News From Fort Schuyler

June 18, 2000 - Volume 4, No. 21

FAR FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS - "Note your comment that the TSES VI was visiting London.," writes JOHN McLEAN, Class of 1965. "My wife and I are just back from a vacation in England, which included a few days in London, seeing the sites. We were in Piccadilly Circus Wednesday evening, outside the theatre waiting to go in to see Kathleen Turner in "The Graduate," when a bunch of Maritime College cadets passed by on the busy sidewalk. No uniforms (not like our visit to London in '63 or '64), but recognized by their Maritime baseball caps and sweatshirts. I was too shocked to say hello - delayed entering the theatre hoping they would come back but, no luck. Yes, it is a small world!" Another pair of NFFS travelers, MIKE and ENA HAINES, write from the Museu de Marinha that: "This super maritime museum in Lisbon is even better than the one in Greenwich. And they have a good snack bar, too." (Cruise Planning Committee, take note.)

RUBY ANNIVERSARY - Was the Class of 1960 the first to celebrate this year's reunion ? JOHN ZERBO reports that: "I just returned from Rome and Sorrento, Italy, where five other classmates of mine from Maritime and their wives celebrated our 40th anniversary since graduating from Fort Schuyler. The five were: AL SAMUELSEN, FRED LONGO, TED PULLEN, JACK ANGEL and RON D'ARCY. We all get together at least once a year to re-listen to our old jokes and stories from college ..... Friendships developed at Fort Schuyler are everlasting."

NEWPORT NEWS - A featured speaker at the forthcoming Maritime Law Symposium in Newport, RI, is Prof. JEFFREY A. WEISS, Class of 1978. Professor Weiss, Director of the Graduate School of International Transportation Management here at Fort Schuyler, will review " Marine Disasters Through the Ages." This Maritime Casualties and the Limitation of Liability Act Symposium will be held August 10 - 12. For more information go to http://law.rwu.edu

NAME FROM THE PAST - A Friday afternoon reference query from South Dakota sought information about a kindly maritime officer still remembered from a 1959 EMPIRE STATE III port visit when she was a child. His name was EDWARD VENETIANER and he is pictured in the 1959 Eight Bells yearbook, white-haired, wearing a 3-piece suit, on the same page as the head of Galley, CHARLIE REY and the barber, JOHN DELISA. - no rank, no department given.

A call to Professor Emeritus FRED HESS confirmed that he was a ship's officer. HAP PARNHAM, Class of 1948, then provided chapter and verse, having sailed with him for several years on the training ship. Captain Venetianer, born in the Bronx in1891, graduated from New York Nautical School in 1907. After a three-year stint in the Navy, he spent his entire career in the merchant marine. By 1917 he was Master (SS WILLIAM O'BRIEN) and he commanded many merchant ships thereafter. According to Hap, Captain Venetianer retired with the rank of Senior Captain or Commodore of the Stevenson Line. In the late 1950's this lifelong mariner, who first learned his seamanship skills on the all-sail Schoolship ST. MARY'S, came out of retirement each summer to serve as Watch Officer, instructor, and mentor to a new generation of merchant mariners. Captain Venetainer, who later lived in Bethlehem, PA, died in July 1963.

SOME QUALITIES OF MERCY - Although the EMPIRE STATE III (ex-MERCY) was the regular training ship with the shortest service at Fort Schuyler (1956-59), she came with a history. The online Training Ship Gallery of the Maritime Industry Museum at Fort Schuyler describes TSES III as: "A gallant ship which earned two battle stars while serving as a hospital ship with the Fifth and Seventh Fleets in the Pacific" during World War II. Now there is a book which devotes considerable space, including illustrations, to the wartime story of the MERCY. "Hospital ships of World War II: An illustrated reference to 39 United States Military Vessels," written by Emory Massman, deals with TSES III in the chapter entitled: "Three C1Freighter Hulls completed as Hospital Ships."

NFFS asked Maritime Industry Museum training ship model-maker, BARRY MARSH, Class of 1986, to compare the MERCY to Victory class ships. "TSES III, ex-USS MERCY, was a US Maritime Commission type C1-B conversion (intended for completion as a cargo ship). She had a steam plant, like a Victory Ship .... but I can't tell you the similarities/differences. The VC2 was a larger ship - 455' LOA vice 412' or 417' LOA for a C1 - and probably had a more powerful plant than the C1.....Not to say that many of the parts couldn't be interchanged between ship classes. Project Liberty Ship, the JOHN W. BROWN group in Baltimore, has for years made regular trips to the James River Reserve Fleet and pulled all kinds of parts off not just Liberties but Victories and other, later ships as well. I'd think some Engine Room items from TSES III could have fit into TSES IV - the wartime Maritime Commission tried to get construction and operation moving as efficiently as possible, and interchangeability was key to production and repair schedules."

SAILING VICTORY (AND LIBERTY) - In recent correspondence regarding operating manuals for Victory class ships, RICK BAGSHAW, Class of 1962, reported the existence of one that was "liberated from TSES III (x-USS MERCY) when we got the GIBBINS as TSES IV. I subsequently sailed on an Export-Isbrantsen Victory, viz., the S/S FLYING TRADER on 5 month round the world trips in the early 60's - mostly taking munitions to Vietnam." Rick recently revisited Liberty ship days, too: "We did take a day trip on the S/S JOHN W. BROWN in Baltimore. It was well done, complete with a mock air battle and anti-aircraft return fire. It was hotter than Hell on the day we sailed, so the engine room tour was quite brief. Breakfast and lunch was included. Interestingly, the BROWN had previously been a vocational high school in NYC and as seniors (Snipes only, I'm afraid) we visited the ship to see a reciprocating steam engine run." You can visit Project Liberty Ship at http://www.liberty-ship.com/