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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022 Issue 1 - There Once Was a Ship That Put To Sea.pdfThis special newsletter is a gift to our biggest supporters: Benefactor, Patron, Business, and Life members. Your support makes what we do possible. We hope you enjoy this story from Renton's past. No one thinks of Renton as the jumping-off point for a seaman’s career, but a remarkable National Archives collection points to many young Renton men who went off to sea between WWI and the 1940s. Their Applications for a Seaman’s Protection Certificate (SPC) declared their intention to work as mariners on merchant ships or the U.S. Emergency Fleet Service during WWI. The applications include photos, a thumbprint (presumably for identification in case of drowning), and some information on their sailing background and their immediate plans. Using these documents, we can piece together the story of Renton’s young mariners.1 Many of these young Renton men were keen to join the U.S. Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC), established in April 1917 ten days after the American declaration of war against Germany. The EFC’s charge About This Issue... RENTON HISTORICALSOCIETY & MUSEUM Special Issue February 2022 Volume 52 Number 1 Continued on page 3 THERE ONCE WAS A SHIP THAT PUT TO SEA QUARTERLY by Elizabeth P. Stewart 2 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM2 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM Special Edition February 2022 RENTON HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Sarah Samson Graphic Design & Layout Karl Hurst City of Renton Print & Mail Services RENTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TRUSTEES Jessica Kelly, President Colleen Lenahansen, Vice Pres. Staci VanderPol, Secretary Daryl Delaurenti, Treasurer Lynne King, 2022 Rhea Kimble, 2022 Mike Lennox, 2022 Laura Clawson, 2023 Amy Elizabeth Gorton, 2023 Maryann DiPasquale, 2024 Elizabeth Stewart, Board Liaison MUSEUM STAFF Elizabeth P. Stewart Museum Director Sarah Samson Curator of Collections & Exhibitions Stephanie Snyder Museum Office Aide RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM 235 MILL AVENUE S RENTON, WA 98057 P (425) 255-2330 HOURS: Wednesday - Friday 10:00am - 4:00pm ADMISSION: $5 (Adult) $2 (Child) MUSEUM REPORT Elizabeth P. Stewart Director A lmost exactly two years ago, together we all plunged into pandemic lockdown, isolation, “New Normal,” quarantine, vaccine verification—I could go on, but you get the picture. The Renton History Museum was closed for nearly a year, and now we remain open under special health and safety restrictions to protect you—our members and visitors—and our staff and volunteers. We have all had to draw on new resources of resilience, patience, and support for one another as we weather this storm as a community. And yet we remain optimistic about the year ahead. As an organization we are learning how to do things in new ways: we have expanded and improved our online offerings, we are holding Board meetings and Annual Meetings via Zoom, and we are delighted to see every visitor who takes the time to mask up and come in to enjoy our exhibits. Our donors, members, and volunteers have been so incredibly generous during this period—it is heartwarming that you still see the Renton History Museum as a vital part of your lives! Rest assured, we are still here, preserving, documenting, and educating about Renton history, because that doesn’t stop in the face of a pandemic. We’re capturing the past and looking forward to what the future will bring. by Elizabeth P. Stewart, Museum Director Curator Sarah Samson accepts a check from the Renton High School Old Timers' Association, represented by Richard Major. The group has sadly decided to sunset but we are very thankful that they designated the Renton History Museum as one of three recipients of their remaining funds. Cover photo: Seattle waterfront, ca. 1913. Photo taken by Rentonite Clyde Hayes. (RHM# 2017.009.036) SPECIAL ISSUE QUARTERLY, 2022 | 3 Continued from page 1 Milton Marlowe with his grandfather, Robert Wood, and his brother, Vane Marlowe, 1919. (RHM# 1997.060.4514) Inset: Milton Marlowe's photo from his Seaman's Protection Certificate, 1918. was to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant ships to meet wartime needs: moving troops, maintaining communications, and protecting other merchant ships. The shortage of sea-worthy craft in 1917 meant that the government looked at every boat and every sailor as a possible war asset.2 A career as an apprentice mariner began to look like an exciting war adventure, one not too close to any battlefields. If Milton J. Marlowe was one of those looking for excitement, he found it. The son of Renton realtor John C. Marlowe, twenty-five-year-old Milton served on a merchant ship as a wireless operator from 1918 to 1919; in March 1919 he applied for his SPC. In November 1920 Marlowe and the motorship Balcatta embarked on a South American journey carrying 600,000 board feet of Washington lumber.3 In January 1921 after hitting some rocks the wooden Balcatta “turned a flip-flop and then floated gracefully with her bottom up off the coast of Chile.”4 The crew evacuated and landed in the tiny Chilean port town of Talcahuano. Stranded and depending on “the mercy and kindness of the villagers,” the sailors waited for their employer, Pacific Motorship Co., to rescue them.5 Nineteen weeks later, the British steamer Santa Paula arrived in port and agreed to transport the deserted seaman to the Panama Canal Zone, where they might hitch a ride home more easily. Next the Silver State carried them from Panama to San Francisco in steerage with fifty Chinese men. Marlowe finally got back to his home base in Renton in July 1921 and joined a lawsuit against the shipping company for his $1500 in back pay. The Balcatta disaster marked the end of Marlowe’s maritime career.6 Numerous Renton men made sailing their career, however. Howell Parker was born in Renton in 1878. His grandfather, Major David Parker, came to Washington territory in the 1850s to help rebuild Fort Vancouver; Howell’s father was born in the wagon 4 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM Gilbert G. Gunn (age 18), 1919 a stint commanding a reconditioned Navy coal carrier for the Eastern Steamship Co., he purchased the Virginia V in 1942.10 During WWII he ferried shipyard workers between Poulsbo and the Keyport Naval Torpedo Station. After the war, Capt. Parker and his wife Mary operated the Virginia V as an excursion boat, taking tourists and locals out from Lake Union to the San Juans or the Strait of Juan de Fuca.11 “Seattle is the only city in the world where the people can get on a boat and see scenery like this,” Capt. Parker insisted.12 The Parkers operated the ship until summer 1953 when they sold it and the captain finally retired. He died in 1954. Not every Renton seaman distinguished himself. George W. Seguin’s father died when George was three and after that he had a troubled childhood with his mother and stepfather.13 Seguin sailed for the first time at age 17; he was listed as Seaman 2nd class on the U.S. Army Transport Logan from the Philippines to San Francisco in February 1917. In 1918, he was sentenced to 90 days in a Portland jail for stealing a wagonload of materials from the Army’s Spruce Division.14 By 1920 young George was again serving time in the U.S. Naval Prison at Vallejo, train on the way to the fort. His mother, Edith Emilie Brown, settled in Renton when her father, Capt. Robert Wilcox Brown, retired from the sea to manage a sawmill and a fleet of merchant sailing ships.7 Howell began his career hanging around the Seattle docks—a “wharf-rat,” as he called himself—but given his background he quickly became one of the few seafaring men with a master mariner’s and a chief engineer’s license. He was the captain of a steamer in 1900 and by 1933 he had been appointed State Marine Inspector.8 By the time Capt. Parker was named State Marine Inspector, he had piled up experience sailing to China, South America, Hawaii, Alaska, and the East Coast, as well as sailing closer to home on steam tugs and passenger vessels in the Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay, Los Angeles, and other Pacific Coast ports.9 The 1911 law establishing the State Inspector position was controversial—marine workers and crews welcomed the extra scrutiny, but shipowners did not—and the position went unfilled for many years. Capt. Parker seemed the perfect choice: well respected and experienced. But his heart was not behind a desk. After Gilbert G. Gunn, 1932 Howell Parker, 1918 George Seguin, 1918 William J. Seguin, 1919 Frank A. Storey, 1920 SPECIAL ISSUE QUARTERLY, 2022 | 5 California. In 1930 he was an inmate at the Oregon State Penitentiary. In June 1930 he was convicted in Tacoma of larceny and sent to McNeil Island Prison until November 1932.15 In September 1935 his luck finally ran out. He was back in Renton, living with his mother and seeing a married Kennydale woman when he was reportedly killed in a struggle for a gun with his girlfriend. George was only 35 years old.16 Other Renton men truly found a home on the water. Gilbert Gordon Gunn left the coal mine at the age of 18 to join the Emergency Fleet Corporation as an apprentice mariner in 1919. Throughout his long career at sea, Gunn worked on merchant ships and tuna ships, sailing to ports as faraway as Dairen, China. He worked his way up from engine oiler to marine engineer. By 1943 he was again serving in the U.S. Navy as a machinist; he made it through WWII and retired at the rank of Lieutenant in December 1953, after 34 years on ships. Frank Albert Storey also made a career on the sea, serving in the U.S. Navy from 1921 through WWII and the Korean War. He retired after the Korean War with the rank of Commissioned Warrant Officer.17 Born in Kennydale in 1914, James Monroe Codrington served as a shipboard cook in the Merchant Marines in the 1930s and served in the U.S. Coast Guard in WWII.18 The example of Rentonite Albert Fernan Hougardy demonstrates how seafaring could broaden a young man’s horizons and open him up to new ideas. Born to Belgian immigrant parents, Albert and his seven siblings came with their parents to the U.S. in 1892. As early as 1910, Albert had traveled by sea with his family to visit Belgium and perhaps the voyage awakened something in the ten-year-old boy. At 18 he was a shipworker at the J. F. Duthie shipyards in Seattle and by 1919 he was an “ordinary seaman” on the U.S. Navy tug Sotoyomo.19 In 1920 he sailed under the U.S. Shipping Board’s (USSB) program to ensure that enough vessels could keep the seas safe. Established in 1916, before the Emergency Fleet Corporation, the USSB addressed the severe shortage of war materiel. The USSB had the authority to refurbish seized enemy ships, commandeer construction of new vessels, and commission construction. The USSB also recruited its own sailors—like Hougardy—and marine engineers to keep the fleet moving. The Board negotiated special labor agreements with unions to standardize All the photos on this page and the opposite are Seaman's Protection Certificate photos. On the opposite page: George and William Sequin were brothers. On this page: Elmer and Henry Illian were brothers. Merle Meehan's photo was taken 9 days before he slipped off a dock in the Port of Tacoma and drowned. He was 21 years old. Glenn E. Butler, 1918 Elmer Illian, 1918 Henry R. Illian, 1918 William J. Kenney, 1918 Merle Meehan, 1918 6 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM wages and resolve disputes that might halt shipping.20 “Patriotically subordinating everything to the military needs of the nation, America is now amazing European war missions,” touted Robert B. Allen, secretary of the Western Lumberman’s Association. “Friction has been eliminated from the shipping board.”21 But Hougardy embarked on his seaman’s career just as WWI was ending and laborers of all kinds— including sailors—began to push against wartime accommodations. The USSB and the Emergency Fleet Corporation held wages at a national rate that disadvantaged workers living in the more costly Northwest, and after the war their aim was to hold inflation down by keeping wages low. On January 1, 1919, workers’ frustration exploded in a general strike in Seattle, begun by shipyard workers then quickly joined by sailors, loggers, and miners. The demonstration was short-lived but disruptive; by mid- March shipyard workers—the first to strike—returned to work, having achieved little but opening workers’ eye to the complexities of injustice.22 Albert Hougardy’s experiences in ports in Seattle, San Francisco, and New York gave him a more global view of the problems of workers and ordinary seaman. He left sailing sometime after 1920 and worked as a carpenter in Renton and Seattle before moving to California. In 1932, deep in the Great Depression, Hougardy was living with his sister Lucille’s family in Los Angeles and he registered as a Communist Party member. That same year, Rentonite Pete Jorgensen wrote back from L.A., “Lots of fellows down here have stomack [sic] trouble—not enough in the stomack—and it seems to be getting worse right along, so it is no wonder the rapid spread of Communism under those circumstances come to the workers as a promising means of release from an intolerable situation.”23 Hougardy became a Communist Party district organizer based in Sacramento. He distributed pamphlets and collected dues from members in his district. 24 His background on the docks would have been useful to the party, as both Communists and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) competed to unionize dockworkers at a time of high dissatisfaction. On May 9, 1934 longshoreman in every West Coast port walked off their jobs, followed by sailors a few days later. Shipping ground to a halt. Police and strikers clashed. Farmworkers also Above: Albert Hougardy's mug shot, 1935. (San Quentin Mug Book, 1935) Right: Albert Hougardy's photo from his Seaman's Protection Certificate, 1920. SPECIAL ISSUE QUARTERLY, 2022 | 7 ENDNOTES 1 Ruth Priest Dixon, “Genealogical Fallout from the War of 1812,” Prologue Magazine (Spring 1992), accessed at https://www.archives.gov/ publications/prologue/1992/spring/seamans-protection.html/, 2 Feb 2021; Amy Johnson Crow, “Seaman’s Protection Certificates—An Unusual Source,” KindredPast, 21 Sep 2018, accessed at https://kindredpast.com/2018/09/21/ seamans-protection-certificates-an-unusual-source/, 2 Feb 2021. 2 “Call to Arms Takes More than Sixty Men from Mosquito Fleet,” Seattle Times, 17 Apr 1917, p.16. 3 A. W. Burrow describes the challenges of righting the Balcatta in “The Adversities of the Motorship Balcatta,” Marine Journal vol. 26, no. 19 (12 May 1923), p.30. 4 “Milton Marlowe in Sea Disaster,” Renton Bulletin, 22 Jul 1921, p.1. 5 “Milton Marlowe in Sea Disaster,” Renton Bulletin, 22 Jul 1921, p.1. 6 “Milton Marlowe in Sea Disaster,” Renton Bulletin, 22 Jul 1921, p.1; “Balcatta Crew Complains,” San Francisco Examiner, 23 Jun 1921, p.17. 7 “Rites Set for Howell Parker, Master Mariner,” Seattle Times, 22 Nov 1954, p.50. 8 “Seattle Man is Appointed State Ship Inspector,” Seattle Times, 17 Nov1933, p.29; “Rites Set for Howell Parker, Master Mariner,” Seattle Times, 22 Nov 1954, p.50. 9 “Seattle Man is Appointed State Ship Inspector,” Seattle Times, 17 Nov 1933, p.29; “Sound Tugs and Ferries Affected,” Tacoma Daily Ledger, 19 Nov 1933, p.10. 10 R. H. Co., “From the Crow’s Nest,” Seattle Times, 20 Oct 1936, p.29. 11 “Virginia V Cuts Runs in Tacoma,” Seattle Times, 17 Oct 1944, p.18; “S. S. Virginia [sic] Set To Begin Cruises,” Tacoma News-Tribune, 19 May 1950, p.32; Ed Gutman, “Bainbridge Folk Have Faith in Sturdy Little Virginia V.,” Seattle Times, 3 Mar 1948, p.12. The Steamer Virginia V is now a National Historic Landmark, operated out of South Lake Union by the Virginia V Foundation. For more history, see https://www.virginiav.org/ship/history/. 12 “Best Scenery in World, Says Excursion Skipper,” Seattle Times, 29 Jun 1952, p.30. 13 George’s older brothers William (1885 – 1956) and Charles P. (1888 – 1952) also served in WWI. William mustered out to France in March 1918 and in April 1919 he was assigned to the American Relief Administration, providing food relief for devastated towns and villages in France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania. He was honorably discharged in August 1919. Charles enlisted in the Marines in 1906 at age 18 and later fought in France during WWI. 14 “90-Day Sentence Given for Theft,” Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, OR), 3 Sep 1918, p.7. 15 McNeil Island, WA, U.S. Penitentiary Records of Prisoners Received, 3 Jul 1930. 16 “Jailed Woman Tells of Love,” Seattle Times, 4 Sep 1935, p. 3; “Widow in Shooting Case Free on Bail,” Seattle Times, 5 Sep 1935, p.4; “Mrs. Campbell Freed in Death,” Seattle Times, 6 Sep 1935, p.16; “George Seguin Dies from Revolver Shot at Kennydale Home,” Renton Chronicle, 9 Sep 1935, p.1. Mrs. Billie Campbell was cleared of any wrongdoing in a coroner’s inquest. 17 “Frank A. Storey,” Renton Chronicle, 16 Jun 1981. Frank Storey served as a charter member and president of the Renton Historical Society in retirement. 18 “James Monroe Codrington,” Renton Reporter, 5 May 1999. 19 Much later, the Sotoyomo was the oldest ship in port when the Japanese attacked the port of Pearl Harbor in 1941. The ship was heavily damaged. 20 “National Fleet Recruiting Brisk,” Seattle Times, 1 Jan 1918, p.17. 21 “East Wakes Up to What Coast Can Do in War Work,” Seattle Times, 3 Jan 1918, p.2. 22 Harvey O’Connor, Revolution in Seattle (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1964), 125-145; Cal Winslow, Radical Seattle: The General Strike of 1919 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2020). 23 Pete Jorgensen to Frank Davis, 10 Apr 1932 (RHM# 1981.062.051). 24 “Leaders’ Threats Blamed for Strike at Vacaville,” Oakland Tribune, 7 Dec 1932, p.2; “Red Activities Are Described in Mob Trial,” Sacramento Bee, 23 Oct 1936, p.11. 25 “Communists Declare War on California; Forms [sic] Battle Fields,” Woodland Daily Democrat (Woodland, CA), 2 Jul 1934, p.5. 26 “Leaders’ Threats Blamed for Strike at Vacaville,” Oakland Tribune, 7 Dec 1932, p.2. 27 “Trotzkyites Split Defense of Sacramento 18; Aid Prosecution in Face of Employers’ Attacks,” Daily Worker (Chicago), 16 Feb 1935, p.5. 28 “Convicted Reds Scream Defiance at Terms in Jail,” Sacramento Bee, 31 Aug 1934, p.1+. 29 “Court Reverses Convictions of Eight City Reds,” Sacramento Bee, 28 Sep 1937, p.1+. organized 30 strikes between 1931 and 1941, putting pressure on time-sensitive farmers while protesting pay and working conditions. In 1934 Hougardy ran as the Communist Party candidate for Congress from California’s 3rd District. He made no secret of his radical ambitions during his run for Congress. “We have nothing to hide,” he claimed. “We are merely carrying out the details of a program…to unseat the existing capitalistic system of government and substitute a control similar in principle and operation to that of Soviet Russia.”25 But he also decried violence, insisting that in protests “none of the workers have been permitted to carry arms.”26 The publicity around his statements and his involvement with farmworkers’ strikes resulted in his being swept up in a mass arrest of those associated with the Communist Party or the Cannery and Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union (CAWIU). Eighteen men and women were charged with conspiracy to commit criminal syndicalism (advocating violence to bring about political or social change).27 Ultimately, eleven were convicted, including Hougardy, and sent to prison. The judge described him as particularly dangerous, because he was “intelligent and capable of leading men…into their radical beliefs and actions.”28 But conviction was not the end of Hougardy’s story. On April 27, 1935, he was admitted to San Quentin Prison, but he and his group continued to appeal their convictions. In August 1936 Hougardy was paroled for good behavior. In September 1937 the 3rd District Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of Hougardy and seven others because the jury’s verdicts on multiple counts were inconsistent.29 Essentially, the jury had failed to reconcile the demonstrators’ social radicalism with their nonviolence. Imprisonment and the postwar anti-Communist movement seem to have put an end to Albert Hougardy’s work for radical social change; his name remained out of the newspapers for the rest of his life, except for occasional mentions of his 1930s activities. All these Renton mariners experienced adventures on the sea—for better or for worse— and broadened their outlook on life by coming into contact with new situations, different people, and unique ports of call. Whether escaping challenging family life or looking for a career full of novelty, all the men depicted in the Seaman’s Protection Certificates would have had tales to tell. 8 | RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM IN H I N D S I G H T . . . RENTON HISTORY MUSEUM 235 Mill Ave. S Renton, WA 98057 Th e f u l l a p p l i c a t i o n f o r S e a m a n ’ s P r o t e c t i o n C e r t i f i c a t e f o r J o h n Fr e d e r i c k W o o d , 1 7 N o v e m b e r 1 9 1 9 . S o n o f a l a r g e R e n t o n f a m i l y , Jo h n s e r v e d i n t h e U . S . A r m y d u r i n g W W I , b u t w o r k e d a s 3 rd a s s i s t a n t en g i n e e r o n m e r c h a n t s h i p s f r o m 1 9 2 0 t o 1 9 5 1 .