The Economic and Social Background of the Unlicensed Personnel of the American Merchant Marine

HE personnel of the American merchant T marine has always been one of popular interest,because there is a widespread realization that life at sea is abnormal and that seafarers endure social and economic disadvantages. It is an established fact that until recently the native American left many positions on board ship to be filled by persons of foreign birth, but that this condition has changed noticeably within the past ten years.' The alien has almost disappeared from the forecastles of ships flying the American flag, and naturalized Americans are now greatly outnumbered by native Americans. The purpose of this study is to learn, within limits, the social, the educational, and the economic background of a group of the men who now occupy the accommodations set apart for the crew in the new American merchant marine. We say "new" because the conditions of work at sea have been almost revolutionized within the past decade. These changes may be attributed to the enactment and the administration of various federal laws which have strengthened the seamen's unions and increased the bargaining solidarity of the different departments on board ship. A questionnaire was compiled seeking information concerning date and place of birth, the occupation of the father, the age at which the seaman had left school, the school grade he attained, the age at which he entered upon his first job, and at which he went to sea for the first time, the number of years he had been employed on board ship, the kind of work he did ashore and on board, and also the position he had occupied on his last trip and the highest rating he had attained in his work at sea. The questionnaire was submitted to 326 men who were either residents of or visitors to Seamen's House Y.M.C.A. in New York City. This building has sleeping accommodations for that number of seamen. The number interviewed appears to afford an adequate size of sample, while the diversity of the occupations engaged in by the men interviewed and the variety of the merchant ships on which they worked suggest that the sample was representative of the merchant service. Merchant ships in the large are engaged in services which are either passenger, passenger-cargo, or cargo-carrying. Their routes may be either ocean-going, coastwise, inland water, or on the Great Lakes. The type of sea service in which the seaman was engaged was inferred from the name of the "last vessel" on which the seaman was employed. This is the customary procedure in the merchant marine industry. When the interviewed were assured that the questionnaire had no bearing upon military or naval issues, they became interested and cooperated well in answering it, and in many instances, showed supplementary data to confirm the accuracy of their statements. Another approach was undertaken in 1938 by Hutchins2 and the results have been collated in a thesis, "Emotional Stability of Seamen," presented for the degree of Master of Arts at Columbia University in 1939. Hutchins submitted his questionnaire to 199 seamen in the lobbies and lounge rooms of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York and the Seamen's House Y.M.C.A. The studies are remarkably similar, and when there is any divergence it may be attributed to the fact that Hutchins included licensed officers and licensed engineers in his group, whereas the collaborators in this study confined their questions to seamen whose last discharge showed they were in the unlicensed personnel. In some few instances those questioned had at one time or another served in the capacity of licensed officer or engineer but at the time of the interview both in their union affiliation and in their prospects had reverted to the status of and expected to reship as unlicensed personnel.