JOHN L. GRAHAM writes:
My father, Captain A. G. Graham, was a master mariner who sailed before the mast at age 16, graduated to steam ships, and worked his way up to a Master’s certificate, obtaining a degree in maritime law from Stanford University in the meantime. He retired from Farrell Lines as commodore of the fleet, the senior captain, with an enviable record of never having lost a ship, passenger, or crew member while under his command, even though he sailed through U-boat infested waters during World War II. (At one time every officer serving under him had been torpedoed at least once.) His six wartime letters home to his father and brother are fascinating to me as you don’t often hear about a merchant mariner’s experience in the war. Most published stories are about the magnificent and harrowing work of the U.S. and Royal Navies.
Father sailed from New York to South and East Africa; he would be gone 3 months and home 2 weeks, if I remember correctly.
Once a neighbor lady who, with her husband, was planning on a cruise came to ask Father what to look for in a cruise line. I remember Father told her that what was most important was a crew that would stay calm and professional in an emergency, forget about the entertainment and food and amenities. Only a few nationalities qualified in his estimation as producing competent seamen: he named British, Americans, Scandinavians, Dutch, and Germans as being the best crews to be under in a maritime emergency. Father warned our neighbor about, how can I put this delicately?—I guess I can’t—Mediterranean peoples: Italians, Spanish, Greeks (and I would guess Arabs and North Africans fit this bill, as well), because they tend to be excitable and unreliable in an emergency. (Perhaps the best lovers don’t make the best sailors!)
The lady thought she might have a Filipino crew, and I think Father didn’t know much about them but thought they would fall under the excitable rubric (and if nothing else, they do not have a tradition of seafaring). As far as Orientals were concerned, Father guessed that the Japanese would be fine sailors because of their excellent discipline.
In light of this most recent dereliction of duty on the part of what I assume is an Italian crew, and the shameful abandonment of a foundering ship off South Africa a number of years ago by its Greek crew, I think my father had it about right. If you want the best chance of surviving an emergency at sea, look for a crew with a Northern European heritage.
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