Photos: Office on War Information
"It is with a feeling of great pride that I send my heartiest congratulations and best wishes to the officers and men of the new U. S. Maritime Service Training Station at Sheepshead Bay. New York. Ten thousand apprentice seamen in training at one station is a magnificent achievement." - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
By American Merchant Marine at War, www.usmm.org
The United States Merchant Marine provided the greatest sealift in history between the production army at home and the fighting forces scattered around the globe in World War Two.
The prewar total of 55,000 experienced mariners was increased to more than 215,000, primarily through U.S. Maritime Service Training Center at Sheepshead Bay, New York.
Shortly after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Coast Guard purchased 125 acres of property on the eastern tip of Brooklyn. Seventy-six acres were set aside for the merchant marine training facility.
Merchant ships faced danger from submarines, mines, armed raiders and destroyers, aircraft, "kamikaze," and the elements.
About 8,300 mariners were killed at sea, 12,000 wounded of whom at least 1,100 died from their wounds, and 663 men and women were taken prisoner. One in 26 mariners serving aboard merchant ships died in the line of duty, suffering a greater percentage of war-related deaths than all other U.S. services.
In March 1943, Convoys HX229 and SC122 with 88 merchant ships and 15 escorts, were bound for Europe from New York, via Halifax, on parallel courses. In mid-Atlantic, they were relentlessly attacked by 45 U-Boats operating individually and in "wolfpacks," who fired 90 torpedoes, sinking 22 ships, and resulting in 372 dead.
From Feb. 28, 1942 the U. S. Coast Guard, under Executive Order 9083, administered the training under the direction of the U.S. Maritime Commission. On July 11, 1942, Presidential Executive Order 9198 transferred operation of the Maritime Service to the War Shipping Administration.