 Still from the Universal Newsreel "Tug Strike Ties Up N. Y. for 18 Hours," depicting a movie theatre with a placard at the box office reading "Closed in order to conserve fuel." In February of 1946, tugboat crews in New York Harbor had had it. They had been trying since October, 1945 to negotiate an end to the wartime freeze on wages, to reduce hours from 48 per week to 40, to receive two weeks paid vacation per year, and perhaps most importantly, to end the practice of stranding workers in far-away ports and forcing them to pay their own way home, without success. Although the war was over, the federal government was still regulating the price of freight, which meant that shipping companies didn't want to raise wages. Frustrated, the tugboat workers struck. Starting February 4, 1946, tugboats did not move coal or fuel in the nation's busiest port. Manhattan is an island, and maritime freight played a huge role in supplying the city with fuel, food, and other supplies, as well as removing garbage by water. At the time of the strike, officials estimated the city has just a few days of reserve coal. The strike was covered in several newsreels at the time. British Pathe put together this short report on the strike: Universal put together this newsreel, sadly presented here without any sound: Newly-elected mayor William O'Dwyer did not react well to the strike. Facing a fuel shortage for one of the nation's most populous cities in midwinter was no laughing matter, but O'Dwyer implemented measures that many later deemed an overreaction to the strike. He essentially rationed fuel for the entire city, prioritizing housing for the sick and aged, but enforcing a 60 degree maximum temperature for all other building interiors, turning off heat in the subway and limiting service, shutting down all public schools on February 8, and by February 11 shutting down entirely restaurants, stores, Broadway theaters, and other recreational venues. The bright lights of Times Square and elsewhere were also turned off to conserve electricity, as illustrated in this second newsreel from British Pathe: After 18 hours of shutdown, the shipping companies and the tugboat unions agreed to end the strike and enter into third party arbitration for their contract. Tugboats started moving fuel again, and the lights turned back on. And that's the end of the story - or is it? On February 14, 1946, the New York Times published an article entitled "Lessons of the Tug Strike," whereby they largely blamed O'Dwyer for the costly shutdown. "New York tugboat workers and management have sent their dispute to arbitration after a ten-day strike that endangered life and property, cost business millions of dollars and paralyzed the whole city for a day. We may well breathe a sigh of relief and at the same time examine some aspects of this incident that offer guidance for the future," the Times wrote, and went on to ask that O'Dwyer never do that again "unless the need is clearly established." As for the tugboat workers, it would take nearly another year for the threat of a strike to fade completely. Negotiations continued throughout 1946, with little movement, until the threat of another strike emerged in December of 1946. It was avoided by additional arbitration with Mayor O'Dwyer's emergency labor board. Finally, the arbitrators won concessions from both sides, and on January 5, 1947, the New York Times reported that a settlement had been reached. The tugboat workers got their 40 hour workweek, but not the same wages as 48 hours of work. They did get an 11 cent per hour wage increase along with a minimum wage for deck hands, a five day workweek, and time and a half for Saturdays and Sundays. However, the contract was only for 12 months, and in December of 1947, another strike was on the table as workers struggled for another wage increase. The strike was averted with more concessions from the companies, including a ten cent raise, food allowances, and more. But in the fall of 1948, the contract was up again, and the specter of the February, 1946 shutdown arose as a strike was once again on the table as part of the negotiations. Strikes were common in the years following the Second World War, in nearly every aspect of American society. In particular, the Strike Wave of 1945-46 impacted as many as five million American workers across all sectors. The strikes, although sometimes effective in improving worker wages and conditions, were largely unpopular with the general public. In 1947, Congress overrode President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act, which limited the power of labor unions and ushered in an era of "right to work" laws. Learn more about the strike wave in this podcast from the National WWII Museum. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
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 The U.S.S. "Lafayette," formerly the S.S. "Normandie," catching fire in New York Harbor, February 9, 1942. National Archives. This week is the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the S.S. Normandie. On February 9, 1942, the S.S. Normandie, recently renamed the U.S.S. Lafayette, caught fire as civilian shipbuilders were trying to retrofit her as a troop transport. The Normandie was the pride of the French ocean liner fleet. Built in 1935, she was the largest and fastest and most luxuriously appointed of the new ocean liners. But when war broke out in Europe she was in New York Harbor. When France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, the Normandie was held by the U.S. government in New York Harbor. Still owned and crewed by the French, she was not allowed to leave. On December 12, 1941, just five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Normandie was officially seized by the U.S. government, and on December 27th she was transferred to the U.S. Navy, who re-christened her the U.S.S. Lafayette and began work on converting her to a troop transport. In the first class lounge, where varnished woodwork and flammable life jackets were still in place, sparks from a welding torch lit a stack of life jackets on fire. Sadly, the Normandie's complicated fire suppression system had been disconnected during the process, and the hoses brought by New York City firefighters would not fit the French connections. The blaze aboard the Normandie could not be stopped, and she rolled and sank at dock.  A U.S. Coast Guard Grumman J4F Widgeon flies over the wreckage of the USS Lafayette (AP-53) at Pier 88, New York harbor, on 12 August 1943. National Museum of Naval Aviation. Despite an extraordinarily expensive salvage operation in August of 1943, the righted Lafayette had sustained too much damage to be easily repaired, and both war materiel and labor were short. The Lafayette was never repaired and sat in dry dock for the remainder of the war. She was officially stricken from Naval records in the fall of 1945, and the French didn't want her either. Some attempts were made by private individuals to save her, but none were successful. She was scrapped at Port Newark, NJ between October, 1946 and December, 1948. Despite this tragic end, many of her most beautiful interiors and artwork were saved and now reside in private collections and at museums around the world, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her whistle eventually ended up at Pratt Institute, and was used in the New Year's Eve celebrations until recently. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
 Movie still from WWII era newsreel "American Convoys Girdle Globe" about the importance of the Merchant Marines. Today is Memorial Day. And although the real meaning of the holiday often gets lost in all the sales and barbecues, we thought we'd take some time to remember some of the unsung heroes of wartime - the U.S. Merchant Marine. This WWII-era newsreel highlights the important work of the Merchant Marine during the war: The Merchant Marine refers to all U.S. flagged cargo ships and freighters. During wartime, these civilian vessels - and their civilian crews - were crucial to moving war materiel and maintaining supply lines across the oceans. Because these men were not officially enlisted in the military, despite their hugely important wartime work, they have not traditionally been celebrated on Memorial Day. In fact, National Maritime Day, held on May 22nd, is often referred to as the Merchant Marine Memorial Day. But merchant mariners had a higher wartime casualty rate than any branch of the military during the Second World War. One in 26 merchant mariners died in the war, a higher rate than even the U.S. Marines. During WWII, approximately 243,000 merchant mariners served, and over 9,500 died as a result of enemy action, nearly 4%. In contrast, the U.S. Coast Guard, in which 242,000 served, lost 571 men to enemy action, or about a quarter of a percent. Despite these high casualty rates, because they were not enlisted in a branch of the military, the Merchant Marines were not eligible for Purple Heart medals. In 1943, Congress attempted to rectify that lack with the establishment of the Merchant Marines Mariner's Medal. Over 6,000 medals were awarded before it was discontinued in 1956. It was not awarded in subsequent conflicts, but in 1992, the US Department of Transportation announced several new medals which were retroactively awarded to merchant mariners who served in Korea, Vietnam, and more recently wartime engagements, including Operations Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, and others. To get a taste of the dangerous voyages that merchant mariners made in wartime, there are a couple of movies to check out. The first is "Action in the North Atlantic," a 1943 film starring Humphrey Bogart. Bogart stars as a hero of the wartime merchant marine in "Action in the North Atlantic." During World War II, the United States has been supplying its ally, the Soviet Union, as that country valiantly fights the invading German Army. But the supply lines cross the frigid, treacherous waters of the North Atlantic. When his ship is torpedoed by the Germans in mid-ocean, first mate Joe Rossi (Bogart) rallies the survivors of his crew to navigate their tiny lifeboat to land. After their harrowing journey, the brave seamen have only a brief time ashore before they set out to sea again, daring another crossing through submarine infested waters to supply the desperate Russians. Another, more recent film also highlights the dangers of the Battle of the Atlantic to merchant mariners: "Greyhound," released in 2020 and starring Tom Hanks. Although it focuses on the captain of the lead naval destroyer escorting a convoy across the Atlantic, you get a feel for the extreme danger posed to merchant mariners by U-boats, and how many ships and lives were lost attempting to keep the supply lines open and running. Based on the real events of the Battle of the Atlantic, "Greyhound" makes for good, if nerve-wracking, watching. “If you’re a merchant sailor, you don’t know if the ship you’re on at any moment will suddenly explode. You don’t know if it is hit and you have to go in the water, will you be found? … If you’re a survivor, you hope to God you get in a lifeboat, and then you hope that somebody picks you up. Otherwise, you’re done.” To learn more about the real life counterparts of the Greyhound, check out this article from the Smithsonian Magazine. As we remember all those who lost their lives in military action this Memorial Day, we hope you'll remember the Merchant Marines, too. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
Trio of shad fishermen deploying a net into the Hudson River, George Washington Bridge in the background, 1946. Arthur G. Adams Collection, Hudson River Maritime Museum.
Are your shad bushes blooming? The large shadbush (also known as juneberry or serviceberry or shad blow) in the museum's courtyard is getting ready to bloom - that means the shad run is starting!
In this story, Port Ewen commercial fisherman Frank Parslow describes restrictions on fishing in New York Harbor during WWII and the impact on Hudson River fishermen. This audio clip is part of the Hudson River Maritime Museum's Hudson River Commercial Fishermen Oral History Collection. You can listen to a selection of the museum's full oral history interviews on New York Heritage.
If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
“The maintenance of a merchant marine is of the utmost importance for national defense and the service of our commerce.” President Calvin Coolidge
“In peacetime, the U.S. Merchant Marine includes all of the privately owned and operated vessels flying the American flag – passenger ships, freighters, tankers, tugs, and a wide miscellany of other craft. Merchant Marine vessels ply the high seas, the Great Lakes, and the inland waters, such as the Chesapeake Bay and navigable rivers.” Heroes in Dungarees by John Bunker During the colonial period, businessmen and legislators realized that prosperity was connected to trade. The more shipment of imports and exports through colonial ports the more money there was to be made. Carrying American produced goods to market in American made and managed ships kept the money in American pockets. Formation of the United States Merchant Marine is dated to 1775 when citizens at Machias, Massachusetts (now Maine) seized the British schooner HMS Margaretta in response to receiving word of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. After the Revolutionary War American ships were no longer under the protection of the British empire. The new nation offered incentives for goods to be moved on American ships. Wars on the European continent turned attention away from American activity as U.S. ships opened up new trade routes in the early Federal period. The Empress of China reached China in 1784, the first U.S. registered ship to do so. American shipping and shipbuilding flourished in the early 1800s. The years between the War of 1812 and the Civil War saw the development of canal systems connect the western interior with seaport markets. “Those years saw the merchant marine rise to its zenith in terms of the percentage of American trade carried. Only in the aftermaths of World Wars I and II would its percentage of world tonnage stand as high.” America's Maritime Legacy by Robert A. Kilmarx Sail powered packet ships, carrying passengers, pushed their crews hard. There was money to be made in quick passages across to Europe and back. Clipper ships also relied on speed as they carried high value cargoes of silk, spices and tea across the Pacific and the slave trade across the Atlantic. 
SS Savannah – en.wikipedia.org
The hybrid sailing ship/sidewheeler steamer Savannah’s 1819 Atlantic crossing, the first with a steam powered engine, signaled the start of the transition from sail to steam. The May 22 date for National Maritime Day commemorates the day Savannah set sail from Savannah, Georgia to England. The Savannah transported both passengers and cargo. More information about the SS Savannah is here:
Restoration of the merchant marine after the disruption of the Civil War was a national political issue in 1872. The Republican party advocated adopting measures to restore American commerce and shipbuilding. Mail packets, carrying mail around the world were active in this period. Financial scandals were associated with mail packet contracts. Training sailors in an academic setting began in the last quarter of the 1800s, predecessors of the present day Maritime Academies. The period between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the European outbreak of World War I was a dynamic time for shipping. American raw materials and agricultural products were shipped to world markets and products from those markets received and used by American industries.
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John Bunker writes: “When we entered the war, the Merchant Marine, although still privately owned, came under government control. The men who sailed the ships were civilians, but they also were under government control and subject to disciplinary action by the U.S. Coast Guard and, when overseas, by local U.S. military authorities. Compared with soldiers and sailors, merchant seaman had much more freedom of movement. After completing a voyage, they could usually leave a ship but had to join another vessel within a reasonable period of time or be drafted into the U.S. Armed Forces. There was no uniform required for merchant seamen. Some officers wore uniforms; many did not. During the war, merchant ships were operated by some forty steamship companies, and the War Shipping Administration assigned new ships to them as they were completed. A total of 733 U.S.-flag merchant ships were lost during World War II. More than 6,000 merchant seamen died as the result of enemy action.”p12
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http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2018/05/on-memorial-day-remembering-the-us-merchant-mariners-of-wwii/
U.S. Maritime Service personnel operated the 2,700 Liberty ships during World War II. The U.S. Maritime Service was the only service at the time with African American crew members serving in every capacity aboard ship. Seventeen Liberty Ships were named for African-Americans. Approximately 10%, 24,000, African Americans served in the Merchant Marine during World War II.
USMMA-LibertyWar_090817_038e2-c-Karen-Rubin
During World War II the U.S. Merchant Marines moved war personnel and material under conditions shown above.
The American Merchant Mariner’s memorial in Battery Park, New York City reads: "This memorial serves as a marker for America’s merchant mariners resting in the unmarked ocean depths." Poignantly the sailor in the water is covered twice a day at high tide. Installed in 1991 by sculptor Marisol Escobar designed based on a photo of the sinking of the SS Muskogee by German U-boat 123 on March 22nd, 1942. The photo was taken by the U-boat captain. The American crew all died at sea.
 The memorial depicts doomed crew members reaching to save their fellow sailor. American Merchant Mariner's Memorial, Battery Park, New York City. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-american-merchant-mariner-s-memorial-new-york-new-york
Poignantly the sailor in the water is covered twice a day at high tide. American Merchant Mariner's Memorial, Battery Park, New York City. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-american-merchant-mariner-s-memorial-new-york-new-york
The hands never reach. American Merchant Mariner's Memorial, Battery Park, New York. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-american-merchant-mariner-s-memorial-new-york-new-york
Sculptor Marisol Escobar based her design on this photo of the sinking of the SS Muskogee by German U-boat 123 on March 22nd, 1942. The photo was taken by the U-boat captain. The American crew all died at sea. https://turnstiletours.com/the-photo-that-inspired-of-the-merchant-mariners-memorial/
Merchant mariners who served in World War II were denied veterans recognition and benefits including the GI Bill. This despite having suffered a per capita casualty rate greater then those of the U.S. Armed Forces. In 1988 a federal court order granted veteran status to merchant mariners who participated in World War II.
On May 31, 1993, the Hudson River Maritime Museum received a brass plaque reading: “The United States Merchant Marine. This plaque is dedicated in memory of those who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during W.W. II and in particular to those who did not survive “The Battle of the Atlantic”. Their dedication, deeds and sacrifices while transporting war material to the war shared their sacrifices and final victory, we, their surviving shipmates dedicate this memorial with the promise that they shall not be forgotten. Died 6,834. Wounded 11,000. Ship Sunk 833. P.O.W. 604. Died in Prisoner of War Camps 61. American Merchant Marine Veterans – May 31, 1993.”
Photo by Ron Searl
Today, the Maritime Administration (MARAD) is the Department of Transportation agency responsible for the U.S. waterborne transportation system. Founded in 1950 the mission of MARAD is to foster, promote and develop the maritime industry of the United States to meet the nation’s economic and security needs. MARAD maintains the Ready Reserve Fleet, a fleet of cargo ships in reserve to provide surge sea-lift during war and national emergencies. A predecessor of the RRF, the Hudson River Reserve Fleet of World War II ships, popularly referred to as the Ghost Fleet, was in the Jones Point area from 1946 to 1971. More about the Maritime Administration including a Vessel History Database can be found here: https://www.maritime.dot.gov/
Hudson River Reserve Fleet, Tompkins Cove http://navy.memorieshop.com/Reserve-Fleets/Hudson-river/index.html
United States Merchant Marine Training
Modern day training of merchant marines is held at seven academies, two of which U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and SUNY Maritime College, are in New York State.
The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY (USMMA) is one of the five United States service academies. When the academy was dedicated on 30 September 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, noted "the Academy serves the Merchant Marine as West Point serves the Army and Annapolis the Navy." USMMA graduates earn:
USMMA graduates fulfill their service obligations on their own, providing annual proof of employment in a wide variety of MARAD approved occupations. Either as active duty officers in any branch of the military or uniformed services, including the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration or entering the civilian work force in the maritime industry. State-supported maritime colleges: There are six state-supported maritime colleges. These graduates earn appropriate licenses from the U.S. Coast Guard and/or U.S. Merchant Marine. They have the opportunity to participate in a commissioning program, but do not receive an immediate commission as an Officer within a service.
More information about the U.S. Merchant Marines can be found here:
Thank you to John Phelan, HRMM Wooden Boat School Coordinator and Dock Master for suggesting this blog post topic. John graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and held the title of Chief Mate working on product tankers for a major oil corporation during his years at sea.
AuthorCarla Lesh, Ph.D. is Collections Manager and Digital Archivist at Hudson River Maritime Museum.
If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
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