The Men Who Sailed The Liberty Ships

<v Joe Milgic>A real seaman. <v Joe Milgic>He loved his trade. He was a professional seaman. <v Joe Milgic>And he loved his trade. He'd like to show it off to everybody. <v Joe Milgic>There was a real family on a ship. <v Joe Milgic>You know, that was the same nice people, good people, good hearted people. <v Joe Milgic>And they loved their craft. <v Joe Milgic>They loved their job. <v Bill Bailey>It's a big difference from standing up on a bridge to coming down four or five <v Bill Bailey>stories down to the floor plates of a ship knowing that if a torpedo hit <v Bill Bailey>and he hit the engine room. You're never gonna see the deck. <v Bill Bailey>You're finished with engine. <v Narrator>In World War Two, a quarter of a million men volunteered for the National Maritime <v Narrator>Service. They worked as civilians, seamen, sailing cargo ships. <v Narrator>They hold troops, fuel the material to fighting fronts around the world and

<v Narrator>kept open supply lines to America's allies. <v Narrator>In the first six months of the war, their casualty rates were three times greater <v Narrator>than any branch of the armed forces. <v Narrator>They were ordinary citizens who volunteered for one of the nation's most dangerous jobs. <v Narrator>This is the story of merchant seamen who sailed the ships that carried America to <v Narrator>final victory. <v Narrator>As a maritime nation, America performed at her peak during World War Two, <v Narrator>the efficiency of the merchant fleet resulted from a long seafaring tradition. <v Narrator>Throughout her history, America depended on her ships for trade and security <v Narrator>during World War Two. These ships became crucial to the nation's survival. <v Narrator>Cargo ships were the link between war production on the homefront and America's fighting

<v Narrator>forces overseas. <v Narrator>Ships carried everything needed to conduct the war. <v Narrator>Their holds were packed with bandages, ball bearings, ammunition, tires, tools, <v Narrator>foodstuffs, books and cigarets. <v Narrator>Tanks, tractors, even locomotives were secured on deck. <v Narrator>The slow moving tankers hold the fuel, diesel, oil and gasoline <v Narrator>ladened with their valuable cargoes. <v Narrator>These vessels were moving targets. <v Narrator>One well-placed torpedo sent thousands of tons of cargo to the bottom of the sea. <v Narrator>By 1941, Hitler's armies that marched across Europe, defeating one nation <v Narrator>after the other. Britain and Russia were the only countries holding out. <v Narrator>And both were under siege. They desperately needed supplies to withstand the German <v Narrator>assault. <v Narrator>America, meanwhile, remained neutral.

<v Narrator>But a few years before, President Roosevelt, fearing war was inevitable, had <v Narrator>directed the construction of a modern merchant fleet. <v Narrator>The U.S. Maritime Commission was created initiating a massive shipbuilding program <v Narrator>in its eight years of service. This commission ordered nearly 6000 new vessels. <v Thomas Patterson>In April of 1941, eight hundred thousand tons of allied <v Thomas Patterson>shipping were sunk. <v Thomas Patterson>And President Roosevelt said, we must build a bridge of ships. <v Thomas Patterson>We must build ships faster than the enemy can sink them if we're ever going <v Thomas Patterson>to win this war. <v Narrator>Two months before Pearl Harbor, a starkly plain ship slipped down the launching site <v Narrator>in Chesapeake Bay. <v Narrator>This five-hold cargo carrier was built with prefabricated parts.

<v Narrator>Soon, identical ships followed, all assembled to be expendable in war. <v Narrator>These were liberty ships, simple to operate and reliable liberties <v Narrator>became a symbol of America's war effort. <v Thomas Patterson>They built 18 brand new shipyards just for liberties and <v Thomas Patterson>put it six hundred and fifty thousand Americans, women, men, <v Thomas Patterson>young people, all people building these ships. <v Thomas Patterson>They became the largest fleet of ships ever built in the history of the world in such <v Thomas Patterson>a short period of time. <v Thomas Patterson>Twenty seven hundred and fifty one were built over about a four year period. <v Narrator>The liberties arrived just in time on December 7th, 1941. <v Narrator>The Japanese Air Force nearly destroyed America's naval fleet at Pearl Harbor <v Narrator>within four days. The nation was at war on two fronts, with Japan on one <v Narrator>side of the globe and Germany on the other. <v Narrator>America's ships were her lifeline. <v Narrator>A call went out across the nation.

<v Narrator>America needs volunteers to sail the merchant fleet. <v Narrator>Maritime Service training schools opened around the country to teach men between the ages <v Narrator>of 18 and 30 the skills of seamanship. <v Narrator>These recruits were trained to work as nonmilitary civilian sailors aboard cargo ships, <v Narrator>men from farms and factory towns. <v Narrator>Many who had never seen the ocean signed up in a matter of weeks. <v Narrator>They received a seaman's rating and were accepted on ships as qualified sailors <v Narrator>of the United States Merchant Marine. <v Joe Milgic>We come aboard a ship. In those days, you had three AB's on a watch <v Joe Milgic>and two ordinary seamen. So I go up on a wheel. <v Joe Milgic>God tells me, you know, of course, is why you going across the north atlantic? <v Joe Milgic>You know, you steered probably forty five between forty five and ninety nine degrees.

<v Joe Milgic>And the guy says, <v Joe Milgic>[unclear] and the captain says, says, I don't know how to steer. <v Pete Goodman>How do you make a seaman in 90 days. You don't. <v Pete Goodman>They come off a farm and they went into a 90 day program that <v Pete Goodman>was run by the military who taught them more military stuff about squads <v Pete Goodman>right in the squads left and how to square your hat, Navy style. <v Pete Goodman>But they knew nothing about oiling an engine. <v Pete Goodman>They know nothing about firing a boiler. <v Pete Goodman>They knew nothing about climbing a mastin and making the booms secure for sea. <v Pete Goodman>They knew nothing about ship's work. <v Bill Bailey>These young kids, 17, 18 years old, they don't know what the hell to do. <v Bill Bailey>Yet they were certified seaman because the warship administration says they're seaman <v Bill Bailey>So you had to play with them and nurture them and love them and respect <v Bill Bailey>them and teache them all of these things. <v Bill Bailey>If you didn't. Who the hell else was there to do the job? <v Pete Goodman>It fell to the old timer's works, the backbone of the industry who kept these ships

<v Pete Goodman>sailing and the old ships sailing long before the war, all during the war as <v Pete Goodman>well. And actually did the training of the 200 some thousand <v Pete Goodman>that came aboard as brand new raw trainees. <v Pete Goodman>That's the old timer's that made seamen out of them. <v Narrator>The old timer's had sailed in another era when seafaring was a way of life. <v Narrator>Chosen by men who had few options. <v Narrator>In good times and bad, the seaman's life is one of hard work. <v Narrator>His job was dangerous. He worked long hours for meager wages and lived <v Narrator>a miserable, unhealthy conditions on board ship. <v Narrator>Though the industry thrived, the semen in the focsle saw little improvements in their way <v Narrator>of life. <v Narrator>In the decade before the war, they had grown weary of accepting it.

<v Bill Bailey>It was a sad commentary on the life of a seaman. <v Bill Bailey>To be pulled out of his bunker at any time, made to go to work. <v Bill Bailey>Do this, do that and not be paid for it. <v Bill Bailey>It was nothing to have 40, 50, 60 men in a focsle. <v Bill Bailey>Now, you could imagine 50, 60 men and a focsle coughing <v Bill Bailey>all night long, sneeze and wheezing, banging and the <v Bill Bailey>getting up go into the john light going on, light going off. <v Bill Bailey>But somebody's sick all the time. <v Bill Bailey>And that's meant that guys in a focsle had TB, all kinds of different diseases. <v Narrator>By the 1930s, hard times were shared by everyone. <v Narrator>The Great Depression brought unemployment and hunger. <v Narrator>On the waterfront, men talked of social change. <v Narrator>Others cried for strong unions. <v Narrator>Their frustration culminated in a strike in 1934 that shut down all <v Narrator>shipping on the Pacific coast.

<v Narrator>By the end of the decade, Seaman finally began to see improvements in working conditions <v Narrator>aboard their ships. <v Narrator>When America went to war, the seasoned sailors were joined by young recruits. <v Narrator>The Merchant Marine grew four times its pre-war size. <v Narrator>Along with the unlicenced man, the cargo fleet needed officers training schools, <v Narrator>offered experience, seamen upgrading courses after a period of study. <v Narrator>They applied for licenses as mates or engineers. <v Narrator>In 1941, a national academy opened for the training of maritime officers. <v Thomas Patterson>Kings Point, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy is the only academy <v Thomas Patterson>that sends its students to war as part of their <v Thomas Patterson>training. And I went there as a cadet and we were <v Thomas Patterson>also called cadet midshipmen, midshipmen being United <v Thomas Patterson>States Naval Reserve.

<v Narrator>Dependent solely on volunteers. <v Narrator>The Maritime Service conducted national recruitment drives across the country. <v Narrator>Ships were being launched faster than men were being trained to sail them. <v Narrator>Young men were subject to the draft. <v Narrator>For those who felt reservations about armed services, duty signing up with a merchant <v Narrator>marine fulfilled their obligation. <v Narrator>A maritime service accepted some men the military rejected. <v Narrator>These volunteers had minor physical disabilities, colorblindness, asthma, <v Narrator>heart murmurs with disability deferments. <v Narrator>These men could have remained ashore in safe jobs. <v Narrator>Yet few did. <v Narrator>Sometimes recruits came forward from unexpected places. <v Narrator>As business agent for the Marine Fireman, Bill Bailey sought volunteers for the black <v Narrator>gangs. These men worked in the engine room far below deck. <v Bill Bailey>We had a habit and a fireman's union, especially that <v Bill Bailey>of helping men get out of prison.

<v Bill Bailey>That is helping with that parole. <v Bill Bailey>We would get letters from guys and saying quit in the fall <v Bill Bailey>and they would say, well, I can get out six months earlier, if you would <v Bill Bailey>grant me the privilege of OKing my parole and put me aboard <v Bill Bailey>a ship so I could serve as a volunteer <v Bill Bailey>in a Marine. <v Bill Bailey>Most of all, us being white couldn't live with knowing what it is to be under the <v Bill Bailey>gun and so-called, you know, we say, okay. <v Bill Bailey>Go sign those papers so we'd get guys to come out. <v Bill Bailey>And put them aboard ship. <v Bill Bailey>And they were great. They're good human beings. <v Joe Milgic>You had every nationality on the world on these ships. <v Joe Milgic>And we got along. We never had any problems outside of personal problems. <v Joe Milgic>But not. You know, not racial religion or any <v Joe Milgic>other kind of- we didn't go through that. <v Joe Milgic>We knew our job. We did our job. We all worked together. <v Joe Milgic>We all we all got along on a ship.

<v Narrator>Unlike the armed services during the war, which remained racially segregated, many <v Narrator>merchant ships were integrated, while some seaman's unions did not embrace this policy. <v Narrator>Others did. <v Joe Stack>We had a policy of no discrimination by race, creed or color, national origin. <v Joe Stack>And that was based upon our experience. <v Joe Stack>And years gone by that the ship owners <v Joe Stack>was playing one group against the other. <v Joe Stack>When a white crew would go on strike, they would send the black crew or if a Filipino <v Joe Stack>crew went on strike. They would send an Asian crew on the ship. <v Joe Stack>And that's been going on. And the seamen been divided for years. <v Joe Stack>The black seamen knew and other minorities knew that <v Joe Stack>the fight between the races was over. <v Kline Wilson>There was no chip on my shoulder. I didn't have a reason to have one. <v Kline Wilson>People accepted me and I accepted them. <v Kline Wilson>Yours truly, minding his own damn business. <v Kline Wilson>In his work and honest to God, I didn't have any problems.

<v Bill Bailey>All we cared is that you did your work. <v Bill Bailey>That's what counted that when it came time to relieve the men down in <v Bill Bailey>the engine room. <v Bill Bailey>You were down there to relieve us and we didn't care if he was a gay or anybody. <v Bill Bailey>Oh, that's stupid.We didn't want no part of it. <v Bill Bailey>We had great respect for everybody for what they done. <v Pete Goodman>Soon as these young recruits came aboard, the very first thing we had to do is disabuse <v Pete Goodman>them of their military training. <v Pete Goodman>You're going to put your crisp uniforms away. <v Pete Goodman>You're going to do some work on this ship. <v Pete Goodman>And the company doesn't care about your uniform. <v Pete Goodman>And I don't care about how you march or how military you are. <v Pete Goodman>And as long as you're doing your job and you're doing it because you believe in your <v Pete Goodman>country and you know, this is going to help, you don't have to salute anyone.

<v Kline Wilson>This is the space that you had to prepare a hell of a lot of meals <v Kline Wilson>and you can you can't <v Kline Wilson>without stepping on somebodies toes. <v Kline Wilson>So the people that are working here must be able to get along together. <v Kline Wilson>The other departments had to have someone to kick in the <v Kline Wilson>backside. And the cooks and cooks and <v Kline Wilson>stewards department were the only ones they could because <v Kline Wilson>if they if the black gang decided they wanted to kick, somebody

<v Kline Wilson>well, the sailors were just as rough as they were. <v Kline Wilson>And you would have a brawl. <v Kline Wilson>Sometimes you say, gee whiz, maybe I should go jump off the back of the vessel <v Kline Wilson>because these son of a guns are about to drive me. Then you go at <v Kline Wilson>the rear end of the vessel and a couple of fellows <v Kline Wilson>say hey don't pay no attention to those clunks. [music plays] <v News Report>Help for embattled Russia and a steady stream of iron ships and iron men, light and

<v News Report>medium armored destroyers by the trainload going to reinforce the fighting Soviet <v News Report>army in that struggle of men and machines on the eastern front, upward <v News Report>bound their convoy by warships heading for the Arctic Circle. <v News Report>Over two thousand miles of dangerous waters traversing the icy route that leads to Russia <v News Report>off the bleak northern tip of Norway, as the Arctic night falls, lookout spot Nazi <v News Report>bombers sneaking in to attack. Pom poms, anti aircraft guns blazing election. <v Narrator>Russia urgently needed supplies to hold out against the German invasion. <v Narrator>But delivering the cargo would exact an enormous cost in lives and ships. <v Narrator>More seamen would die in the North Atlantic than in any other zone. <v Narrator>The romance run in the early years of the war was the deadliest course of all. <v Narrator>East Coast seamen knew well the dangers of sailing in these waters.

<v 'Sarge' Ransom>Well, when you when you sign on a ship, you don't you don't just look <v 'Sarge' Ransom>at the cargo and just say, well, that cargo is gone to Portugal. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>I don't want to go there. You don't do that as partially in wartime. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>You're a, you have a there's a degree of loyalty <v 'Sarge' Ransom>or dedication there. You just go on there and if its' going to Russia. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>So what, you're going to Russia. <v Alan Harvie>We had a Russian delegation come aboard just before we sailed and announced that we would <v Alan Harvie>get double wages. <v Alan Harvie>Upon arrival in Murmask. <v Alan Harvie>Well, they didn't say anything about not getting there. <v Alan Harvie>They hedge their bets a little bit on that. <v Vito Virtz>The men on the ship, they they did talk to other fellows <v Vito Virtz>and they made that trip. You know, they said,I'll tell ya, very <v Vito Virtz>slim chance of make it up there and back. <v Vito Virtz>And, you know, course we we thought about it, <v Vito Virtz>you know. [music plays]

<v Narrator>Stephen Ransom Harvey Inversy had signed on an old freighter named the Honomu, <v Narrator>the ship bringing ammunition and material to romance joined [unclear] 17. <v Narrator>Thirty three merchant ships left Iceland under heavy protective escort. <v Narrator>[music plays] <v Narrator>Within a few days, German torpedo bombers attacked. <v Narrator>The convoy pushed on. <v Narrator>Onboard, the seamen were now apprehensive, but none could have predicted what lay ahead.

<v Narrator>Their captains had received a startling command break convoy and scatter. <v Narrator>The British who directed the operation were withdrawing all protection. <v Narrator>The merchant ships were on their own. <v Narrator>Abandoned in enemy waters. <v Vito Virtz>I asked why they were leaving and they said they were they <v Vito Virtz>were there, one of their reconnaissant planes had spotted the German <v Vito Virtz>fleet headed in our direction and they were about to annihilate us. <v Alan Harvie>The captain called the only officers are off watch into <v Alan Harvie>the mess room and said we we have an order to disperse <v Alan Harvie>the convoy. We kind of had a bit of resentment, particularly <v Alan Harvie>after the big buildup that we received above this magnificent escort that <v Alan Harvie>we had. <v Vito Virtz>We still had hopes. Even after we got the order to scatter, we <v Vito Virtz>still had hope. But I could tell Captain Strads face <v Vito Virtz>that he was by looking at him.

<v Vito Virtz>I didn't like to get him because he knew we were doomed and he was right. <v Vito Virtz>[music plays] <v Narrator>The Admiralty suspected the German battleship, Turbit's sister ship of the Bismarck <v Narrator>had left its Norwegian base to intercept convoy ?PICU? <v Narrator>17. The British command fear the loss of their battleships if they engaged <v Narrator>the Turbit's. The merchant ships would be sacrificed to preserve the fighting fleet. <v Vito Virtz>I heard this thunderous noise. <v Vito Virtz>You know, it's it's a noise you'll never forget the rest of your life. <v Vito Virtz>I just feel like the whole ship exploded, you know. <v Vito Virtz>But, God, when I was able to get out of my bunk and down on the deck, <v Vito Virtz>I didn't have to worry about dressing. I was dressed. <v Alan Harvie>It was chaos. I was hopping from frame to frame to <v Alan Harvie>get to the engine. Of course, the water was coming down because of the explosion,

<v Alan Harvie>but the water down through the ventilator and through the skylights. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>I got on the raft [unclear] forward. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>What was the one that I kicked off And we took the last of the crew off <v 'Sarge' Ransom>of that one. Those weren't in the lifeboat and the other raft got into my raft. <v Vito Virtz>I was scared because I was always told by seamen <v Vito Virtz>that when a ship goes down, they said, oh, God, stay away from that <v Vito Virtz>ship because you'll go down with the best it that suction will take it down. <v Vito Virtz>And I was scared to death. <v Alan Harvie>We were all in a state of shock. <v Alan Harvie>All you could see with this huge piles of powdered eggs and <v Alan Harvie>dehydrated potatoes floating around and all the seabirds sitting on top of them pecking <v Alan Harvie>away. <v Vito Virtz>I didn't accept Dying, but I felt from what I've heard other

<v Vito Virtz>fellows that freezing was it was easy way <v Vito Virtz>to go. And a lot of times, you know, I would like to stay, <v Vito Virtz>you know, relaxed and just fall asleep and go. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>It's a mental adjustment, you know that. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>That you don't have much of a chance. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>You accept it. There's not much you can do about it. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>You're there and you're stuck with it. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>And uh- <v Vito Virtz>Sarge was more or less made himself in charge of <v Vito Virtz>the raft, and I was kind of glad because he was big and strong and we needed <v Vito Virtz>someone that had a little authority on there, because if not, <v Vito Virtz>you wouldn't last long. You know, because if you lay around and do nothing, you're going

<v Vito Virtz>to freeze to death. <v Vito Virtz>And that's why so many of them had their legs cut off. <v Narrator>After 13 days. the seaman from the Honomu were spotted on their rafts by a <v Narrator>British minesweeper. Thirty three merchant ships have been abandoned in. <v Narrator>22 were lost. <v Narrator>The German battleship Turbit's never engaged the convoy. <v Narrator>With a merchant fleet left unprotected, Nazi aircraft and submarines simply hunted <v Narrator>down ships and blew them up. <v Narrator>The survivors in the Honomu were taken to a hospital at a Russian submarine base <v Narrator>where they were examined. <v Vito Virtz>Well, I asked the nurse. <v Vito Virtz>I said, what's that? What's that? What's that noise in the other room? <v Vito Virtz>She says, that's a saw, a saw what are they sawing? <v Vito Virtz>She says they're strong bones. <v Vito Virtz>You know, somebodies arms or legs. <v Vito Virtz>She says they're cutting in there. <v Vito Virtz>I says, Cut. I said gee don't. <v Vito Virtz>They have no someone to put them.

<v Vito Virtz>She said no they don't have nothing. <v Vito Virtz>They just had to cut quick. <v Vito Virtz>And then I got to think and I said, gee, God, I wonder if they're gonna do that to us <v Vito Virtz>if any of us are [unclear] I can't look my legs everyday day to see that they didn't turn <v Vito Virtz>black, you know, cause they say once they turn black. <v Vito Virtz>That's there is no return.You get 'em cut off. <v Narrator>The surviving sailors were taken to the port of Arcangel, southwest of Murmansk. <v Narrator>There a few miles from the Russian front. <v Narrator>They waited for a ship to bring them back to Britain. <v Narrator>Germans bombed daily. Food was rationed. <v Narrator>The seamen housed in barracks had little to do but wait. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>We have to go aboard a ship and get a carton of cigarrets for 50 cents and then we take <v 'Sarge' Ransom>it down in the black market and sell it for a thousand rubles. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>Well, we could buy a magnum of vodka for for 30 rubles. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>So for 50 cents, we could get the 33 magnums of vodka. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>And we were we were lonesome and we were in that <v 'Sarge' Ransom>oh, there wasn't wasn't quite a hostile territory, but that was the friendly atmosphere.

<v 'Sarge' Ransom>And we we drank a little bit to kind of assuage <v 'Sarge' Ransom>our feelings and to make ourselves feel a little bit better. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>Kind of like Dreamworld you know you kind of like to drift a little <v 'Sarge' Ransom>bit of vodka. It was a good drifting agent. <v 'Sarge' Ransom>Yeah. <v Narrator>After two months, Ransom Harvey Inversy boarded an American freighter. <v Narrator>Getting out of Arcangel in Murmansk was as dangerous as sailing there. <v Narrator>The ship also was torpedoed, torn in half and sank within minutes. <v Narrator>The seaman once again dropped the lifeboats into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. <v Narrator>But this time, they were rescued quickly. <v Narrator>In the autumn of 1942, the seaman made it home to America. <v Narrator>They had beaten the odds by simply being alive. <v Narrator>All three would ship out again, this time on different freighters, each <v Narrator>man hoping to avoid death one more time.

<v Narrator>During the war, America felt vulnerable from within. <v Narrator>People feared that spies might be living among them. <v Narrator>The merchant seaman became a target for those looking for domestic enemies. <v Narrator>And Walter Winchell led the assault. <v Narrator>Fifty million Americans listened to Winchell's radio show or read his daily gossip <v Narrator>columns looking for a scoop. <v Narrator>He zeroed in on the National Maritime Union. <v Narrator>It was controlled, he believed, by communists. <v Narrator>On a nationwide radio broadcast he announced that merchant seamen were sabotaging <v Narrator>American ships. <v Joe Stack>What he did this one night, he got up on the air and he started <v Joe Stack>out with his [unclear] all the ships at Sea Flash. <v Joe Stack>The National Maritime Union members are coming aboard <v Joe Stack>our ships in the war zone and in their pocket.

<v Joe Stack>They're carrying emery dust. In some of those seamen <v Joe Stack>are going into the shaft alley and putting emery dust in the bearings <v Joe Stack>of the ship. <v Narrator>The union sued for libel and won. <v Narrator>Winchell was ordered to pay nineteen thousand dollars in damages. <v Narrator>But his harassment continued. <v Narrator>The seaman, he now claimed we're making hefty union paychecks on these integrated ships. <v Thomas Patterson>I've heard those comments about the merchant marine being <v Thomas Patterson>overpaid. <v Thomas Patterson>And it is really not true. <v Thomas Patterson>The wages weren't all that great. <v Thomas Patterson>I was making sixty five dollars a month, which was pretty good in those <v Thomas Patterson>days. But there's no big amount of money. <v Thomas Patterson>And again, I think that mainly people on the shore side, <v Thomas Patterson>you know, keep stirring that up. <v Bill Bailey>All this talk about from the money and fortunes man made in <v Bill Bailey>fortunes being spent with a bunch of hoak.

<v Bill Bailey>It wasn't so. Believe me. <v Narrator>Ex sportswriter Westbrook Pegler joined Winslow in his public attack on the Merchant <v Narrator>Marine to Pegler. <v Narrator>Labor and communism were synonymous. <v Narrator>In his nationally syndicated columns, he attacked the National Maritime Union with a fury <v Narrator>in the process. He called the seaman riffraff, draft dodging bumbs. <v Joe Stack>I was business agent of the union at that time and we <v Joe Stack>called on the meeting in the shipping hall. <v Joe Stack>And within about 45 minutes, <v Joe Stack>we had over 3000 members down. <v Joe Stack>We circled the entire world telegram building protest and <v Joe Stack>Westbrook Pegler. We never were able to get rid of any of these people, <v Joe Stack>but we put them, we slowed them down and put them in their place a little <v Joe Stack>bit. <v Bill Bailey>Being called riffraff. Draft dodgers, scum of the earth and every other <v Bill Bailey>type of name from Bum down to ex-con and whatever.

<v Bill Bailey>All these people that were called these thing were out there winning the war. <v Bill Bailey>So these other of the Westbrook Pegler type were denouncing us, weresitting <v Bill Bailey>safely behind a typewrite and we're fighting for their right to sit behind a typewriter <v Bill Bailey>and call us all these names. <v Narrator>Merchant seaman worked side by side with the military, but the two groups were separated <v Narrator>by basic differences. The seaman worked for companies and they were represented by <v Narrator>unions. These unions held steadfast in resisting militarization of the merchant <v Narrator>fleet. The military, for its part, has little tolerance for organized <v Narrator>Labor's influence so close to the frontlines. <v Pete Goodman>The seamen resisted militarization for one main reason. <v Pete Goodman>Companies that we were working for were operating as businesses, <v Pete Goodman>as they always had before the war and during the war and after the war. <v Pete Goodman>And they were making tons of money on a contract basis with the U.S.

<v Pete Goodman>government. <v News Report>On the third anniversary of the birth of the United States victory fleet men of the <v News Report>Merchant Marine Academy and the Maritime Service right down lower Broadway in New York <v News Report>City. The Victory Fleet's third birthday is dedicated to American shipping company <v News Report>whose ships and personnel have maintained the global lifelines of a nation at war. <v Pete Goodman>And as long as they were making this tremendous rate of profit, we thought it was quite <v Pete Goodman>reasonable that our union contracts stay in effect, the working conditions and the living <v Pete Goodman>conditions on the ship who had been fought for for so many years, I thought was quite <v Pete Goodman>reasonable that that continue. <v Pete Goodman>And though we took an awful lot of flak and the company stood aside and let us take the <v Pete Goodman>flak from gossip columnists on the East Coast, like Pegler <v Pete Goodman>and Winchell, calling us all kinds of dirty names for demanding that our union contracts <v Pete Goodman>stay in effect. The fact of the matter is it worked fine.

<v Narrator>The war Schippingadministration controlled all Ocean-Going ships leaving American ports. <v Narrator>But the seamen on these ships dispatched from union hiring halls remain civilian. <v Narrator>Once aboard, the unlicenced men were kept in tow by ships delegates. <v Bill Bailey>We took care of our own. If there was a beef between a member of the unlicense <v Bill Bailey>personnel and an engineer or a mate. <v Bill Bailey>We handled it. <v Bill Bailey>We handled that is the ship's delegates and the crew. <v Bill Bailey>If something some guy was stepping out of line would jump on him. <v Bill Bailey>Hey, this may be all our ship. <v Bill Bailey>We have a war to win and we're not going to win a war, you just straggling all over the <v Bill Bailey>place, doing what you want to do. <v Bill Bailey>Now get your keys down here and do the right thing.

<v Narrator>Despite those in the media who worked to discredit them, merchant seamen were getting the <v Narrator>job done. Well, a Liberty ship crewed by the Navy required three times <v Narrator>more manpower to sail her than the same ship operated by Merchant Seaman. <v Narrator>[music plays] <v Narrator>As more merchant ships were sunk and casualties grew, fewer men signed up. <v Narrator>The Maritime Service made urgent appeals, calling for any man with prior seafaring <v Narrator>experience. Old sailors in their 70s, even in their 80s, shipped <v Narrator>out. They shared their years of experience with young recruits who are now coming <v Narrator>on board at age 16. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>My own father and mother didn't know what I was doing.

<v Capt. Frank Medeiros>They didn't know they knew military, but they didn't know Merchant Marine. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>It was unknown to them. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>And when he went off to his to his death and he didn't know what <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>I did. He figured it was dangerous. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>[music plays] <v Narrator>In the first three months of 1942, over a thousand seamen have died <v Narrator>within sight of land, their ships sunk by German submarines on the east coast <v Narrator>of the United States. <v Narrator>Tankers and cargo ships needed protection. <v Narrator>Armed guard crews and the regular Navy were assigned to board the merchant ships. <v Carl Winder>They set out to train the merchant marine to become gunners.

<v Carl Winder>That didn't work out, so then they brought on the Army, the field artillery <v Carl Winder>and so forth. That also didn't work because too many have got to seasick. <v Carl Winder>So they said, well, we'll just put the Navy aboard. <v Carl Winder>Which they did. Basically, this was a suicide mission that we were <v Carl Winder>sent aboard to not come back. <v Carl Winder>And we after we got there, we realized it. <v Carl Winder>So this is why we became lean, mean and afighting machine. <v Carl Winder>We took no crap from anybody. <v Carl Winder>We did our own thing. Our job was to protect this ship. <v Carl Winder>And by golly, we protected it to the best of our ability. <v Narrator>In the early months of the war, the ships could not be equipped fast enough with <v Narrator>defensive weapons. Navy gunners coming on board the merchant ships would sometimes <v Narrator>find a telephone pole decoy at the stern painted to look like a five inch

<v Narrator>caliber gun. <v Carl Winder>We drilled on it. We [unclear], trained with it something <v Carl Winder>like that, just like it was a regular again. <v Carl Winder>And if we thought there was a submarine in the area, we pointed <v Carl Winder>it at them. That was our telephone pole armament. <v Narrator>As attacks on the merchant ships increased, gunnery crews accompaned the vessels into war <v Narrator>zones. The casualty rates among the gunners assigned to these ships were among <v Narrator>the highest in the Navy. <v Vito Virtz>One of my standing arguments in a bar sometimes from those fellows, I say, <v Vito Virtz>I says, why don't you volunteer to go to sea? <v Vito Virtz>I said, there's always room for one more. <v Vito Virtz>We sailed shorthanded nine out of 10 times know. <v Vito Virtz>We sailed shorthanded but he didn't have no answers to that and I said, if it's so nice, <v Vito Virtz>how come a lot of fellows that join up during a war on a merchant ships

<v Vito Virtz>after one trip, a lot of them left and went in the army, you know? <v Vito Virtz>They were scared to death out there somewhere more, you know, they were scared to death. <v Narrator>Bill Flury an 18 year old from Oregon signed on the Jean Nicolet, a Liberty <v Narrator>ship carrying supplies to the Burma Road. <v Bill Flury>I didn't want to be called a slacker either. <v Bill Flury>I want to get in in any way to do my duty. <v Bill Flury>I mean, everybody was with in the war effort. <v Bill Flury>I was working in the shipyards night in Portland and going to <v Bill Flury>school in America, America, merchant marine training school during the day <v Bill Flury>in then when I finished that, then I shipped out.

<v Narrator>Crossing the equator with 100 men aboard, the Jean Nicolet was hit with a torpedo. <v Narrator>The seamna quickly abandoned ship. <v Narrator>Minutes after they climbed to the lifeboats, a submarine surfaced. <v Narrator>The seamen were ordered on board while their lifeboats were destroyed. <v Narrator>One by one, the seamen were ordered to run a gantlet between lines of Japanese sailors <v Narrator>wielding clubs and bayonets. <v Narrator>At the end of the line, surviving seamen were thrown overboard. <v Narrator>To their horror, sharks appear. <v Narrator>The submarine hearing a plane in the distance began to dive. <v Narrator>The captured seaman on deck with their hands bound were thrown into the water. <v Bill Flury>The sub proceeded down and I was trying to get loose. <v Bill Flury>I rolled my whole body to the left, and suddenly I got roped off <v Bill Flury>or something and I got released and my hands tied behind me <v Bill Flury>still I was leaning back, getting my nose up in the water and and kicking <v Bill Flury>and trying not to inhale water.

<v Bill Flury>And I was treading water that way for for quite some <v Bill Flury>time. <v Bill Flury>Large screams all the time throughout the night. <v Bill Flury>The sharks were getting a lot of people. <v Bill Flury>A fella came up out of the dark and he untied me. <v Bill Flury>I held this guy up [unclear] and we swim together through the night <v Bill Flury>and the sun came up. <v Bill Flury>The ship, the Jean Nicolet, was still burning <v Bill Flury>and we were still swimming towards it. <v Bill Flury>And later I could see it going down, <v Bill Flury>you know, it went down, down first. <v Bill Flury>You'd see the propeller just went down. <v Bill Flury>It left me with a sense of loneliness

<v Bill Flury>and way out there in the middle of the ocean with nothing <v Bill Flury>in sight. <v Narrator>After two days in the water, a few survivors were spotted by a British submarine <v Narrator>chaser and were brought to a hospital in Ceylon. <v Narrator>Bill Flury's, physical injuries were to heal, but the emotional pain lingered. <v Narrator>[music plays] <v Narrator>While waiting for a ship, he met other seamen who, like himself, had suffered <v Narrator>severe trauma at sea. <v Narrator>Some man's injuries were much more visible than Flury's. <v Bill Flury>They had a club called the Seaman's Club.

<v Bill Flury>Of course, it was open for any service person out. <v Bill Flury>I walked in there and I couldn't believe it. <v Bill Flury>There was a man sitting on a stool there. <v Bill Flury>It looked like a skull sitting on shoulders. <v Bill Flury>That man looked so pitiful and ugly that you felt <v Bill Flury>like it anymore. I talked to him and I forced myself to go up and sit down <v Bill Flury>beside him. This man was an only survivor off of Betancur <v Bill Flury>and, you know, the gas and stuff burning on a water. <v Bill Flury>You know, you you know. And he was in the middle of this fire <v Bill Flury>swimming and splashing the flames away. <v Bill Flury>And in the process, he was burnt. <v Bill Flury>I mean, he didn't have any ears. <v Bill Flury>His nose was burnt right down to the base. <v Bill Flury>So his lips regarding his eyes look terrible. <v Bill Flury>Most dangerous job in a Merchant Marine is the ammunition, <v Bill Flury>ships and your big tankers, you know, loaded with all that inflammable fuel.

<v Narrator>Seamen who lived through disasters at sea suffered emotional trauma. <v Narrator>By the end of the war, convalescent centers opened to treat convoy fatigue. <v Narrator>But many sailors avoided seeking help, preferring to cope alone with the memories <v Narrator>of explosions, sinking ships and violent death. <v Bill Flury>I did a lot of drinking to try to forget things. <v Bill Flury>And that doesn't help any situation. <v Bill Flury>And it's something that is always with you. <v Bill Flury>You know, you forget some of it. <v Bill Flury>But you never forget it and you never will no person ever forgets things like <v Bill Flury>that, you have to learn <v Bill Flury>to deal with it the best you can. <v Bill Flury>It's the only thing a man can do. <v Barbara Christensen>It's been almost 50 years ago that my dad was killed in World War

<v Barbara Christensen>Two as a merchant seaman. <v Barbara Christensen>He was a radio officer and suicide plane hit the radio <v Barbara Christensen>tower and he was killed instantly. <v Barbara Christensen>Dad's first assignment was on the Liberty Ship, the <v Barbara Christensen>SS. John Johnson. <v Barbara Christensen>And it was in route from San Francisco to Honolulu when the ship <v Barbara Christensen>was torpedoed and it was sunk. <v Barbara Christensen>And there were many, many boys that lost their lives. <v Barbara Christensen>The submarine rammed the lifeboats and machine gun. <v Barbara Christensen>All these young boys. <v Barbara Christensen>And so my dad survived that ordeal but <v Barbara Christensen>when he came home, it was the first time I'd ever seen my dad <v Barbara Christensen>cry. <v Barbara Christensen>I think he had great apprehensive about going back.

<v Barbara Christensen>And I think that's when I realized that this might be the last <v Barbara Christensen>time we might see my dad. <v Narrator>A seaman killed on a ship left his family a five thousand dollar war insurance policy. <v Narrator>Men who are permanently disabled in the war receive the same amount. <v Narrator>After a short rehabilitation, disabled seamen were on their own without any further <v Narrator>benefits. Merchant Seaman received no workman's compensation, <v Narrator>no unemployment insurance and no pension. <v News Report>Reporters rush hour to relay the news to an anxious world and touched off celebrations <v News Report>throughout the country. Washington is jubilant. <v News Report>And in Chicago, more than a million sing and dance in the streets in the biggest <v News Report>celebration the Windy City has ever seen.

<v News Report>Joy in unconfined. <v Thomas Patterson>There weren't any parades, you know, for the United States merchant marine <v Thomas Patterson>and when our ships came in, they didn't come in with a formation yet, came in <v Thomas Patterson>with a pilot on board. You had a pay off and everybody split <v Thomas Patterson>up. And that was just your job. <v Joe Milgic>When the war was over, they had these big signs. Walk them home. <v Joe Milgic>You know, guys kissed the ground that their sweethearts welcome them and everything else, <v Joe Milgic>which was fun. But we never it wasn't it for us. <v Joe Milgic>It was a service that we were bringing them back. <v Narrator>A year before the war ended. President Roosevelt signed the G.I. <v Narrator>Bill of Rights, a gift from a grateful nation which gave educational and financial <v Narrator>assistance to returning men and women in the country's armed forces. <v Narrator>President Roosevelt reminded America that the Merchant Marine had also risked their lives <v Narrator>and should not be forgotten. <v Narrator>A few months later, Franklin Roosevelt died.

<v Narrator>Following the president's wishes, a Seamans Bill of Rights was drafted in Congress. <v Narrator>If passed, this bill would provide for the education of young seamen who left high school <v Narrator>to man the ships. It would also aid and rehabilitation and reemployment <v Narrator>of wartime merchant sailors. <v Narrator>Most importantly, the bill would ensure benefits for men suffering permanent disabilities <v Narrator>from disasters at sea. <v Narrator>For the quarter of a million men who sailed with cargo ships, the Seaman's Bill of Rights <v Narrator>was an acknowledgment of their service in the war. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>All I wanted was the respect from my government because <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>I gave everything I had. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>I was willing to give my life. And what else can you give? <v Narrator>When the seaman's bill reached congressional committee, it was met by a backlash. <v Narrator>The War Department, which had sent the Merchant Marine into every war zone, now spoke <v Narrator>out in opposition to the seamen.

<v Narrator>It reminded the committee that the Merchant Marine had resisted merger with the military <v Narrator>and that earned civilian wages throughout the war. <v Pete Goodman>The military certainly resented the merchant seamen and certainly resented <v Pete Goodman>the idea that we have any rights at all. <v Pete Goodman>They resented the fact that we were able to keep the ships of sailing as civilians. <v Pete Goodman>And as far as they're concerned, you had your union, you made big money. <v Pete Goodman>You're all wealthy now and you don't need anything. <v Pete Goodman>And they really actively lobbied against us in Congress. <v Thomas Patterson>I believe that there was a lot of antipathy. <v Thomas Patterson>Bad feelings on some of the veterans organizations <v Thomas Patterson>about the US Merchant Marine Merchant Mariners weren't out there for their pay. <v Thomas Patterson>They were doing their job for their country. <v Narrator>In 1947, the Seamans Bill of Rights was killed in congressional committee. <v Narrator>Although they suffered one of the highest casualty rates in World War Two, merchant <v Narrator>seamen would receive no benefits for their service.

<v Capt. Frank Medeiros>If you go back in 1944, 43, 42, <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>you look at the posters. It says Uncle Sam needs you. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>He wants you. Any seaman with two or three months service, please <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>come. We need you now. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>Did you need us after the war was over? <v Bill Flury>My two younger brothers went into the Navy at the latter end of the war <v Bill Flury>and neither one of us saw any action, but they came home <v Bill Flury>and one arm went on to college and the other one bought him a <v Bill Flury>nice home through the G.I. Bill and proceeded with their lives. <v Bill Flury>And, you know, I had I didn't have any benefits, none at all. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>I look at this, the ocean, and I think of all the sailors that are buried <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>there. They gave everything. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>And that's all you have in your life is to give is your life.

<v Capt. Frank Medeiros>And they gave it for the USA and then to come back and wait forty five <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>years. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>I can't believe it sometimes. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>I really can't believe it. <v Bill Flury>I went home to a little town Chiloquin. <v Bill Flury>Not many people level were there, and I walked downtown <v Bill Flury>after I got home. Everybody asking questions, this and that. <v Bill Flury>And I was trying to forget these things and I couldn't stand. <v Bill Flury>Just home about two days and I left. <v Narrator>With the war over, the demand for experienced seamen declined rapidly. <v Narrator>Most of the young seamen abandoned their skills and looked for jobs on land. <v Narrator>Vito Virtz became a house painter. <v Narrator>Sarge Ransom worked as a longshoreman, Kline Wilson returned to a shoe <v Narrator>repair business. <v Kline Wilson>There's something about the waterfront, the smell, the ships.

<v Kline Wilson>It's like a magnet. <v Kline Wilson>It took me many years before I would go back on his tangent to <v Kline Wilson>to the waterfront. <v Kline Wilson>Because the smell <v Kline Wilson>[unclear] It was quite an experience. <v Kline Wilson>I wouldn't trade it for anything. <v Narrator>Without veteran status, seamen were at a disadvantage competing for jobs with men <v Narrator>who'd served in the armed forces. <v Narrator>The older sailors, a staunch union man, came home to a different fate. <v Pete Goodman>It was on the eve of McCarthyism. <v Pete Goodman>About 1950, when someone, somewhere is in the government decided <v Pete Goodman>that the maritime industry had to be politically sterilized. <v Pete Goodman>And so every seaman had to pass a screening test. <v Pete Goodman>And if your politics weren't quite right, you were out. <v Pete Goodman>There were no charges, no specifics, no witnesses against you.

<v Pete Goodman>You're simply given a letter saying you're out of the industry. <v Pete Goodman>And I was out. <v Bill Bailey>They took my themen papers away from me. <v Bill Bailey>And he said, you cannot go to sea. <v Bill Bailey>We do not trust you on a ship. <v Bill Bailey>We don't want to see you on a ship. <v Bill Bailey>We don't want to see on a ferry boat. <v Bill Bailey>And they took my papers away, I couldn't sail on a ship. <v Bill Bailey>And here I am with a wife and a kid. <v Bill Bailey>What the hell am I going to do? <v Narrator>The seamen have become casualties of the Red Scare. <v Narrator>It would take several years before the courts declared the maritime screenings <v Narrator>unconstitutional. <v Narrator>Most of the blacklisted sailers never returned to the sea. <v Narrator>The great majority of seamen were not active unionists. <v Narrator>They were a diverse group of Americans who volunteered to perform one of the war's most <v Narrator>dangerous jobs. They manned a fleet of ships that fed Europe and supplied the frontline

<v Narrator>troops. The young seaman prided themselves in delivering millions of tons <v Narrator>of cargo across treacherous waters. <v Narrator>Knowing that the price of delivery would often be their lives. <v Narrator>At war's end, no one spoke up on their behalf. <v Narrator>When the seamen return to their hometowns, many were unprepared for the coldness <v Narrator>of their homecoming. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>I used to go in my room and stay there and listen to the band's plan and everything <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>else. And with hurt feeling inside. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>It does hurt. And it be very, very difficult for me to explain to you <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>how much it hurts. <v Bill Flury>Well, half the people don't even know what the Merchant Marine are or if they <v Bill Flury>know of the merchant marine as something derogatory. <v Bill Flury>You know, I think it's a shame, but I think they the men <v Bill Flury>of the Merchant Marine deserved a lot more. <v Bill Flury>They put themselves on the line. I don't know how many times. <v Bill Flury>All through history. Every battle they were there.

<v Capt. Frank Medeiros>But for the lives that were lost on these ships and these ships themselves, <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>we wouldn't have freedom today unless you've been to combat and saw <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>all these ships going down and saw these sailors in this rough water to badly. <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>Any chance of survival encouraging you to continue <v Capt. Frank Medeiros>and you do that all for you country. <v Kline Wilson>I'm so thankful that I was a part of it. <v Kline Wilson>I feel very keenly about it. <v Kline Wilson>I know that we're not appreciated, but that's nevertheless the facts speak for <v Kline Wilson>themselves. You don't need my words. <v Kline Wilson>Just look and see what happened. <v Kline Wilson>And I think we did a hell of a job. <v Narrator>Return home from war. The Department of Defense ruled the merchant seamen of World <v Narrator>War Two were entitled to full veteran status with the same benefits as <v Narrator>given to those who served in the armed forces.

<v Narrator>Of the men who sailed the Liberty ships? <v Narrator>Less than half lived to see this day. <v Speaker>Production funding for this program was provided by the California Council <v Speaker>for the Humanities, the National Maritime Museum Association, <v Speaker>the Pioneer Fund and their friends and colleagues of H. <v Speaker>Whity Dizzily. Additional support provided by the following organizations <v Speaker>and individuals. <v Speaker>To order VHS copies of this program, write to Katie, E.H.

<v Speaker>TV Liberty Ships, one hundred Skai Port Dry, San Jose, California, <v Speaker>nine five one one o or phone four o eight four three seven <v Speaker>five four five four.