.. THE SEAMEN's CHURCH INSTITUTE OF NEw YoRK is a Seafaring shore center for merchant seamen who are between ships 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, a Career 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 By George M. Newton 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 merchant First Prize, AW Club seamen of all nationalities and religions. Essay Contest, 1955 A tribute to the service it has performed during the Drawing by John Fernandez 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. dence. He is well paid and can change REAT men with magic in their pens jobs frequently. he finds no glamour at have written of the glamour of sea- If ~•179 G sea he has enough in his poke to buy ad- faring. Thq gave us delightful yarns. of venture ashore. He has free medical care, distant lands, running seas, and flymg insurance, and enjoys numerous advan- spume on the main. Enchanting writers tages not shared by shoreside brothers, have held us spellbound for long evenings 7h~ such as privileges offered by seamen's in- at firesides as we lived with swinging gim- stitutes and dispensations of agencies and bals and creaking ship timbers. Poets have laws that exist strictly for the seagoing beckoned to seafaring with all but irresis- ilk. Promotions are plentiful; qualifying eeis*8il=I~ tible charm. But these people who gave us ·· help for the unlicensed man is all but VOL. XLVII, No. 1 JANUARY, 1956 such stirring tales and swashbuckling char- acters were majestic liars. They wrote fan- thrust upon him. Graduation from "Ordi- Copyright 1956 by the tasy. In the old days sailing just wasn't nary" to "Master" in a few years through what it was cracked up to be. In fact, painless stages imposes no undue tensions SEAMEN'S CHURCH INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK on cerebral alignments, and reluctance to 25 South Street, New York 4, N. Y. BOwling Green 9-2710 shang~aiing was once an occupational necesstty, and the belaying pin applied advance brings no stigma. CLARENCE G. MICHALIS gene~ously Yes, seafaring is now an inviting career President in dark byways was a common sohCltor of crews. Such, in reality, was the sought by intelligent people. But the un- REV. RAYMOND S. HALL, D.D. TOM BAAB wary, stirred to the depths by these words Director Editor glamour-call of the sea. THOMAS ROBERTS FAYE HAMMEL I_ can forgive Stevenson and London and imbued with fierce desires to go sail- Secretary and Treasurer Associate Editor thetr fantastic lies because one man was ing, should be gently cautioned. Sea haz- Published Monthly $1.00 yearly 10c a copy a tubercular and the other an alcoholic ards still exist. Crews do not always rep- resent the most peaceful people. Hurri- Gifts to the Institute of $5.00 and over include a year's subscription ~~~ both h~d to make livings some way: f . Y descnbed certain hardships of sea- canes have disconcerting ways. Rough Eniered as second claJJ matter, ]t~ly 8, 1925 at New York, N. Y., finder da~m.g times can ride with ships. Duties are often the act of March 3, 1879 but credited it with glamour it ~ld~.t possess except in isolated instances. demanding, and a seaman can not leave orou 1 ~erhs knew that sailing wasn't glam- his ship for a holiday in mid-- he s, t ey kne ·t treadmill of w ~ was a monotonous is aboard ship twenty-four hours a day cruelty s~arvat10n, filth, illness, and at sea. est ord; a 1~ e for the misfit of the low- It boils down to this: the man doing square ;~ a th eep round hole for every work he likes is fortunate and most sea- occupatioif f at came along. It was an men like their work. Most men who once THE COVER: Taking a first look at 1956, our lovely cover-gull poses for th e headed me or wooden ships and iron- start to sea go back again and again - camera of Gordon S. Smith. B n. without encouragement from belaying h ut, as Heracr t · ave a way f thus satd long ago things pins. My reasoning follows logically. It's 0 hno l onger a d c angin g. The seaman' 1s · a great life if you like it and your chances uman comma o~ .. He has evolved into a of liking it are excellent. When are you n mg respect and indepen- sailing, Mate? The oldest police precinct in New York patrol at Idlewild Airport, is a flat-bot- City and in the country, the Harbor Pre- tomed boat with a hollow keel, designed cinct was originally set up to do battle to plow its way through marshes; the with "river pirates" - murderous gangs Slattery, on duty at La Guardia Airport, of "wharf rats" who terrorized the water- is a hospital boat which has already minis- front in the 1850's. Famous among them tered medical aid in 20 plane crashes. The were the "Hook Gang" headed by "Slob- regulation equipment on every police bery Jim" and "Bum Mahoney" and the launch reflects the main concern of the Cops "Daybreak Boys," under the command of squad- to protoct life and property, more "Patsey the Barber" and "Socco the than to chase criminals. Each boat carries Bracer." To these thugs, it was child's play life-guns, heavy grappling irons for rais- to make a little night excursion to sailing ing sunken bodies or sunken property, ships anchored in the harbor, board them, power pumps for bailing out sinking ves- steal what they could, and dump any crew sels, rubber exposure suits, first-aid equip- members who protested into the drink. ment, and a ship-to-shore telephone. Thus and Or they pillaged boats tied up at docks armed, the harbor cops can cope with al- and disposed of victims in the same way. most any emergency on the waterfront, and Even small boatmen, peaceful Sunday ex- they usually get a chance to do just that. cursionists, were subject to attack on the One of the more frequent assignments waters. for the harbor cops is picking up a In 1858, the Marine Police, the fore- "floater." This term doesn't refer to a runners of the Harbor Precinct, went into bum or a ne'er-do-well, but to a body, Pirates action with a tiny navy consisting of a usually bloated and ballooned to unrecog- lumbering sidewheeler, the S.S. Seneca nizable proportions - a victim of homi- and 12 small rowboats. Armed with dirks cide, accident or suicide. Suicides, also and cutlasses, they bore down on the river known as "jumpers," are the biggest prob- pirates for a year of blood on the waters. lem. ''I'd swear there's a correlation be- They hanged so many pirates on Ellis tween the full moon and the number of NEW YORK'S Island that it came to be known as "Gibbet people who decide to jump off the Brook- Island." Within a year, the pirates were lyn Bridge or the Staten Island Ferry," re- largely routed. marked one of the harbor men. "When we HARBOR POLICE: The Harbor Police go about their busi- hear that a jumper is contemplating that ne_ss today with more efficient equipment. long, last leap, we rush to the scene. The Dtrks a~d cutlasses have given way to Emergency Service Division, of which THE WORLD'S BUSIEST WATERFRONT IS THEIR BEAT submachme guns and high-powered rifles, we're a part, tries to stop the person from to ward off modern river pirates: criminals going over. If they're too late, then a.ll we magneticallY attracted to precious cargoes can do is search for the body." Would-be HE days of Captain Kidd may be over, ing, boating and swimming clubs, the ~n l~~hterage ; or perhaps "junkies " who jumpers are just as much work for the T but pirates still ply the waters of New hundreds of ships and boats transiting the heg~tmately buy rope from ships' in the harbor cops as those who actually take York harbor. For proof, just ask any of harbor at all times, and 27 islands with!D h:~d~~ but who have~ reputation for light- the plunge. "We once spent 5 days look- the 186 members of New York City's the greater islands of the city. The harbor form ness around p1ers and loadingglat- ing for the body of a girl," said one of Harbor Precinct. The sailor-cops are on cops are responsible for protecting a bd· outboards; or thos e Wl·th an eye on the ancy the men. "She had told her mother she the job 24 hours a day, seven days a week, lion dollars worth of cargo that moves at ancho mo~rs, yachts and boats that lie was going to jump off the George Wash- patrolling 5 78 miles of waterfront to show through the port, and for keeping a surroundr~ge Ythe hundreds in the waters ington Bridge if she couldn't marry the mg th ·t · latter-day pirates - whether they be petty watchful eye on the millions of dollars The Water-thr e c_l y 111 the warm months. man she loved. Well, she left her pocket- thieves after small spoils, or big-time crim- worth of yachts and boats that blossom 111 placed by ashmg Seneca has been re- book and her glasses right on the bridge inals after valuable ship cargoes - that New York's springtime. Add to this the': ranging in a. navfy of 11 motor launches - and disappeared. A week later she crime does not pay, or so much as break task of protecting the roughly 20,000 111 ·st ur d y craftS!Ze th rom 22 to 65 feet small' called her rna and confessed that she had even, on the waters of New York harbor. habi~ants of th~ city's islands, plus t~~ tdhe Atlantic oat can breast the w~ves of gone out of town and married the guy. The men of the Harbor Precinct have floatmg populatwn - estimated at 1,0 j(e · ark recesses ofr nosed th elr· b ows mto · the She hadn't jumped into the river at all. " a jurisdiction extending from City Island living on houseboats barges and sta ·r ~ ~onstructed t eserted piers. Each boat Another common assignment for the h~ ,utrem o meet ·fi · to the low water mark of New Jersey, and boats - and you have, some idea of t r· ire h ent~. The R b speo c pollee re- r~arine cops is to afford convey for pre- from Sheepshead Bay to Riverdale. This job. The world's biggest and busiest wate - reaker of th ~ ert Steinberg is the oous freight cargoes in lighterage on includes roughly 1,000 piers, 100 yacht- front is their beat. e eet; the Daggett. on barges or car floats . Or the1y may be asked 2 3 to grapple for an automobile that has One harbor sergeant tells the story of crashed over an embankment, or to re- how he was once ordered to retrieve a At the Institute's auditor- ium the State Department's trieve bodies that went down in an air- stray anchor that was fished up by the dt~ty Vo ice of America micro- plane crash. In the course of the anchor of a large merchant vessel. In his phone picks up the escape Harbor Precinct cooperates contrnually small police launch he reported to the stories of Polish seafarers with federal, state and city departments in ship. ''I've come to pick up the extra an - who will men the Wolna such matters as preventing the smugglmg chor," he told the captain. "Fine," came Polska. of aliens or narcotics, protection of gold the reply, "but it weighs twelve tons." shipments, prevention of violation of Undaunted, the sergeant called a towing Navigation Laws, assisting in the enforce- and wrecking company, and continued on ment of quarantine laws, reporting sunken his patrol. derelicts and other obstructions to naviga- Another harbor policeman recalls with tion, assisting at fires on vessels, and regu- relish the time he took a wealthy Italian lating traffic at special events, to mention only a few of their chores. count off one of the big transatlantic superliners leaving the Harbor. "This guy A typical tour of duty on a police launch had just had a big fight with his society may involve nothing more than making girl friend and had gotten into trouble a peaceful patrol of the waterways to see with the law. He thought he'd cool off in that all is well, waving greetings to the Italy, but we didn't think that was such folks on the stake boats, making routine a good idea." inspections and calling it a day. But more often than not, a patrol is marked by in- The harbor cops themselves are men Freedom Sailors cident. A few weeks ago, the Harbor Police with the proverbial salt water in their veins, men who have been around boats rushed to Bedloe' s Island to take the care- cast in Polish behind the Iron Curtain. One sin ce they were children, spend their work- URING the first week of 1956 the taker's wife to the hospital, just in time young seaman, Stanislov Mazur, told how ing days on the police boats and for holi- DSeamen's Church Institute was host to to deliver her baby. he had escaped while serving as a cadet days go fishing - or boating. Most of 17 Polish seafarers who had fled their aboard a merchant marine them are "clamdiggers," police slang for homeland and arrived in this country to anchored at by jumping over- men who come from City Island or Long join twenty other escapees in operating a board and swimming 400 yards in the Police grappling hooks bring many things ta the Island, or the other shore regions of New named W olna Po!ska (Free darkness before his hand clutched the an- surface in a year's time . Here, it 's a safe. York. Some of the marine cops worked Poland) under the leadership of Cap tam Jan R. Cwiklinski, who gained notoriety chor chain of a British ship across the bay. N. Y. Police Department Photo on tugs or other small boats before join- Andrew Guzowski, radio commentator ing the Police Force. A few hold merchant by jumping shif and escaping to the West marine ratings. while master o the liner Batory in 1953. for the Polish Service of the Voice of Although their ship flies the flag of America, revealed that the Communists "There's no glamour to our jobs," one Liberia, the men will form the nucleus of go to great lengths in attempting to block of the cops remarked, "not when you have an attempt to establish a free Polish mer- the broadcasting of such escape stories, to deal with grease and human bodies. chant marine. The W olna Polska will be which are used as part of the West's cam- It's hard physical work - climbing up operated by the Pulaski Transportation paign to get the truth behind the Iron docks, greasing, painting, polishing brass, lme,A .Inc., b a .firm established by Polish- Curtain. He indicated that "jamming" and at the same tune, being a policema n, mencan u_smess men. Flying a company efforts by the Reds were never completely always responstve to emergencies." But flag resemblmg the pre-war Polish mari- successful because of the fact that it takes the men love it, and wouldn't trade it for tttme flag, the vessel will sail as a tramp approximately ten transmitters to block anything else: As proof, many stay in the s earn · h U er Wtt out scheduled ports of call. out the signal from one Voice of America Harbor Precmct for the maximum 35 pon the arrival in America of this last transmitter. The jamming procedure is years. Father and son teams and brother ~~~~i~~~nt of his crew, Captain Cwiklin- further complicated by the fact that the combinations are not unusual. When the the w l e press that those chosen to sail broadcasts are sent out in different wave ttme does come to retire from the Harbor made ao,;za ~olska were men who had lengths, seven short-wave, one long wave Precinct, they joke that "Old harbor c or,~ Curtain." spectal effort to escape the Iron and one medium. Also the frequencies never dte, they just dry up and float away. are varied. But the chief leak in the Iron And those seagulls on the water ? They're Some of thes ff counted by th e e orts to escape were re- Curtain seems to result from the fact that not gulls at all, merely the spirts of re; State D e men for the benefit of the . epartment's V . - the Communist monitors always let one tncarnated harbor cops still patro!ltnt: w htch visited th otce ot America, their old beats. ' broadcast come through in order to be stay here to k e Instttute during their able to listen to it themselves for tactical ma e recordings to be broad- 4 - fAYE H AMMEL purposes. 5 The WfJrl~f· fJI Ships

this is specifically forbidden by mandate PARTNERS instructor Frank Burns asked English- of Congress. As a result, shipowners have FOR BRAVERY speaking Fernando Mirando how he and paid an excess of $27 million in tolls over The farmer and the sailor are close his fellow cadets would compare N ew and above all costs chargeable by law to A former merchant marine skipper who York and Rio de Janeiro, from whence partners in one of America's biggest busi- Canal operations, to offset the $15 million is now a Benedictine monk has been dec- most of them had come. Mirando relayed nesses - foreign trade. According to re- loss to the business empire. orated for bravery by the Korean Am- the question to his shipmates and the air cent statistics issued by the Committee of The Panama Canal Company, which bassador to the . Leonard P. filled with Portuguese and gesturing American Steamship Lines, one acre in took over operation of the Canal in 1951, La Rue, who was a sea captain with Moore hands. After a moment Mirando turned every ten on American farms is growing is dominated by the U. S. Army Corps of McCormack Lines, received the honor for back to Burns : "They say New York is crops which will cross the sea. One dollar Engineers. An editorial in M arine N ews in every eight of the farmer's income rescuing 14,000 Koreans from the burn- a big city, but Rio is wanner." ing city of Hungnam five years ago. His However, once relieved of their strong for November, 1955, suggests that on a comes from overseas sales. ship, the M eredith Victory, was built to feelings about New York's frigid air, they long-range basis, the only equitable solu- The farmer's welfare, prosperity, price tion of the problem of operating the Canal accommodate twelve passengers. warmed up about Radio City, the U.N., structure, extent of government aid and would be a transfer to the Department of "Prior to the time when we entered the the Empire State Building, et al. size of surplus commodity stockpiles are harbor, we had no idea of the cargo we With the completion of their year of Commerce, which should be able to run it all tied closely with the fate of American as an essentially commercial enterprise, would carry," La Rue said. " It was like a sea duty that tops a five-year training pro- shipping, says the Committee. with an appreciation ot the importance of scene of Dante's Inferno. The once fin e gram, the cadets this month will receive city of Hungnam was a mass of devastation their commissions and assignments to lower tolls to international trade. The and wreckage. It was gasping its death cruisers and destroyers in the Brazilian editorial also points out that while spokes- throes ... Five unshaven, disheveled Army Navy - a navy which has no aircraft men for the Panama Company defend themselves by saying it would cost a ship colonels came aboard. 'Captain, we need carriers or battleships. your assistance,' one said. 'Zero hour is whiCh pays $7,000 for a Panama transit, ROUGHING IT fast approaching. Thousands of men, $50,000 to go around Cape Horn, this is not the choice at all. The "choice is be- women and children are here. We have Two cargo ships with ultra-luxurious to get them out. Will you help us?' . . . tween Panama and extinction " says Marine News. ' accommodations for passengers are now W e were credited with taking 14,000 in wending their way around the world, cre- a single lift." DOWN IN PANAMA ating a mild furor of ship-building interest in every port they visit. Twelve leading American steamship They are the President Jackson and the companies are up in arms about the high President Hayes, both converted Mariner- cost of using the Panama Canal. They -A DAY'S WORK type ships of the American President Line. NEW YORK: A BIG CITY, BUT ... have filed suit against the Government The largest (21,000 tons displacement corporation, Panama Canal Company, to . A jet fighter pilot forced to parachute and 563 feet long) and fastest (21 knots) reduce tolls and to recover $27,000,000 toto the ocean when his plane ran out of cargo liners ever constructed in this coun- Among the multitudes in New York fuel was rescued during December, about at Christmas time last month were 16? in toll collections which, they claim, has try, they feature unusual comforts for 13 miles off the coast, by the crew twelve passengers each. Among the inno- Brazilian Navy cadets who arrived 111 t~ts been charged excessively since 195 1. The companies base their claim on a of the tanker Michigan Sun. The Sun Otl vations are self-service passenger eleva- ice-strewn port aboard their training shtp, Company ship, making her way from Duque de Caxias. With their ears muffiled recent audit report issued by the Govern- tors, never before built on a freighter, and ment's own General Accounting Office. Beaumont, Texas to New York with a sky decks, boasting forty-one solarium- and their necks drawn into the warmth cargo of heating oil, picked up the man, of their collars, they were squired about It shows that the Panama Canal CompanY like floor-to-ceiling windows, each more and notified the Coast Guard. They in town by the U.S. Navy to see all the has been issuing financial s t at e m e n t~ Ill than seven feet high and five feet wide. turn alerted the Air Force at Palm Beach great sights. whtch the accounts of its Canal operatiOns The world-circling cruises of these . In the course of their visit, they stopped whhere a crash boat is stationed The pilot, ~nd tts separate business enterprises serv· un u t · 1 liners last 105 days, with forty days spent m at the Sperry School atop the Seamen's m~ the Canal Zone _ railroads, steam· an d ther • Was~ ... h.taken back to Palm Beac 1 Church Institute to see Gotham converted in port, on the west coast of the United shtp ltnes, commissaries, laundries, hotels. w «He tgan Sun proceeded on her to blips on the screen. Sperry radar ay to New York. States, in Japan, Malaya and India. The etc. - have been intermingled, although price tag, per passenger, is $2,700. 6 7 How Deep is the Ocean?

THEME SONG OF THE NAVY HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICE

OETS have long eulogized the never- the eastern Atlantic to the coasts of both P changing sea, but the people at the of the Americas and deep into the western Navy Hydrographic Office will tell you and southwestern areas of the Pacific, was that this is merely another case of things a scientific feat almost unprecedented in not always being as poets say they are. his time; even today, with modern hydro- The sea does change; deeps and shallows graphic equipment, it would be a tremen- appear, islands sink and rise again, shore- dous undertaking. Out of it came 87 en- lines alter their shape, and icebergs appear. gravings, which have since served as the Keeping mariners informed of these basis of charts issued by all maritime na- events which crucially affect their shipping tions. Subsequent expeditions in 1848, courses is one of the chief functions of 1850, 1853, and Perry's expedition to U.S. Navy Photo the Navy Hydrographic Office, or Hydro, Japan in 1852 provided .a wealth of sup- The U. S. brig Porpoise wos Hydro's first survey ship. which officially celebrated 125 years of plementary information. service to seafarers last month. The Depot's greatest period of growth From a three-man operation known as came about when Matthew Fontaine vessels of the United States and for the craft, and amphibious and regular trucks. the Depot of Charts and Instruments, set Maury took charge in 1842. His achieve- benefit and use of navigators generally." Two helicopters are assigned to each ship up in 1830, the U. S. Navy Hydrographic ments were little short of phenomenal. Hydro's functions are still the same to- for use in reconnaissance, aerial photogra- Office has come to lead the world in knowl- His famous "Pilot Charts" cut down the day. Through the century and a quarter phy and transportation. In addition, each edge of the sea. Twenty-five naval officers average passage of the clipper ships from it has been operating, its publications have vessel can compile and print charts as soon and a staff of over 1400 civilian specialists New York to by 50 days; reflected the advances in scientific navi- as survey operations are completed. in hydrographic engineering, cartography, American shipowners were able to save gation, many of them pioneered by Hydro The Hydro fleet also boasts two purely navigational science, , statis- $2,000,000 a year. Under his direction, itself. In the first part of this century, oceanographic ships, the USS San Pablo tics and lithography are constantly at work the Depot produced trade wind charts, its main problem was providing the best and the USS Rehoboth. These vessels have preparing the 6,000 charts and publica- thermal charts, and storm and rain charts. tables for computing celestial observations anchored in 2,000 fathoms of water. They tions issued by Hydro every year. Sixteen His book, The Physical Geogt"aphy of the and the most rapid means of drawing the have also taken successful underwater million copies of such charts and publi- Sea, published in 1855, has become the related position line. As naval aviation photography at 3,400 fathoms. They are cations are already in its distribution sys- bible of the science of oceanography. grew, Hydro devised charts for air navi- playing an important part in man's con- tem, making it the largest repository and Maury advocated the linking of the con- gation. The invention of Loran, the revo- stant struggle to unlock the vast food and distributor of navigational information in tinents by telegraph cable and marked the lutionary electronic aid to navigation, mineral resources of the ocean. existence. Its staff members serve as ad- path for the first Atlantic cable. His no- necessitated the revision and publication Merchant mariners know Hydro well. visors for the United Nations, NATO tion of making systematic weather obser- of countless Hydro charts. Several times daily they are apprised of and the Inter-American Defense Board. vations on land and sea, and for daily To prepare its material, Hydro works urgent information by Hydro, through its Hydro has served as a model for count- weather reports to farmers, paved the way Wtth a survey fleet of six ships, all of radio warning systems in the Atlantic and less similar installations in other countries for the U.S. Weather Bureau. Whtch have been converted from attack Pacific. They read Hydro's weekly "Notice and naval officers outside the United State~ The Civil War, and with it Maury's re- cargo and fl eet mine sweeper types. The to Mariners" which furnishes material regularly come he~e to study its operation. turn to his native , put an end to USS Mamy and the USS Tanner are the keeping the charts and publications of the Although the Umted States is one of the his achievements for the Navy. The Depot ~argest and best equipped hydrographic office up to date. They have been relying youngest o~ the maritime nations, it leads itself settled into a quiet slump until 1866 ur~ey shtps 10 the world. They are fitted upon Hydro for 125 years as their most the wor.ld 10 hydrographic work. when Congress defined its mission and Wtt the most modern navigational and accurate source of information essential The. mfant organization got its big im- changed its named to the Hydrographic sui rveymg instruments, including special e ectron ic syst f . . . . to safe navigation. Seafarers can well re- petus 10 1838, when Lt. Charles Wilkes Office. Henceforth its function would be d . ems or preose postttomng peat the inscription on Matthew Maury's s~t out for. t.he first major overseas scien- unng so d" . to provid~. "accurate and cheap nautical larry. fo un tng operatiOns.. They . each monument - Evet"y mat"inet" fo1" countless ttfic exp~dttton ever authorized by Con- charts, satlu:g directions, navigators and With ur 1arge sound10g boats, eqU!pped age.r as he takes his chat"t to shape his gress. Hts four-year survey, ranging from manuals of mstruction for the use of all echo sounders and radio, six landing co11rse act"os.r the .rea will think of thee. 8 9 80% of our commercial cargoes and most "concrete and ambitious steps since ' 50% of our aid cargoes, are now demand- the war to ensure its future vitality and ing and getting others to demand that our efficiency - steps tending especially to 50/50 law be emasculated so that they replacing and upgrading present fleets and can drive American ships and American to reinstating the coastwise and intercoast- seamen off the ." al trades. New shipbuilding programs," On behalf of the 60 steamship lines he said, "one involving over $300,000,000, represented by his organization, Greene were announced by several major Ameri- expressed confidence that "the American can lines. A rash of orders and plans for people and their representatives in Con- trailer-type coastal ships were announced gress will realize the selfish nature of these during the latter part of the year. The foreign efforts to monopolize all of Amer- high speed Mariner-type freighters con- ica's commerce so that we will then be tinued to prove more popular with private completely dependent upon foreign-flag lines than would have been hoped by the shipping and completely subject to ocean most optimistic a year earlier, with ten shipping rates dictated by foreign com- bought from the Government during the petition." past 12 months." Noting that the privately owned mer- "The outlook is not dark if the fair chant marine had declined more slowly philosophy of the 50/50 Law is main- during 1955 than during the previous tained," Mr. Greene concluded. "We are year, but still enough to bring it below confident that it will be, particularly in the 1939 level of 1000 ships, Greene light of the general reawakening of pub- pointed hopefully to the fact that during lic interest in the necessity for a strong, 1955 the merchant marine had taken its efficient American merchant marine."

50-50, or Fight Something Personal In many warm greetings received last month from seamen all over the HE American Merchant Marine Insti- occasionally cabled such stories home. globe, we at the Institute find inspiration for the New Year and the years beyond. We would like to be able to share all of these greetings with tute has opened the new year with. a The AMMI president observed that T our many friends who have helped earn them. blistering charge that "a f~re~gn con~pl:­ ships sailing under foreign flags were al- ready carrying 80% of our commercial acy is working to hamstnng Amenca s 'J' o All at the S.C.!.: merchant marine, the fourth arm of our cargoes and almost 50% of our foreign of long winter days and nights. The Con - This Christmas 1 witt addt·ess my card national defense and first arm of our aid and other cargoes paid for or financed rad Library was a luxury - a haven f01· by the American government. "Their to atl because so many of the old original those who enjoyed good books. And the commerce." gang are missing. Francis T. Greene, president of the owners," he commented, "apparently want Chapel a place to go for quiet meditation not only all of our commercial trade, but Somehow, at ChriJtmas ti111 e my I houghts and prayer when we were weary. shipping group, charged that the govern- rdways drift back to my youth - back En~­ also all of our Government-generated I always remember particularly, Dt·. ments and shipping associations of when I first stm·ted to sea. And because I land and the Scandinavian countries 111 cargoes." Mansfield and Mrs. Roper, among the never had a home, I sort of adopted the particular were attacking important Amer- Mr. Green cited the 50./50 provision of many who have served the S.C.!., because S.C.!. It offered me security and altho ican shipping legislation and sowing "clev- the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 as be- of their sincere devotion to their work - many hundreds of other seamen made use erly contrived seeds of discord" in agricul- ing "typical of the generosity of Ameri- the dedication of their lives to improve of its facilities, there always seemed to me tural areas of the United States in an effort cans in being able to give as well as to the seamen's lot by offering us a choice of to destroy the "natural alliance between ask an even break. This law," he said, .romething personal and homelike about environment, a home, wholesome enter- the American farmer and the American "provides that our aid cargoes and other tbe place; that those in charge wet·e sin- tainment and for their never ceasing in merchant marine." Government-financed cargoes may be cerely concerned about my comfMt and their belief that we were worth the effort. Th~ shipping leader also charged that shared with foreign-flag ships on an ap- welfare, and a sort of fratemal bond did Fair winds and smooth sailing through- seem to exist among us all. ~mencan newsmen abroad were being proximately 50/50 basis. No such sharing out the New Year for all. button-holed and filled with distortions is permitted by foreign governments in During the Depression years the S.C.!. and p:ejudgments on shipping matters." the case of their own government-owned Wets a t·ejuge, offering tts food, facilities DONALD W. JOHNSON He sa1d that these writers, "away from or financed shipments. Nevertheless, for- to keep ottrselves clean, movies, sports and , Calif. home and unable to check the facts" have eign governments, not satisfied with the other amusements, to lessen the boredom Dec. 1955

10 11 8fJfJK PROMISE Watch So much of life is not our own- yet who's to know .,. Whether some near next heart hold not a dream to match his own? There is nothing real which will not permit also of an ideal All these other trifling considerations quite apart HE reading public's fascination with turers Club hailed his "epic drift" as the Do we ever even write just what we meant to write T details of World War II at sea con- greatest solo journey since Lindberg's tinues on unabated, if the appearance of ocean flight. Yankee's People and Places, Does not our meaning, by a word, fall always somehow short four new books on the subject is any in- by Irving and Electa Johnson and Lydia But we would have written you up to another height dication. Wolfgang Frank, the public re- Edes, Norton, $5.00, recounts the activi- lations officer for Admiral Donitz, tells ties of a group of young people who went Had you not spoiled our effort forever with a cruel quote the story of German U-boats during two around the world on Captain Johnson's There could be an harmony powerful as ocean's seas world wars in The Sea Wolves, Rinehart, famous schooner, Yankee, and of the $5.00. Defeat At Sea, by C. D. Bekker, strange lands and · friendly people they Subsiding to such tender-glory as only real seamen show Holt, $3.95, is another book from the visited. Heaven, Hell and Salt Water, When they feel they are answered in some sort, nor blow German side, giving an account of the by Bill and Phyllis Crowe, John De struggle and destruction of the German Graff, Inc., $3. 75, is another round-the- With windy phantoms up the aisles of crooked, lonely trees Navy in World War II. The Secret world odyssey, this time completed by Seeking th~ futile figure. What figure, then? Raiders, Norton, $3. 75, written by an two young Californians in the 39-foot The one that, sanctified, sits supreme in every stricken eye. American, David Woodward, gives the schooner, Lang Syne. Good reading fare facts on the German merchant raiders of for those who put to sea in boats and those So much of life is not our own- yet we go on World War II, the disguised marauders who stay at home and think about it. Strangely trying to make of it something whose toll of Allied shipping was greater than that of all the German battleships and the mines laid by the German Navy A book of special fascination for marine Magnificent, and air-force combined. Turning to an- readers will be A Night To Remember, other theatre of war in Hellcats of the by Walter Lord, Holt, $3.50. Walter Sea-orchestral, Sea, Greenberg, $5.00, Admiral Charles Lord has devoted more than 20 years of love-strong. A. Lockwood and Hans Christian Adam- intensive research to the Titanic disaster. son tell the amazing story of how Ameri- He has tracked down, interviewed and can submarines broke through the deadly corresponded with scores of survivors, res- mine fields of the Sea of Japan in 1945 to cuers, relatives of victims, steamship offi - - Forrest Anderson deal the deathblow to Japanese shipping. cials and others connected with the trag- edy. The result is a masterful "you-are- Third Prize, A W Club there" report of the fateful night when Poetry Contest, 1955 the "unsinkable" Titanic went down. For the aficionados of the around-the- world in a small boat school, three new books of interest are on the market. Espe- Budd Schulberg, who wrote the screen cially exciting is The Gods Were Kind, play for "On The Waterfront," has now by William Willis, Dutton, $4.00. On written a suspenseful novel on the same October 15, 1954, Willis, a former mer- theme. Waterfront, Random House, chant seaman, completed an epic 6, 700- $3.95, again probes the crime and corrup- mile voyage across the Pacific, drifting tion on the New York docks against a alone on a small balsam raft from Callao, background of sharply drawn and com- Peru to Pago Pago, Samoa. The Adven- pelling characters.

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