Maritime Commission Trains Men to Serve With Merchant Victory Fleet

Urgently needed to man our steadily growing fleet of Victory ships are sailors, engineers, radio operators, and cooks. The United States Maritime Commission, in Washington, has been making every effort to enroll as many veteran sailors as it can lay its hands on, but the supply of old hands available for sea duty today is inadequate.

Four Month School

In an effort to induct and train new recruits to man our merchant ships, the Marltime Commission has been sending a steady stream of raw material, all volunteers, through its four months' school at Sheepshead Bay, New York. All amateur sailors, when inducted at local offices of the Commission, must agree to serve at sea for a full year after they have completed their training in elementary seamanship. Physical requirements for applicants are especially tough, much similar to regular Army specifications.

After passing this physical a volunteer must wait, in many cases, several weeks before he can hope to be inducted, and after this there is usually further delay in receiving orders to report to New York for training. As additional men are needed the Washington office sends out quotas to the local headquarters, for them to fill from their waiting lists.

Short Delay Only

Although entrance complications exist Maritime officials in Boston hasten to point out that all men entering the merchant marine can be pretty sure of being sent off to school within a month or a month and a half of the date of their physical exam, whereas many undergraduates who enrolled in the air corps or a similar service with an eye to immediate action, have cooled their heels at Harvard for far longer intervals.

Merchant sailors are automatically eligible for deferment from the draft, and can be sure of earning much more pay per month, once they have gone to sea, than buck privates. During the four month preliminary training period they will receive $50 a month, and once on a merchant ship basic pay, plus overtime, war bonuses, and harbor bonuses, adds up to well over one hundred dollars.

When a sailor has been at sea for three months he is eligible for his Able Seaman's rating, after which his basic pay alone amounts to $100 a month. At the completion of the required year of active duty, all men may retire from the service even if the war still continues.

A sailor who sticks with his ship for a total of 16 months, however, may then go ashore to enter the Maritime Commission's officers' training school at New London, Connecticut. Here a three months' course teaches him all the duties of an officer, including navigation, piloting, and handling of men. Finishing the New London course, the candidate undergoes a special examination for his third mate's ticket.

3.8 per Cent Casualty Rate

According to a recent survey in Time magazine, causualty figures in the merchant marine have amounted to 3.8 percent of all personnel serving at sea, with the figure for the Army and Navy