Maritime Losses: Then and Now

As the collections manager aboard the SS John W Brown I come across a lot of information on ships being sunk during World War II. With the recent loss of the MV El Faro, I had a glimpse into that feeling of loss and what it was like for the Merchant Marine  of World War II. On October 1, 2015, 33 mariners aboard the El Faro were caught in a hurricane with only their survival suits and open air lifeboats. Every mariner complains about weekly fire and lifeboat drills and having to re-certify their training every five years but when something like this happens, it all comes into focus. 

Myself joining the candelight vigil for the MV El Faro

 While doing research at the Seaman’s Church oral history database the majority of the veterans talked about lifeboat and survival training. The biggest difference between my training and theirs was the mentality. For my generation it was “this may happen, but when it happens, it will be catastrophic.” For the World War II mariners it was “this will happen to you (probably more than once), this will save your life.”

The sinking of the El Faro happened while I was originally putting together this blog and this event snapped into focus the crux of what I hoped to accomplish with this blog post: a compelling story of war, an unforgiving ocean, and a hero: 2nd Cook James Gilbert Squires.

On March 9th 1943 The SS Malantic was steaming from New York to England in convoy SC 121. At 7:30 pm, local time, the Malantic attacked by U-409. The first torpedo struck the stern (the aft end) and thirty seconds later a second torpedo struck near the number 1 cargo hold, forward. The Malantic immediately began to list and the order for abandon ship was given. The master, who was injured, and ten other crew members launched in Lifeboat 1, starboard side while the chief mate and 29 other mariners launched Lifeboat 2.

It took about an hour for the SS Malantic to sink and another hour for the rescue ship SS Melrose Abbey to rescue the survivors. Third Mate Einar Tessam, in Lifeboat 2, saw 5 or 6 bodies in the water; they weren’t moving because they had already succumbed to hypothermia. The water was close to freezing that night and the seas had 30 foot swells.

SS Melrose Abbey

The SS Melrose Abbey rescued Lifeboat 1 first. The seas were rough so 2nd Cook James G. Squires manned the lines to keep the lifeboat made fast to the Melrose Abbey. This action made getting the injured master of the Malantic and 9 other crew aboard much easier and quicker, also ensuring nobody was lost overboard. While attempting to get to the rescue net from the lifeboat Mr. Squires was caught in between the vessel and the lifeboat. In his exhaustion from working the lines during the rescue he could not pull himself up, a large wave came by and he was taken out to sea and never seen again.

While the SS Melrose Abbey was rescuing lifeboat 2 the lifeboat capsized. Only “9 or 10” of the mariners in that lifeboat made it aboard the SS Melrose Abbey.

The survivors were taken to Scotland, returned to service, and the story of 2nd Cook James Squires’ heroism made its way to the desks of the US Naval Forces Europe, War Shipping Administration, Maritime Commission, and Office of Naval Intelligence. Testimonies were given by several crew and the next of kin to James Squires were presented an award for his heroism.

This was just one night in a war that lasted for two more years. 

Below is the digitized contents of the file for this incident. This is just one object in our Collections.

Not much more to say.  We think about and pray for peace for all the families that are living this nightmare today. This happened to more of our men in WWII then we can even put an exact number on, due to the documentation practices during the war.  Technology today speeds things up, much more, but the pain that the families feel is tangible. 

Project Liberty Ship, Inc is a 501(c)3 non-profit, all volunteer organization engaged in the preservation and operation of the historic ship JOHN W. BROWN as a living memorial museum. Gifts to Project Liberty Ship are tax deductible.

When life hands you lemons...

Weather systems and Joaquin off the coast combined to create some nasty weather in the Chesapeake Bay for almost a week.  We can't go much further before we ask that our readers think/pray/wish positive energy on El Faro and her 33 crew members.  El Faro has not been a stranger to Baltimore, as she was berthed here for a few years and was a backdrop in many pictures.  We are all worried and thinking about the crew and hoping beyond hope that there will be a positive end to this narrative. 

Closer to home with rain and more importantly, heavy winds on the bay, the decision was made to cancel the October Cruise.   Decisions like this are never made lightly, because of the amount of planning, time and money that goes into each cruise, but the decision was made on Wednesday to try to catch crew and passengers before coming from out-of-town.  We still had to pay some costs, like much of the food from the caterer, for instance.  And to make this more painful, this cruise, though not sold out with 700+ passengers, had well over 500 which is more than we've had in the last two years. 

There were still lots of crew members around and while we had a large number of volunteers on hand we did some required winterizing and other chores. The port o pots are getting picked up next week, so we lowered them to the pier for easier retrieval.  We have racks of life preservers fore and aft which are stowed below during the winter months. The racks that are located on the aft deck must be winched overboard, moved forward and then back up into the #3 hold.

Our position on the pier was awkward and the platform for the gangway was not sitting correctly, so the options were to move the ship or make it work somehow.  The easiest way was to do some slight cosmetic work which enabled the platform to sit flush with the rail on the pier. 

Here the crew are putting out the storm wires for not only this weather event but for the winter. 

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To get the 'potty' started, we needed to move all of the port o pots to the shore. This is a job that is taken very seriously and done with great care, but it's a 'duty' we have. Sorry...these shots were just ripe for some puns....

Every step of the process is carefully monitored.

To move the racks to the number 3 hold, we needed to remove the number 3 hatch and one I-beam. This take practice and some precision as you can see here with Liam and Joe.  There is actually a method to the madness. 

You can see the I-beam being slowly and carefully lifted and placed on the deck. This weighs 3,000 lbs. So again, a careful and slow process.

The life preserver racks are collected and moved into the hold in the tween deck for the winter.

Taking the guns apart and bringing them below to be cleaned and stored until next year.

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And of course feeding our crew and visitors is always a priority.

Wet, rainy and damp, the crew would have preferred to be on the ship in sunny weather with over 500 passengers and 150 crew and entertainers.  But there are things that can't be changed, as much as we would like to change them.   As for those lemons that we were handed... we made our own form of lemonade by weather proofing the BROWN for bad weather and the winter.  Much of the work completed on Saturday are things that are done over a couple of Wednesdays and Saturdays but with so many crew around and available, it turned into an organized work weekend.  We are currently in the process of refunding the cost of tickets and there is still much work to be done on the ship.  But we hope to see everyone for our cruises in 2016!

Project Liberty Ship, Inc is a 501(c)3 non-profit, all volunteer organization engaged in the preservation and operation of the historic ship JOHN W. BROWN as a living memorial museum. Gifts to Project Liberty Ship are tax deductible.

The Magic of the SS John W Brown

I had quite a few epiphanies while the SS JOHN W BROWN was moored to Pier 13 for Labor Day Weekend. While our visitor numbers were less than 600, we had some exceptional guests; our visitors who came really wanted to come and were very excited about it. I always enjoy living aboard because it’s a cocktail of nostalgia for my shipping days, it’s a nice escape from the day to day of school (read, write, repeat), but most importantly I get to bond closer with the crew. A ship really is the sum total of its crew and there is no crew quite like that of the SS JOHN W BROWN.

While I was doing research last year of crews of Liberty Ships I was struck at how little had changed; there were old salts from WWII and kids who were either too young to enlist or had a small defect that prevented them from enlisting. This is essentially the crew of the Brown, a bunch of old salts and young kids with a few peppered in the middle. This crew is also special because I am in utter awe of how things get done. I don’t have to worry about anything when I come aboard: the P-ways are swept, there’s food, the lights are on, the gangway is down, and the cargo is loaded. I can just turn on my computer and keep working on collections or have a meeting about whatever or be the resident millennial and show someone how something works.

When I arrived I thought I would be chipping and painting all day and never have time to work on the Museum but I was wrong, there are volunteers who are working away to keep the Brown beautiful and operational. This crew, this magic, is what makes the Brown truly a unique ship-museum/museum-ship. We don’t have preservationists charging hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep a floating building from rusting away; rather we have hundreds of people keeping a working vessel operational. We make steam, we cook food, we bust rust, we navigate, we could haul cargo if someone hired us to.

Nobody lives in house museums, they are an immortal (as long as there’s money) snapshot in time, how much can you learn from that? Ships live a life. We have scars from being turned into a troopship, a high school, being pilfered in the mothball fleet, being turned into a museum. We acquired a GMDSS and ECDIS, we added generators so we don’t have to run steam all day, the Brown lives, grows and thrives. Museum buildings add wings to display more objects out of context and behind glass, we live.

We made very good contact Labor Day Weekend. I had never met him before but the way he talked about Liberty Ships moved me and I realized it’s that passion about a living thing that we currently exist in, that still lives, that is remarkable. We make as much passion as we do steam and that passion is how we market, it’s how we add new exhibits, it’s how we tweet, blog, it’s how we get this story out to the world, our passion about how one nation built 2,700 identical ships in 5 years that were designed to haul cargo once.

Just about every American who served in WWII touched a Liberty Ship at one point. Whether they were taken home on one, assaulted a beach from one, were resupplied by one, their aircraft came over on one, the possibilities are deep and wide. As we go through out collections that fact is ringing out to me, and we’re only a box and a half in. Maybe when we’re close to being done in two years the story will change but for now, the fact that this living ship houses the people’s history of World War II, to me, is magical. 

Author of today's blog..Phil-curator and collections manager at project liberty ship, SS John W Brown. graduate student at the university of maryland in american studies

Project Liberty Ship, Inc is a 501(c)3 non-profit, all volunteer organization engaged in the preservation and operation of the historic ship JOHN W. BROWN as a living memorial museum. Gifts to Project Liberty Ship are tax deductible.