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united nations photo collection
USAT General S. D. Sturgis (below), a decommissioned Army Transport, made dozens of voyages after World War II carrying thousands of DPs to the United States, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Venezuela. Many of the refugees wrote letters of gratitude to the ship’s captain over the years. These letters (above) were sent to Captain Karl H. Nehring of the Sturgis between 1949 and 1951 by DPs who, in the words of a group of Ukrainians during a 1949 voyage, felt “obliged to present their hearty thanks to the Captain of the ‘General S. D. Sturgis’ Mr. Carl [sic] Nehring as well as to his crew for their understanding support and hard work done for all emigrants during the trip.”
SEA HISTORY 177, WINTER 2021–22
Rehabilitation Rehabilitation efforts aimed to get war-torn economies back on their feet by assisting the agricultural and industrial sectors. Agricultural efforts included sending seed and agricultural machinery overseas, but one of the most important efforts was in the shipment of livestock. The animals sent overseas were not for the most part to eat, but rather were intended to serve as draft animals, such as horses or mules to work the land. Cattle were sent overseas as well, mostly cows to provide milk. Merchant seamen working aboard the transports were ill-equipped to handle this live cargo; thankfully, a religious group known as the Church of the Brethren stepped in to provide their knowledge, technical assistance, and livestock. In 1942 the Brethren Service Committee initiated a program known as Heifers for Relief. Its first cargo went to Puerto Rico to address a critical milk shortage: a shipment of seventeen heifers from Mobile, Alabama, on the Liberty ship SS William D. Bloxham. Recognizing the Heifer program’s value, UNRRA decided to include livestock in their shipments and paid for the conversion of 71 Victory and Liberty ships to carry animals. UNRRA’s shipboard workers, recruited by the Brethren Service Committee and known as “Seagoing Cowboys,” took care of the animals during the passage. Many seagoing cowboys were conscientious objectors, pacifists unwilling to bear arms for religious reasons but eager to assist those suffering from the war. From the end of June 1945 through April 1947, UNRRA made approximately 360 livestock shipments with a total of over a quarter-million animals delivered to Poland, Italy, Greece, and Czechoslovakia, with a few trips to China and Ethiopia. By the end of the program, they had delivered more than 300,000 animals, including horses, heifers, and mules, along with some chicks, rabbits, and goats. When UNRRA ceased operations at the beginning of 1947, Heifer Relief continued the program on a smaller scale, and included women as animal tenders. Now called Heifer International, the program continues to this day but no longer ships animals from the US. Instead, the animals purchased come from the region of the recipients, so that they are acclimated to the local climate and diseases. 27