MERCHANT MARINE PERSONNEL AND NAVY INTEREST
By F.E. Cross, Master Mariner, Lieutenant Commander, U.S.N.R.F.
The question, not infrequently discussed, as to the type and nationality of the officers and men of the American Merchant Marine, is a subject of interest, doubtless, in naval as well as in commercial circles. Since, in the event of war, the Navy looks to the Merchant Marine as a means of reinforcing certain branches of the Service by enrolling merchant officers and men in the Naval Reserve Force, an insight into the qualifications of our merchant seamen, particularly as applied to deck and engineer officers, would seem of manifest importance and worthy of careful consideration on the part of all interests affected.
In a Merchant Marine such as is that of the United States, where the percentage of native born is extremely small, it should necessarily follow that the underlying causes of the existing defect be more definitely known and appreciated, and an endeavor made to apply such subsequent measures as the problem might require.
Throughout the country during the past seven years, the rehabilitation of the American Merchant Marine has been ardently advocated by all factions of the people. Within this time great numbers of ships of every known type have been launched from our shipyards and we possess the bulk of the former German and Austrian interned fleet. Since the termination of the World War, the amount of American merchant tonnage in commission has been exceeded only by that of Great Britain.
As a stimulus to the successful operation and perpetuation of our merchant marine, the United States Shipping Board adopted a policy of tremendous scope. They organized lines of trade routes encircling the earth, established agencies in all the important foreign ports, and secured concessions for the installation of fueling stations at home and abroad. In addition to these activities and in a spirit of co-operation with our rapidly growing fleet and foreign trade, large American Banking Corporations succeeded in placing branch offices at propitious points along the world's trade routes.
The question of merchant marine personnel, during the World War period and immediately following, loomed as an exceedingly important factor. With the call for American ships there simultaneously was heard the call for American crews. The press of the entire country made an endeavor to induce young Americans to take to the sea, and the Shipping Board offered generous encouragement through a well organized Recruiting Bureau.
The result of these commendable efforts, broad-casted at large from the Atlantic to the Pacific, attracted several thousand young men to the Merchant Marine. But it proved effectual for a short time only. After making a voyage or two, the young recruits, unfortunately, left our ships as eagerly as they had signed on, so that today we have less than five per cent of American born men in the forecastles of our merchant ships. And this percentage is continuing to decrease, due, in part, to the gradual readjustment of wages to a pre-war basis.
There is no denying the fact that the American laboring man can do better ashore, financially and prospectively, than he can do afloat. Moreover, he finds life on land decidedly more agreeable to him than life in a ship's forecastle, notwithstanding the advantages to be gained by a seafaring life, as depicted by the Shipping Board in their recruiting campaign. "Seeing the World" from the forecastle of a merchant ship has proved rather a sad disillusionment to many an American boy. The Merchant Marine, unlike the Navy, which is a military organization on shipboard, demands a continual grind, during working hours at least, on the part of its ships' crews. In short, the work is laborious and the number of men required in each department for the running of the ship is reduced to a bare minimum. There is no organized play and living conditions are not quite so pleasant as some of our enthusiastic advocates for a merchant marine have pictured. Although there is an improvement in forecastle life over that of former years, there likewise is an improvement in the living and working conditions of all classes of labor on shore. Our young men are fully cognizant of recent changes made for the benefit of the laborer, both ashore and afloat, and after giving life in the merchant service a fair trial, they have left our ships, as has been done before in the nation's maritime history, and have sought employment more to their liking elsewhere.
But this revelation need give no deep concern. We can face the future very complacently with naturalized Americans and foreigners in the forecastles of our merchant ships. Observe, for instance, the industrial plants on shore. Do they not get highly satisfactory results with foreign labor operating under American officials?
In a similar fashion we need Americans in our merchant marine; not necessarily as seamen, firemen or stewards, desirable as that may be, but particularly as officers, on the bridge and in the engine room. And these men should be, upon the whole, born Americans, thoroughly trained and otherwise fully qualified for the many responsibilities incumbent to the position of ship's officer.
The directing staff of a steamship fine are confronted with many problems, the answers to which require a fine sense of discrimination and judgment. There are ever new issues to be met, antiquated Navigation Laws to adhere to, innumerable costs and rates to figure, and a host of other demands of incalculable significance in a vastly complex organization; chief among which is the responsibility for procuring efficient ship captains, officers and crews.
No ship owner is likely to depreciate the fact that the safety of passengers, ship and cargo rests primarily with the ship's personnel. Nor can it truthfully be gainsaid that the earnings of the individual ship will be in proportion to the general efficiency of the men who sail the ship. Therefore, in the selection of ship's personnel, there is embodied, in no small degree, the three vital elements in successful ship management, namely: safety, earnings, efficiency. Which makes plainly manifest the serious need of highly competent seamen to command and officer the ships of our merchant fleet.
At the time of the World War there was a dearth of American ships' officers. We now have a great excess, even if the entire merchant fleet were placed in commission; American citizens all, who have successfully passed the governmental examinations, and thus are legally qualified to fulfill the manifold duties attached to the berths assigned to them.
One of the duties that devolves upon the United States Steamboat Inspection Service, operating under the Department of Commerce, is that of examining applicants for the positions of Master, Mate and Engineer, and of issuing licenses respectively.
For many years past we have been informed, and truthfully so, that the examinations as prescribed by the Steamboat Inspection Service for the various grades of ships' officers and masters, are much less rigid than the examinations required by competing maritime nations for similar positions. Apropos to this condition is the equally well-known fact that the majority of our ship's captains and officers are foreigners born and bred, but possessing naturalization papers. It is very true that among these naturalized citizens there are many thoroughly competent men in their profession who, in a long and faithful service, have proved a credit to the American Merchant Marine. But it is equally true that most, by far, of these officers are of a different stamp who have failed to secure for themselves an education. In many instances they have extreme difficulty in the use of the English language. They are amazingly ignorant of our history and our National Civil Government. And there are comparatively few who possess foreign certificates of competency as officers; which, in itself, gives one an insight into their actual standing on board their home country ships.
Not that these worthy citizens have committed an infraction of our laws or regulations. On the contrary, credit is perhaps due them in that they have been properly solicitous to their personal welfare in taking advantage of the lenient requirements of the Steamboat Inspection Service, in order to become licensed ships' officers and commanders. Qualified or unqualified, as you please, we have them in very large numbers and their average record, in brief, may be simply told.
In the majority of instances, this type of officer has served for some years in the forecastles of foreign ships. He then drifted into American ships where in the course of a stated time he obtained naturalization papers; and after a few weeks' elementary training in Navigation or Engineering School, or no school at all, sat for a simple examination which, upon passing, secured for him a Third Mate's or Third Assistant Engineer's License. Thus, with the original license to his credit, the first step was taken and promotion would follow in due time.
The average merchant seaman of any nation is a true international. His calling makes him so because of his life spent at sea or abroad in many foreign ports. His sentiments are similar to those of his brother international on shore. He is free, unrestrained and contented with his surroundings; but his heart is with the land of nativity and breeding. Being an international, he does not feel deterred, nor does he entertain any feelings of compunction in becoming the adopted son of any nation that will give him the most satisfactory return for his labors. He realizes that, in the course of his career on the sea, under any flag, he may continue his role of international. So, in our American Merchant Marine, where officers' examinations are comparatively easy, salaries higher than in foreign ships, and the service very cosmopolitanized, he finds conditions that are highly agreeable to his interests.
Such outstanding characteristics of the merchant service in their general relation to the average naturalized American ships' officer, and the conclusions to be deduced therefrom, may be summarized as follows:
First: His sympathy and wholehearted patriotism are in the majority of cases, wanting. In peace he may be sufferable, but in war he may prove exceedingly dangerous.
Second: It is evident that he lacks the fundamental qualifications for promotion to a command.
Third: He exerts a deterring influence, consciously or unconsciously, upon American trained men who aspire to become ships' officers and commanders.
That these prevailing conditions are detrimental to the extreme and stand in sore need of remedy if the Merchant Marine is to perform its function as a thorough-going American institution, no one is likely to deny. Therefore, in consequence of this condition and having in mind a high plane of loyalty, efficiency and reliability to establish and maintain, it would appear of the utmost importance that future masters and officers be the product of American Schools and training, insofar as is consistent and possible.
The three State Nautical School Ships on the Atlantic Coast are giving young men the necessary elementary training, in a two years' course, to fit them for positions as petty officers and, later on, as officers on American ships. Although these splendid schools have been in commission for many years, comparatively few of the graduates have risen to command. The cause of this rather extraordinary state of affairs is not far to seek. It is found, for instance, in the large foreign born element among the captains and officers of our ships, who of ten-times look upon the young American officer as an interloper; in the simple examinations that tend to lower the status of the ship's officer; and in the mistaken preference for the foreign-born officer, which some of our American Steamship Lines have indubitably practiced.
The sea-faring profession is a highly honorable calling. Now, as in days past, the "men who go down to the sea in ships and do business in great waters" are confronted with a diversity of duties and living conditions that form a marked contrast with life on shore. In peace we may say our merchant seamen are the links in seemingly endless chains of communication with foreign lands. In war, like the Navy, by reason of their relation to her, they are their country's first line of defense, in that they are, or should be, Naval Reservists. At all times, on ship-board, the watches follow one after the other unceasingly and each officer and man is assigned to his particular station. In command of every merchant ship is the captain or master.
The position of commander of a seagoing ship, whether naval or merchant, is one of unique distinction, as well as of large responsibilities and many anxieties. Backed by laws long standing, he rules supreme on board the vessel under his command. He is the sole arbiter and all on board look to him as to a court of final appeal. He is frequently called upon, both ashore and afloat, to make decisions involving great gain and loss or possible disaster. Upon the high seas, his officers and men accept his judgment, good or bad; and they obey his orders, right or wrong. When, at a critical moment, the master's order proves to be right, the crew undemonstratingly triumph; if wrong, they suffer, or perhaps, perish with him.
As the principal agent of the owners on board his ship, the master's knowledge is ever likely to sway advanced opinions in reference to his charge. The owners look to him, not only to sail his ship, but to correct all faults; maintain discipline on board; promote economy and efficiency in the general upkeep; expedite despatch to and from ports; and observe such demeanor and diplomacy at home and abroad, as will enhance the owner's good name and reputation. The profession of ship master, in short, demands the best qualities in a highly capable officer.
That the Navy is vitally interested and at all times prepared to lend its influence in behalf of the betterment of the Merchant Marine, everyone knows. But alone, the Navy is powerless to promote so efficacious a result. In order to attain this desired end, we must look to the steamship lines to observe greater discrimination in the selection of officer material and in the subsequent promotion of officers to higher rank. Beyond that, however, we must look to the Department of Commerce, in whose close coordination and under whose rules and regulations the Merchant Marine is operated, to adopt more stringent measures governing the eligibility of candidates for officers' licenses, and to so augment the inadequate examinations as at present required, as will tend to reflect credit upon the American Merchant Service.
The world, today, stands upon the threshold of the keenest international competition in maritime history. To become a great maritime nation imposes as much responsibility on the Merchant Marine as on the Navy. The patriotism and efficiency of the naval officer must needs be supplemented by like qualities in the merchant officer. In this connection, therefore, let us be convinced that the Merchant Marine, like the Navy, will achieve distinction only in proportion to the caliber of its personnel.