Institute Loses Illustrious Member of its Board of Managers

A typical wartime Liberty ship. Note gun and turret mounted aft on fantail. Such guns were manned by sailors from the Navy's Armed Guard.

by Bill Riepe Eventually the attrition of t ime, for­ There aren't very many relics of eign aid and souvenir collectors almost World War II still around. By relics I wiped out the World War II relics. don't mean the Samurai swords or SS A notable exception was a fleet of helmets, or Lugers or swastikas; or any Liberty ships, moored peacefully in of the other curios the GIs brought Tompkin's Cove, a quiet little back­ home to prove to their grandchildren water of the Hudson River. that they really had fought in the With the end of the war these ships greatest of all wars. (Some of those constituted an embarrassment of swords were actually made in Japan riches. They were too slow for profit­ Mr. Michalis as he appeared in a after the war for the tourist trade.) able conversion to the competitive mer­ painting made some years ago I'm talking about the big hardware, chant trade, but not even the affluent Flying Forts, Mustangs, Shermans, Americans could simply scuttle the mil­ Clarence G. Michalis, a member of the Institute's LSTs, Jeeps - the kings and queens li ons of dollars worth of ships out of Board of Managers from 1924 to 1970 and President of ordnance that Americans flew, sailed hand. from 1932 to 1957, died December 13 in New York after a or drove into battle. We didn't want to give them away long illness. He was 85 years old. Mr. Michalis had long Some of them survived the war by because t hat would injure our own been the chairman of the Institute and a leader in many newly-rejuvenated merchant marine. other philanthropic, community and civic causes. quite a few years. In the late 'Forties you'd occasionally see a newsreel show­ The Cold War and Yankee ingenuity ing acres and acres of surplus military teamed up to ease our embarrassment. equipment waiting to be auctioned off, With the Russians becoming more ob­ or maybe shipped to one of t he little streperous daily, possible emergencies the LOOKOUT The Rev. John M. Mulligan, D.D. countries we always seemed to be sup­ were foreseen which might again re­ Di,'ector plying in those days. quire millions of tons of shipping to Vol. 62 No. 1 January 1971 Harold G. Petersen Editor Or you'd hear the recurring outraged supply American forces around the Copyright 1971 rumors about millions of dollars worth world. Why not "mothball" the Liber­ Published monthly with exception of July-August and February-March when bi-monthly. Contributions to the of rolling stock dumped from docks in­ ties and have them readily available in SEAMEN'S CHURCH Seamen's Church Institute of New York of $5.00 or more INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK include a year's subscription to The lookout. Single su b­ to the Pacific because the Pentagon fig­ case of need? 15 State Street, New York. N.Y. 10004 script ions are $2.00 annually. Single copies SOC . Addi· ured that was cheaper than shipping it And so it was done. The old girls Telephone: 269-2710 tional postage for Canada , LatiA America, Spain, $1.00; back home. were rounded up, gun turrets were re­ The Right Reverend other foreign, $3.00. Horace \V. B. Donegan, D.D., D. C.L. Or you'd read about a wealthy insur­ moved from bows and fantails, wea­ HonQrary Pre8ident COVER, Spray and freezing temperatures combine to coat ance executive who bought a surplus therproofing processes were applied, John G. Winslow a ship 's lifeboat with a thick glaze of ice. President P-38 for the sheer pleasure of doing and they docilely allowed themselves to aerobatics in it without having t o be towed into retirement as part of the worry about a Zero getting on his tail. Hudson River Reserve Fleet.

3 faced yet another peril - attack by roar and a blinding flash, and no trace Here they waited with stoic patience If the ships were armed, it was usu­ Luftwaffe squadrons based in Norway, at all of the crew. In the winter, a man f or a recall to active duty. For a time ally with a four-inch gun for dueling Denmark, Belgium and Holland. could expect to survive approximately they served as floating silos to store with surfaced subs and a variety of The Luftwaffe pilots, desperate to four minutes ill the freezing waters of some of the country's vast surplus of machine guns for beating off aerial at­ prevent these hundreds of th o ~sands ~f the Murmansk run. More than 5,000 wheat. They even became something of tack. These were manned by sailors of tons of supplies from reachlllg theIr civilian members of the Merchant Ma­ a tourist attraction for motorists pass­ the Navy's Armed Guard and, if the enemies on the battlefields, hit the en­ rine alone were killed during the war. ing on nearby US 9-W. ship were travelling unescorted, were voys savagely. Of course, all this happened more It hadn't always been that way; once fts sole protection against attack. Some­ How about the crews of the stricken than a quarter of a century ago and they were neither docile nor retired, times this not very formidable arma­ ship - what were their chances of sur­ seems like ancient history as time is and certainly not tourist attractions. ment was very effective; it had been viving this merciless combat at sea? measured by today's fast-moving ev­ Their story began back in September known to drive off and even sink subs. Fair to nil, depending upon when and ents. The exploits of the Liberties have 1941 with the launching of the first of When the fledgling Liberties were where they were sunk. Ships in convoy long since been relegated to the ar­ the line, appropriately named Patrick manned, armed and loaded with troops were strictly prohibited from stopping chives of legend, mostly forgotten ex­ H enry. She displaced 10,800 tons and and supplies for the war zone they were to pick up any survivors. This was a cept by the men (and, sometimes, the could make 11 knots. Built in just over ready to face the crucial test of per­ job for the escorts, if any. women) who served on them. Obsoles­ eight months, the Patrick H em'y prom­ formance. The precious cargoes had to If a ship went down in daylight in cence has finally caught up to the relics. ised help with one of our big problems be delivered across the hostile seas t o calm or moderate seas, and if the es­ Someday a "burner" will light his at the time - the need to build ships such places as Murmansk, Archangel, corting naval vessels could spare a few torch, adjust the mixture, pull down his in a hurry. London, Loch Ewe, Cardiff, Vladivos­ minutes from hunting the sub that did goggles and then cut into the last of the This was almost three months be­ tok, and Black Head. the job, then the men clinging to rafts Liberties, but it will be a long time un­ fore the attack on Pearl Harbor, but the It's almost impossible now to remem­ and bits of floating wreckage would til they're entirely forgotten. certainty of our involvement was rec­ ber how grim and deadly a war t hese probably be picked up. There are still some ex-GI's who re­ ognized and plans were being made for men and ships sailed out to fight in t he Also, the nature of the cargo was a member long nights when, lying on can­ the American war effort. Abroad only early months of 1942, when the U-boats big factor in the crews' chances for vas bunks tiered five-high down in the the British stood between Hitler and were having all the best of it. survival. Tankers frequently exploded, stuffy holds, they listened to the slap total domination of Europe. England The slaughter was terrible. Ships on showering flaming oil and condemning of the waves against the thin hulls, and began the war with the largest mer­ the American coastal run were torped­ men in the water to hideous deaths. prayed silently that the subs were chant fleet in the world, but the U-boats oed less than two hours sailing time out Ships carrying munitions sometimes prowling elsewhere in the North Atlan­ were slowly bleeding her to death. We of New York - crewmen had lunch in simply disappeared with a thunderous tie that night. would have to provide not only material Staten Island and were dead before but also much of the shipping required supper. From Nova Scotia to the Gulf to deliver it. of Mexico the bottom of the Atlantic By the time we got into the war the was littered with the hulks of Allied basic plans for Liberties were thor­ shipping. oughly developed. Improved production East Coast residents soon grew used techniques eventually lowered construc­ to the sights and sounds of submarine tion time for each ship to an amazing warfare. The beaches were dotted with 42 days! In all we built more than 2600 empty life jackets, ship's gear, splin­ of them, as well as 531 of the faster Vic­ tered rafts, bodies - all the debris of tory types. war at sea. They were crewed by seamen from The Liberties, in most respects mo­ all over the world, not excluding the dels of virtue, were found to have a Axis countries. Poles, Filipinos, Chin­ secret vice. Under continuous pounding ese, Italians, Lascars - every conceiv­ by the huge waves they had a fatal ten­ able nationality was represented on the dency to crack and split in two. It rosters of the Liberties, and they rang­ wasn't a common happening but it did ed in age from eleven to seventy. They give the men who sailed them some­ were relatively well paid, but many of thing to ponder on those nights when them never got to enjoy their wages. howling storms eased the threat from By the end of the war thousands had the U-boats. been killed at sea. As they neared Europe the convoys 5 4 07 L/wenty years ago the late Stephen sea for a twenty-four hour period. Chapel. The book remains open to their proportions is achieved. The Endowed and Martha Comstock of Newark, New Subsequently the Comstocks present­ page for that day, and so it shall be, in R ed L etteT Day M emOt'ial plan is a way York, brought to fruition a desire ed the Institute with a magnifi cently perpetuity, through "The Book of Re­ toward such an achievement. which they had long cherished. carved, glass-topped oak case contain­ membrance." Some persons may prefer to "build Their benevolent project was inspired ing a hand-tooled maroon leather-bound Do you have a "Red Letter Day"? up" the sum of ten thousand dollars by the custom of hand lettering and il­ "Book of Remembrance". Between its What better way in which to honor with the Institute over a period of time. luminating the very early Bibles, covers are vellum pages for t he days of some loved one, or an event, whose This is acceptable within the Red Let­ wherein the names of the most impor­ the year. This gift was accompanied by memory is cherished? ter Memorial plan and should probably tant saints were lettered in red, and t he their "Living Endowment" check for Why does the Institute have a "gap" be discussed with their attorney from saint's day was designated a "Red Let­ the Red Letter Days they had chosen. between its daily operating cost and its several viewpoints, tax deductibility be­ ter Day". An individual page was handsomely en­ earned and special income ? ing one. It was the concept of the Comstocks grossed for each of the days they se­ The explanation is simple: it is be­ If ther e is a Red Letter Day in your that all of us have a particular red let­ lected, and inscribed with the special cause most of the various institute ser­ life, please write to me. ter day which we wish to commemorate, message indicating the event or occa­ vices to seafarers are given without THE REV. JOHN M. MULLIGAN, D.D. not just during our lifetime, but in per­ sion they wished to memorialize. compensation; only the hotel and food DiTectoT petuity. Their first concern was a During their lifetime the Comstocks services "pay their own way" - as the means through which a "Red Letter paid visits to the Institute's Chapel on expression goes - out of the Institute's Day" Gift, as well as the memory of the their "special days," when the Book of total operations. A p erusal of the SUGGESTED RED LETTER DAYS giver, would endure. Remembrance reposed in its place of Annual Report makes this abundantly Birthday The Comstocks, who were devoted honor, open to their page. The Com­ clear. Wedding Day supporters of the Institute's work, con­ stocks have passed away, but not their The Institute, its Board of Managers, Child's birthday sulted with the Seamen's Church Insti­ memory or their benevolence. its founder, its Charter, have mandated Anniversary tute to determine how best their mis­ Others have followed their inspira­ that ministry to seafarers means a Memorial to a loved one sion could be accomplished. tion, either through Living E ndow­ total ministry to the whole seaman - Occasion for giving thanks It was determined that the annual ments or bequests. Each year, on t he with all that total implies. Beginning or end of memorable event interest on an investment of $10,000 anniversary date of the event cited, t he Functioning within this concept and Escape from near tragedy would (at that time) close the gap be­ person or persons memorialized are in­ context, then, it is likely the Institute A cherished, but undisclosed, event. tween the Institute's income and t he cluded in the special prayers during re­ will continue to incur an annual deficit actual cost of ministry to men of t he ligious services held in t he Institute's until an Institute endowment of sizable

6 7 The SCI lobby is often piled high with Seamen from ships in Port Newark luggage on days when a crew of an ocean find evening movies at the SCI Center liner is replaced by a relief crew. Men here there a pleasant experience. Movies comprise some of the incoming replacement of all varieties to suit all tastes are crewmen waiting in the early morning to exhibited. Seamen not interested In board busses for transportation to their ship, movies may prefer billiards or some the Rotterdam. Slightly over one hundred of other games of skill. them stayed overnight at the Institute.

The Women's Coun­ to see for herself how the annual cil of SCI, the indus­ Christmas box project she had heard trious volunteer arm so much about was actually handled; to of the Institute, is actively participate in the processing of composed of women the 10,000 gift boxes to seamen. devoted not only to its Acting on the impulse, she called the major year-around Council headquarters from California project - knitting for to tell it of her wish. She arrived at the seamen - but to the Institute in December as planned and Institute as well, evidently. agreed, to be greeted by the staff who Some volunteer s knit for SCI from had never witnessed anything quite like far-off places. Some may come in to the it before. Institute during various times of the From the time she arrived, Mrs. Pol­ year f or special short-time projects hemus, widowed for a year, a slender from communi ties nearby to New York. woman with boundless energy, worked But hardly ever - maybe the word is each day in' the Council "Christmas never - do they come expressly to the Room" along with other volunteers Institute to work in its behalf from as from nearby communities. far away as the west coast of the U.S. When she wasn't packing gift boxes Mrs. Charles Polhemus of Palo Alto, or engaged at the many other details California, did just this in December. entailed in the project, she was, you A veteran knitter f or the Council, she guessed it - knitting. has made over 1,000 woolen pieces for As the big holiday project drew to it since 1955, a feat of considerable a close, Mrs. Polhemus, exhilarated by dimension in itself. her experience at the Institute and the But there is more. Big City holiday decorations, prepared While knitting in her home this past to return to her home in early January late fall she experienced the impulse to - this time to recruit knitters for SCI plane to New York and the Institute from her town.

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The U, S. Post Office branch on the happy when I can say, 'Sure, Jack, by Neill J. Harris third floor of the Institute is a busy there's mail for you.' Sometimes, when spot and popular with seamen because you have to tell a man there is nothing On a warm, sunny morning in early ed the Ourang Medan within hours, it is here that they hasten for mail im­ for him, well- the sad expression that February, 1948, the S.S. Ourang Me­ right where she had reported herself. mediately after getting off ship. comes into his face sort of gets to you." dan steamed through the Strait of Ma­ At first sight she appeared in Al con­ Harry Bernstein, a postal clerk with Mr, Bernstein in the photo shows lacca, bound for Jakarta in Indonesia. dition, a thin ribbon of smoke trailing the branch since 1964 and possessing some SCI volunteers a gift he r eceived All appeared calm and peaceful ... yet from her funnel; but on drawing close an excellent memory for names and from an American seaman in Japan. something menaced the Dutch freight­ they noticed that she drifted helplessly faces, is able to greet the seamen by The sign mounted nearby the postal er: her radio operator suddenly flashed with the current. The rescue ships hove name and tell them - without looking counter was brought from the old South a series of S.O,S. signals followed by to within hailing distance of the drift­ in the "call boxes" - whether he has Street SCI Post Office as a souvenir, his ship'S location. He repeated the dis­ ing freighter, but received no response mail for them, its message as apt now as before. tress calls, alerting British and Dutch to their repeated calls nor could any "Naturally," he says, "I'm most radio centers on the coast of Sumatra movement of life be seen aboard her. and t he Malay Peninsula. After fifteen apprehensive minutes What danger threatened the Ourang salvage parties rowed across to the Medan? All anxiously awaited his ex­ OU1'ang M edan and clambered aboard planation; instead, the radio crackled her deck ... and what they found ap­ out the ominous news: "Officers in­ palled and horrified them: they had cluding captain lying dead in chartroom boarded a ship of the dead! and on bridge. Probably whole crew Corpses lay scattered everywhere dead." about this floating morgue! The silent Immediately after this the operator bodies of the officers and crew were rapped out another S.O.S. with despe­ sprawled along the deck and across the rate speed; however, as if struggling hatches, lying in the chartroom and with deadly fear , his next transmission wheelhouse, Even the captain's pet dog came hopelessly garbled: the radio lis­ was killed, its lips drawn back and tening posts received only a series of fangs bared in agony - or anger! indecipherable dots and dashes. But On the bridge the captain lay dead; then, quite clearly, the operator dis­ the bodies of two ship's officers were patched his last message, pathetically stretched across the floor of the chart­ telling its own t ragic story: "I die." room. In his tiny radio shack they Silence, unbroken silence, followed. found the operator who had tried so The Br itish and Dutch radio centers desperately to bring help, his body Cunard Steamship lines was recently awarded an official U. S. Naval Oceanographic confirmed the location of the stricken slumped in a chair and his lifeless hand Office citation and plaque in recognition of its "Significant contribution to oceanography" freighter with t he directional finding still resting on the transmission key. at a noon luncheon held at the Institute. gear, then quickly notified all vessels in The plaque was received for Cunard and its president, R. B. Patton, by Charles S. The bodies of the crewmen lay scat­ Dickson, the line's vice president in charge of operations. The presentation was made by the Strait of Malacca. Rescue craft tered about the ship, some where they Capt. F. L. Slattery, commander of the Oceanographic Office, and was in recognition for rushed from Sumatra and Malaya to had fallen in the line of duty. And the helping in research on the Gulf Stream, particularly. the area of the distress calls and sight- corpses of both officers and crew lay

10 11 on their backs, sightless eyes staring abandoned t he floating coffin. Minutes upward, faces reflecting some nameless later the boilers exploded and the horror seen before death struck. stricken Ourang M edan, erupting The dead captain lay on his back, one smoke and flames, rolled over on her hand shielding his eyes. The officers side and sank beneath the waves. and crew also lay stretched on their Who or what killed the capt ain and backs, frozen faces upturned, mouths crew and officers of the Dutch freight­ gaping wide and eyes staring. And on er? No satisfactory answer has ever every face an expression of stark ter­ been proposed. Perhaps carbon mon­ ror! oxide or other deadly fumes fr om a However, an examination of the bod­ smoldering fire caused the deaths. Af­ ies showed no signs of physical violence, ter all, such tragedies occur easily in nor any trace of wounds or injuries; closed spaces - yet it would be most and there were no weapons lying about; unlikely for poisonous gas to suffocate yet death had struck down every living crewmen on an open deck! creature aboard the doomed ship! But The horrifying fate that overtook how? Perhaps autopsies on the corpses the captain and crew of the Ourang would tell. M edan remains yet another mystery of The salvage teams held a meeting on the sea. But there remains a mystery deck and decided it best to tow the un­ greater still: Why were all the ill-fated damaged vessel with its grisly cargo crew staring up at the sky when death of death to the nearest port. But then, struck them down on that beautiful mysteriously, a fire broke out below February morning in 1948? deck and soon was raging out of con­ Perhaps death came, not from below, trol, and the boarding parties hastily but from above !

by Alan P. Major It is a well-known fact that some bird Like the birds, there are gaps in species migrate over vast distances knowledge of fish migration. It is from one country to another, often known, however, that fish move from crossing seas and oceans to do this. It one habitat to another for a period of is less often realized that certain fish time, principally for two reasons: to also migrate, sometimes thousands of follow a food supply that also migrates miles, from one sea to another, or from or to find a new one; and to spawn. a river or creek to the sea or ocean and A famous example of the latter is vice-versa. the salmon. The Atlantic salmon from 12 13 freshwater rivers in Britain live for setts, and later caught, in 1959, by several years in the North Atlantic French fishermen in the Bay of Biscay, Ocean, off Greenland and Iceland. Then, having increased in weight from 18 to when mature, some mysterious instinct 150 Ibs. Similarly, two bluefins caught CERTAINLY-A GOONEY BIRD prompts them to gather in schools and off Bergen, Norway, had covered 45 00 to swim thousands of miles to precisely miles in 120 days from Cat Cay, Flor­ the exact spot where they were spawn­ Surviving each crash landing, ida, where they had been tagged in Oc­ He manages to stagger; ed. tober, 1951. Air-borne again at last, Upon arriving at the mouth of their A king salmon tagged off t he west His wing-dip hints a swagger. "home" river they must avoid hazards coast of Queen Charlotte Islands, Bri­ such as seals, fishermen, predatory tish Columbia, was caught 60 days lat er Then orbiting his world birds and animals, waterfalls, rapids, near Marshfield, Oregon, having cov­ Above the earth and ocean, etc. - leaping up and over obstacles in ered 870 miles. An Atlantic salmon tag­ He glides with a dancer's grace­ the water to finally reach the very ged at Loch na Croic, Scotland, was A feather-cloud in motion ... stream 01" rivulet gravel bed they des­ caught 11 months later, 1730 miles Until another landing, cended from years earlier. away, in Eqaluq fjords, Greenland. Another slight- uh, stagger, Here they spawn and then again How the fishes cross the trackless Another awkward take off leave, followed by their offspring, to oceans and seas, leaving and returning Foretell his certain swagger. make the long journey back to the At­ to one feeding ground, sometimes thou­ -Emily Sargent Co uncilman lantic. They leave and return to spawn sands of miles apart, or finding t heir several times before they die. way to their native river, is a mystery. From WR ITERS NOTES AND QUOTES copyright 1965, used with permission Similarly, the Pacific salmon begin In the case of the salmon it has been life in the cold freshwater rivers of proved they have a remarkable sense Oregon, Washington, south British Co­ of smell and by using it the salmon is lumbia, etc., which they leave en masse able to trace its return by the special to the Pacific Ocean. Here for two to odor of the water, gravel, mud and hu­ TATTOO five years, according to their species, mus in the river mouth and spawning they range over an area from Alaska place, amazingly avoiding all the hun­ I hope that somewhere sails the sea, to the Asian coast. After this phase of dreds of other odors from alien t r ibu­ A ship called Betty-Lou. the life cycle they return to their orig­ taries and streams. How else to explain this name on my chest, inal spawning place. Unlike the Atlan­ For other fishes there have been sev­ To my bride-to-be named Sue. tic salmon the Pacific salmon makes the eral theories put forward. One is that - Robert W. Leach trip only once, never sees its offspring they are guided by temperature grad­ before it dies. ients and changes of the water; another Much of our knowledge of fish migra­ is they have a mysterious sense called tion has been discovered by affixing "flow attraction" which they use t o date and numbered date tags on the swim with or against the right or fish; some remarkable journeys have wrong currents. been recorded. In August, 1952, 215 Other suggestions are that certain albacores were tagged off the Califor­ fish are able to migrate by the angle nian coast by the California Depart­ of the sun's light upon the water and ment of Fish and Game. One of the al­ even that they are guided in direction bacores tagged 18 miles southwest of by the position of the sun and moon. Los Angeles was caught by a Japanese Although some puzzling actions of fish fishing boat 550 miles southeast of have been solved in recent years with Tokyo 324 days later, having traversed research, many of the questions about about 4900 miles during that time. their migration remain unanswered In 1954, two bluefin tuna were tag­ and work is being done to increase our ged near Martha's Vineyard, Massachu- sparse knowledge.

14 15 Seaznen's Church Institute of N. Y. 15 State Street NellV York, N . Y. 10004

Addres< CorrectIOn Requr"ed

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