus the marine freight-floating operation going on in departments of all the railroads whose and about the 600 mile of shore line that lines converge on the harbor operate make up the -ew York \\aterfronl. fleets of car floats. The per~on watching

8 9 (bow). from which the loading i done. pie at \Cl\' York Central \\ ill have a hard One wrong move from the tug can cause time IorgeUing the 80·foot stuffed whale derailing and then anything can happen. thaL graced it Weehawken pier for about Employees at the T ew York Central till a year. A BelO'ian had brought the em· talk about the lime eleven carload of coal balmed mon ter to thi ountry to ex­ parted company with their floal- and hibit, but once he got it off a teamer and the day the three banana cars went for up Lo Weehawken via an open car float, a wim in the Hud on. he couldn't find anyone" ho wanted it. The cost of the e mishaps can run sky. So it stayed in storage at Weehawken high. Although the Central mainLain peacefully enouah, excepL that it beaan several giant hoisters wl1ich can pick up to smell a liLLIe worse every day. Attend· partially submerged car , Lhey mu t call ants couldn't pump enough formaldehyde in an outside ompany to do the job into it Lo take the odor away and the when cars take a full dive. The fee for neighboring re ident began Lo complain the u e of a inale derrick may run a rather loudly. To everyone' great relief, high as $1500 a day. plan were made Lo di play it at Coney Then there are the runaway floats Lo Island. The whale boarded a car float for watch out Ior. Ships going at full speed, the econd time for the trip aero s the or very high Lide , can break or Ii ft the river and then wa taken to Coney by line off a piling, and "off the floaLs go truck. However, the whale didn't prove Lo Yonkers, 'a one Lugboat caplain put exactly popular with the residents of eiLher, and iL was ordered re­ it. The tugs though which can do up to Mrs. Rebekah Shipter and custo mer examine a purchase at the Crow's Nest. 13 knols without a tow, usually have no moved. Just before another car float lrouble 'aLching the \ andering float. 'ould come to tarL it on its last journey, Sudden fog i. a particular menace to the whole thing burned down. the tug, more so than high Lide and The Long Island Railroad ha never high wind. Becau e the heavy load of been honored with a whale for a passen­ Gift Shop Opened the steel float pulls a compa s needle ger, but it claims iL share of ome rather a few degree olT, it's impossible to teer unusual car float arao .. For the pa t two by in t~ument. The tug- u;;lIally tie·up in month it ha been transporting boats a fog, but if it trike without warning, over water. Landing crafts buill for the ., HRISTl\IAS shoppers, window hop­ Behind the e gift packages is a va t there may be trouble. Tugboat captain. Army in a Long I land shipyard are L pel'S and ju L plain browsers are all amounL of work. It begins early in the when they Lell you abouL "their mosL loaded on to the floats, one 50-foot boat to be een in abundance at the new year, with weaters, ocks and scarves dangerou lrip," always mention the time in each car. When the Ringling Brothers Crow'~ 'est Gift Shop, the latest addi· being knitted by over 1,000 volunteer~ they got caught in the fog. Circus played the Island, the LIR floated tion to the lobby of the Institute. Set up throughout the country. From mid·Octo· The captains are usually veleran oj all the animals over from the Pennsyl· for the purpo e of raisin a fund for the ber to December each giit is individually many years · service with the railroad vania Railroad in Jersey Lo Bay Ridge. In LiLule's Central Council of Associa· wrapped by olunleer women - and a fleet, a 20·year man being con idered a According to LIR official, il's the first tions. the allractive hop features nauti· few brave men - who keep the Christ· mere up tart. Becau e they enjoy all rail· time the circus ha ever been on water. cal gift, UI1U ual co tume jewelry and mas Room at the Institute busy five days road employee benefits and eniority AL least, it' the fir t Lime it' ever been an a -sortment of greeting card. and two night a week. Early in ovem· privileges, mo t of them prefer railroad on car Boat. All profiL from the Crow's Ie t will ber, Institute ship visitors begin loading work to any oLher type of tug sen·ice. By help the Central Council of Associations the boxe aboard merchant ships which the time a man ha worked his way up The Long Island aI 0 carries on a :;end more than 6,000 Christma gift will be on the high ea or in foreign from deck hand to captain, he' a highly rather unholy two·way traffic. Car floats package to merchanL 'earnen in foreign ports on ChrisLmas Day. coming into the Island carry ton of duck skilled expert on the currents, channels ports, on ~ hip ' aL sea, in hospitals and Money rai ed by the Crow's Nesl Gift and tides of a harbor that is never im­ feed, a kind of residue from corn flake. , at the Institute. Every year letter from Shop will buy gifL item for the boxes pIe, and often extremely complicated to to fatten up the famou Long I land eamen all over the globe gratefully ac­ and put wool into the hands of knitters. navigaLe. Captains musL ha\'e special ducklings. And on the outward route, knowledge the e Chri tmas hoxe , which Mo t of the money needed (it costs $3.50 licen e to pilot the Lug- through certain floats carry the ducklings, fed, fatlened conlain hand·knit sweater, scarve or to " ail a box") mu t till be obtained, part of the harbor. - and frozen. A a Long Island em· "0 k , slippers, candy, a 'ewing kit, a however, by contribution sent Lo the Some of the tories the marine rail· ployee pUL it, "II ducks don't fiy outh, book, writing paper and pen, an addre s Central Council of A ociaLion, Sea­ roaders like to Lell be t are about the \I e hip _outh." book, polishing cloth, and a popular men' Church In tiLute, 25 South Street, unll ual cargo they've floated. The peo· - FAYE H"20DIEL game - che . cards or scrabble. New York I, 'ew York. 10 11 Book Briefs COASTAL FOGS At first t he newborn fogs will scar~ely dare Peer from the canyon mout h until t hey w ait For darkness, and for windows everyw here To have shades drawn. Then still they' ll hesita te ELISHA KENT KANE AND THE SEAFARING FRONTIER With every step they ta ke: at every fe nce, At every hedge, a t every looming tree - By Jeannette Mi rsky - Little, Brown, Boston, $3.00 As slowly, moved by some impelling sense , They make their anx ious way down to the sea. But later on they grow so sure and bold And multiply to such enormous flocks Just about one hundred years ago, everyone ti tes changed; men suddenly yearned for frozen was reading a book called Arctic Explorations. ham fat and sauerkraut drenched with olive They' ll mass for miles along the coast to hold, The Annapuma of it time, it told of another oil, not even aware of tlleir cravin g for the Immobilized, all traffic lanes and docks ­ bold adventure that had captured the public' high-fat diet of the rctic. In a semi- cientific And show no least regard for glaring light imagination, of two and one-half years spent in entry on th e errect of severe cold on food tufTs, Or frantic foghorns blowing day and night. the frozen Arctic, in a latitude higher than any Kane notes that barrel of dried apples had be­ American or European had endul'ed before. Its come 'one solid breccial rna of impacted angu­ Iva Poston author, Elisha Kent Kane, wa a national hero. larities, a conglomerate of sli ced chalcedony . .. When he died, a nation heading toward civil po rk and beef are J'are specimen of Florentine war mourned hi m, orlh and outh ali ke. Hi mosa ic: crow-bar and pick-axe! for at -30° tory is engro -ingly to ld in thi latest addition the axe can hardly chip it!' to The Library of American Biography. Kane's book, Arctic Explorations: The Sec­ In the h istory of the Un ited State, the sea­ ning of still more work. Three years of popular fari ng frontier has been as dynamic a force a lectu ring, volu minous correspondence and pub­ the We tern, or land frontier. Both mo ement. lic appeals finally rai ed enough money for a stemmed from the restlessne, s of the young privately-financed Second Grinnell Expedi tion. SHIPS IN NEW YORK HARBOR ('ountry and both ansllered the same basic need Hard hip trailed th e group. Hurricane, rats, of its people, the need to make a living. Some tarl'ation plagued the men; news came tbat They watch the doom-pale moon chose to blaze trai l over tlle land; other - Franklin and his party had perished. But de­ Wit h waiting, yellow eyes: _pite it all, th e expediti on managed to weatller whalemen, China traders, explorer - turned Stirs of the crouching wave northward and eastward to the seafaring tll'O winters in the Arctic, exploring 8S far a frontier. Eli ha Kane belonged to the la t cate­ 80°35' "farther than man had previously And each star that dies_ gory. Although he never reached the Nortll Pole gone. With provisions running out, Kane and Boldly come the earl y tugs, or ucceeded in finding the elusive Northwest his group abandoned their ship, th e Advance, Proddingly unconce rned with dawn and after 10 months of travel by sledge and Passage, Kane gave the world an Arctic strip­ As mist-drowned glints of light ped oJ its terror and danger. He huma nized the boat, reached th e Danish ettlements in Green­ northernmost frontier. la nd. Kane's brill iance lay in applying th e ad­ Proclaim the morning born. van tages of his cien tific knowledge to the Slow processioning ships Elisha Kane would probably have been a lessons he learned from the E kimos about liv­ Sail then one by one success at anything he chose to do. The brilliant ing and working in the Arctic. He adopted the son of an illustrious P hiladelphia family, he E kimo's eating and hunting habits, and devel­ To enter the g reat, white was preparing for a career as an engineer when oped techniques of sledging that Peary, in his Crematorium of ocean sun. an attack of rheumatic fe er proved near-fatal. dash to the orth Pole 54 year later, im itated. Kane left his ickbed determined to lil'e to the He charted unknown regions of Greenland and Antony de Courcy hilt the [ell' years of life he could hope for. The made botanical and geological survey and fir t tep wa to become a doctor to learn how meteorological observations that are today a to take care of himself. Then followed service ,-ita] part of our knowledge on these important with the avy as medical officer on a diplomatic Arctic areas. mi .ion to China, and fighting in the 1'I'rexican War. But thi - was hardly enough to ati fy the Kane's book,A rctic Explorations: The Sec­ re tless Kane. He found his real mission, one ond Grinnell Expedition ill Search of Sir f ohn that would absorb him for the 1'e t of hi life, Franklin . .. 1853, '54, '55, became, in his own in the earch for the Franklin Expedition. words, his "coffin." He died soon after it was published. And although the nation mourned Although Kane' first Arctic expedition did him as a hero, the ou tbreak of war, tlle decline not ucceed in finding the 10 t Bri ti h explorer, of the whaling industry and the end of th e it taught him a great deal ahout life in the great day of the Clipper ship pushed Kane's retic. Jailed for month by the ice, he experi­ name back into emi-darkne . A century later, men ted with way to handle Arctic medical Miss Mirsky' biography does a good deal to problems, coped with the ravag of curvy, restore him to his rightful place in America' noted the errect of cold on food habit. Appe- . eafaring hi tory - F. H. 12 SEAMEN'S CHURCH INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK BOARD OF MANAGERS Honorary President RT. REv. HORACE W. B. DONEGAN, D.D. President CLARENCE G. MiCHALIS Clerical Vice-Preside!lts RT. REv. BENJAMIN M. WASHBURN, D.D. VERY REv. JAMES A. PIKE, D.D. RT. REV. CHARLES K. GILBERT, D.D. REV. LOUIS W . PIIT, D.D. REV. FREDERICK BURGESS REV. ARTHUR L. KrNSOLVING, D.D. REV. ROELIF H. BROOKS, S.T.D. REv. JOHN E. LARGE, D .D. REV. JOHN HEUSS, D.D. REV. JOHN M. MULLIGAN REV. ANSON P . STOKES, JR., S.T.D. lAy Vice-Presidents GERALD A. BRAMWELL THOMAS ROBERTS HARRY FORSYTH ORME WILSON Secretary a/ld Treasurer THOMAS ROBERTS Assistant Secretary, GORDON FEAREY Assistant Treasurer, BENJAMIN STRONG, JR. WILLIAM ARMOUR CHARLES S . HAIGHT FRANKLIN REMINGTON EDWARD J. BARBER, JR. GERARD HALLOCK PAUL RENSHAW EDWIN DE T . BECHTEL AUGUSTUS N . HAND JOHN S. ROGERS REGINALD R. BELKNAP LEONARD D . HENRY WILLIAM D. RYAN GoRDON KNOX BELL THOMAS L. HIGGINSON CHARLES E. SALTZMAN GORDON KNOX BELL, JR. OLIVER ISELIN JOHN JAY SCHIEFFELIN CHARLES W. BOWRLNG, JR. ELLIS KNOWLES THOMAS A. SCOIT CHARLES B. BRADLEY LAMAR RICHARD LEAHY HERBERT L. SEWARD LLOYD H. DALZELL CLIFFORD D . MALLORY, JR. LEONARD SULLIVAN CLEMENT L. DES PARD RICHARD H. MANSFIELD CARLL TUCKER CHARLES E. DUNLAP W. LAWRENCE McLANE ALEXANDER O . VIETOR CALVIN T. DURGIN CHARLES MERZ FRANKLIN E. VILAS DB COURSEY FALES CLARENCE F . MICHALIS FRANK W. WARBURTON F. RICHARDS FORD GEORGE P. MONTGOMERY EDWARD K. WARREN AoRlAAN GIPS JOHN LEWIS MONTGOMERY DAVID P. H. WATSON ARTHUR Z. GRAY JOHN H . G. PELL WILLIAM D. WINTER FRANK GULDEN WALTER B. POITS GEORGE GRAY ZABRISKIE HONORARY MEMBERS OF THE INSTITUTE JOHN MASEFIELD T. ASHLEY SPARKS ERNEST E. WHEELER REV. RAYMOND S. HALL, D.D., Director CHAPLAIN FRANCIS D. DALEY, Asshta11tto the Director

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