The Cordova daily times. [volume] (Cordova, Alaska) 1914-1947, 1918-03-28
UNSUNG HEROES
Of ANERICA'S
MERCHANT SHIPS

PARIS, Feb. 2 Thy maiD 1T is
not too early in the game for the
American people to begin to appre-
ciate the unappreciated, unpraised and
unrecognized civilian heroes of the
seas" said an American naval officer
in Paris today.
The naval officer spoke of thousands
of common American sailors who are
undergoing the almost tripled dangers
of constant ocean voyages and doing
it cheerfully without any of the adj
vantages of Uncle Sans services
without uniforms, privileges derived
therefrom or the glory of dying for
their country. officially This officer
knows the civilian sailor because he
has seen him at sea ever since Amer
lea declared war. He has seen him in
port and afloat, in danger and at rest
ashore carrying on the highly i'm
the German submarine.
For a naval officer to plead the
case of civilian sailors is extarordi-
nary in the extreme He might inter
vene in behalf of his own navy men
but for common sailors never But
the officer who spoke in behalf of the
unmilitarized sailors in the Paris Of
flee of the United Press today was
not navy regular"
Months ago. when America declared
war, he left his desk in the editorial
rooms of big Minneapolis newspaper
and went to sea. Former experience
in the U. s. navy promoted him i'm
mediately to command of a gun crew
on an American merchant liner. He
has sunk one submarine. had one ship
burn from under his feet at sea and is
now manning the guns of another.
He said:
"Tt would be irregular to say how
many thousands of American ner.
chant sailors are now at sea. Amer
lea hears of the navy and army on
every possible occasion but one sell
dom thinks of the civilian who is play
ing great part as the war goes on.
/ These men are unsung heroes. They
are volunteers and they get nothing
but small bonus with monthly pay
for taking risks as great as can be
found in government war service any
where. They are in perhaps grea ar
danger than the men of the L. ).
navy. The latter man the staunch,
/ seaworthy ships-best that Uncle
Sans money can buy The former
man, in many cases, most any ship.
among hundreds pressed hurriediy
into transatlantic service after having
served their time on Atlantic and p
cific coastwise routes.
The old self satisfied security o.
tiC ohCiCht oet uOS HAS been swept
away.
'The war time merchant ship FORCES
, ahead without lights and doubling
dangers of night collisions. If there is
fog, no horn or whistle is permitted.
Days are spent at sea in the lurking
menace of submarines or floating
mines. Usually, somewhere in the
hull. there are explosives, dangerous
in storms and heavy weather Even
in the coal bunkers, no one knows
whether some enemy agent has not
planted time bomb, And even in
port, on the European side, who knows
but what air raids will not make life.
disagreeable?
1T isn't the danger of the merchant
sailors career that | want 10 err
phasize so much as it is the cheerful.
volunteer way he goes about it. To
come ashore in European port he
must undergo all the alien formalities
that any civilian would have. He
doesn't appear to be much of anybody
when he comes ashore Soon after
ward he sails out of port to take an
other chance on the briny deep. II
he's lost at sea nobody hears and no
body seems to care. for he doesn't
wear uniform, and his name is nos
enrolled on the GLORY" books in
Washington. He's simply one of the
mass doing glorious work without any
hope for glory"