SHIP PORTRAITS
Great Lakes, th e inland waterways , coasta l shipping and deep sea . T his may seem weighted aga inst deep sea, but it is vital th at all hands realize th at we have a trul y national hall of fa me. (One meas ure of our success can be seen in th e development of the National Ri vers Hall of Fame at Dubuque , Iowa, which inducted its first class thi s spring.) Our Maritime Scho lar o f the Year, or Bowditch Award , is g ive n to a li ving person who had done much to pro mote th e maritime industry . Although the rec ipie nt does not have to be a student or a writer, the first two so honored have been just th at. They are C. Bradford Mitchell , who wrote We' II Deli ver , a hi story of the U.S. Merchant Marin e Academy and Cedri c Ridgely- Nev itt , author o f the mag nificentl y detailed book on pre-c ivil wa r passenge r vessels , American Pas-
senger Ships. Perh aps our most successful program-although it' s onl y one year o ldis our steamship line reunion. The firs t, held in the spring o f thi s year , honored the alumni of Moore-McCorm ack Lines , and it was a grand success with almost 150 alumni and th e ir fa milies coming from as far away as New Orleans to re new old fri endships and rekindle old memories. Among those present was Dick Shepard , who had served in a Mormac ship durin g the war, but who was covering the event as a reporter for th e New York Tim es. I as ked him to stand up and tell a bit from hi s memory bank . He described th e diffi c ult and very dangerous voyage he had made as a radi o operator in the Mount Evans . He had run into many problems because it was hi s first time in a ship and he knew very little about radi os. Hi s grand sense of humor had everyone roc king w ith laughter as he re lated his first shipboard ex peri ence as " Sparks." When he sat down , a chap onl y one row behind him stood up and addressed us all. ' T ve been wonderin g about thi s fellow for fo rtythree years. I was second assistant engineer then in the Mount Evans, and I remember he was always study ing languages. Radi o operators led a lonely life aboard and we all thou ght they were a little crazy , and I wondered what became of him ." As Shepard reported in th e Times the next day: '' I ex perienced one of th ose great moments of emotion that one so ra re ly encounters. I had told my wife I was going to cover the meeting as a Long Island event , that I doubted anyone would re member a nineteen-year-old kid who was not even a footn ote in the company hi story. I shook hands w ith my o ld shipSEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1986
mate. Hi s name was William F . Croly . ' ' Thi s coming fa ll , we are hav ing a reuni on of veterans of the Military Sea Transport Service (now known as the Military Seali ft Command ) to which we hope to attrac t even more alumni th an we d id at our fi rst such gam ! Thi s November w ill also see th e firs t of an annual seri es o f seminars on the reviva l of American coastw ise and inland waterways overni ght passenger services. Although thi s meeting is aimed at trave l writers in parti cul ar , to demonstrate to them the amaz ingly fas t-paced growth of thi s arm of our merchant marine , we do in vite the participation of anyone interested in the many passenger ships th at pl y our lakes, rivers and coastwi se routes. It is certainl y not just the technical end , the tonnages and ro utes of so many ships , th at we want to remember in the Museum , but the people, too , who sailed th ose ships and who made our merchant marine and our nati on great. If I can draw aga in on Dick Shepard , he best sums up the fee lings o f all who parti cipate in the purpose of the Museum when he writes, " At sea one does not li ke to have loose ends ly ing about , cert ai nl y not on a taut ship . On th at ra in y day in Kin gs Po int , it was re markable how many of those loose ends were able to bind themse lves w ith beginnings that seemed as good as new .'' And that is what the American Merchant Marine Mu seum is about , ra in or shine.
Mr . Braynard, Co-chairman of Advisors of the National Society, has been a member since the fo unding. He was also a fo under of th e Steamship Historical Society and South Street Seaport Muse um. He is the author of the six-volume Lev iath an: World 's Greatest Ship and other books.
The American Merchant Marine Museum is open to the public four days a week: Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 :00-3:30; Saturday and Sunday, 1:004:30. It is also open for group visits by appointment. Admission is free. To help the progress of the Museum, membership is invited, $25 for regular members, which entitles you to receive the bimonthly newsletter, The Manifest, and to discounts at the Museum's gift shop. For father information , contact the Museum at: US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY 11204; 516 466-9696.
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