THE SHIP THAT RAN AGAINST CONGRESS
various firms and private owners. He insisted on his legal rights in making the shipment, and Joseph C. Green's Office of Arms and Munitions Control duly issued the proper licenses to the Vimalert Company on December 28. Green grudgingly termed Cuse "the most engaging rascal I have ever met!" The next day at his news conference President Roosevelt chastised the New Jersey dealer. He called the shipment for Spain "a thoroughly unpatriotic act," and promised to request legislation to block it. Congress, however was not due to convene for over a week . There were gloomy predictions that "the planes and engines wouldn't be ready to ship for months." Mr. Cuse and a host of hastily-hired mechanics, carpenters and dock workers set out to prove this wrong . There was just a chance to beat the legislative action that was sure to be sparked in Washington. It was no secret as to what ship was going to transport the Cuse purchases to their new owners in beleaguered Republican Spain. Her engines newlyoverhauled, the Mar Cantabrico now lay alongside Pier 35 at the foot of Coffey Street in Brooklyn . She'd been busy taking on a cargo of chicken soup, flour, mattresses, shoes, medical supplies and "nine cases of women's fur coats." Up at North Beach Airport (today's LaGuardia Field) Hanger 3 became a hive of industry. Pilots landed planes and taxiied them inside to be met by a swarm of workmen armed with dismantling tools. Carpenters whacked together huge crates of white pine, tailored to known wing dimensions. Within hours, Merritt-Chapman lighters were on their way to Brooklyn with the aircraft The feverish activity was accented on Pier 35, where the Mar Cantabrico's cranes loaded the planes in their bulky crates. Bandages, coffee and cases of evaporated milk were also hastily slung off the dock and into the ship's holds. When the Seventy-fifth Congress of the United States convened on January 6, 1937, President Roosevelt, as predicted, asked the joint session for "an addition to the existing Neutrality Act to cover. .. the unfortunate civil strife in Spain.'' No time was lost in making such a resolution the first order of Senate business. The ensuing debate centered on the need to maintain neutrality, and Cuse was blamed as "a junk dealer putting Congress in an embarrassing position." The Senators passed the resolution 80 to 0. Over in the House of Representatives Chairman Sam D. McReynolds introduced an identical resolution, stating:
42
"This is a race between the Congress and the people who want to send these. deadly instruments of warfare to Spain .... " The House debate dwelt more on the idea that no nation, not just Spain, should receive war goods of any kind from the United States. The peace of the world was threatened. This was the hurried thought of the lone dissenter against 406 representatives who voted for the measure . He was a freshman Congressman, Rep. John T. Bernard of Minnesota. Even as the Congressmt:n in Washington were debating, the cranes in Brooklyn swung four more crated airplanes aboard the Mar Cantabrico, and stevedores toted bundle after bundle of used clothes up the gangplanks. With word expected momentarily from Washington, officials waited to impound the vessel. There was a minor contretemps when the customs men insisted on seeing that the words "U.S. Army" had been obliterated on thirty surplus military field kitchens, stored in the hold. There were only eight of the eighteen airplanes on board, and only one of the hundreds of engines, but by noon of January 6, Captain Santa Maria had decided to cast off and get away. On the dock were still thousands of tons of cargo, including lumber, a small automobile and cartons of clothing collected in small lots by sympathizers with the Spanish Republic . "We can't delay for a few dresses and suits," was the skipper's last recorded remark. Tugs inched the Mar Cantabrico away from Pier 35 at 1:47 P. M. As the Spanish ship stood out into Buttermilk Channel, a taxicab careened onto the pier, dodging the pitiful piles of short-shipped cargo. It disgorged three US. Marshals, who waved an importantlooking paper. This turned out to be a writ to get compensation for two American aviators who claimed non-payment for recent services in Spain. Their Manhattan Lawyer, Lewis Landes, also had the aim of delaying the Mar until Congress could act on the embargo measure. The marshals, the Coast Guard and the New York City Police Department all went into immediate action that chilly January afternoon . On radioed orders the Spanish vessel obediently dropped anchor in the harbor's Upper Bay. The Coast Guard cutter Icarus stood alongside and both a Guard amphibian and a police plane hovered above. For an hour the radios crackled with messages. Finally, Collector of the Port Harry M. Durning made a ruling. The Landes writ applied only to property
belonging to the Spanish Air Minister, and not to the ship itself. Without word from Washington, no authority existed to hold the vessel, and she was signaled to proceed. Observers noted that the Mar Cantabrico churned her way down the Narrows at what seemed more than her rated knots . By 3:47 P. M. she had dropped her pilot and cleared the bar at Sandy Hook. Half an hour later she was out of U.S. territorial waters. In Washington the Congressmen were still talking. The ship that ran against them had won her race . Had he known, Captain Santa Maria had nearly 40 hours more to load additional cargo on his ship and still get her safely out to sea. The Senate, after unanimously passing the Spanish Embargo Resolution, neglected to authorize Vice President John N. Garner to sign it, and that worthy went home to supper. It was not until 12:30 P .M. on January 8, 1937 that the joint Pittman-McReynolds resolution, prohibiting arms for Spain, was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. By that time the Mar Cantabrico was two days out in the Atlantic, on her was to Vera Cruz, Mexico . It would be pleasent to record that the Mar Cantabrico and her famous cargo of eight commercial planes and one engine reached Republican Spain, and was influential in lifting the siege of Madrid, or some equivalent dramatic event. But this was not to be. Arriving at Vera Cruz within ten days, the ship that had so precipitously left New York had over a month to rearrange her cargo. Most of the crated planes were put below decks. Some thirty-eight carloads of obsolete Mexican artillery, rifles and grenades went to complete the filling of her holds, and there was even a shipment of garbanzos for hungry Spaniards in the blockaded ports. Several false sailings were announced, and the Mar finally slipped out of Mexican waters on the night of February 19. Her movements were the subject of frequent press reports, and there were secret supporters of General Francisco Franco in both the United States and Mexico who daily reported on the Mar. Italian and Portugese intelligence sources were also called upon to prevent the Spanish ship and her cargo from passing the Nationalist sea blockade encircling Bilbao and the loyal Basque Provinces . For over two weeks the Mar Cantabrico kept radio silence. The officers of the bridge had orders to shoot anyone
SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1978