Bob Hope's Christmas 1944 Broadcast to the U.S. Merchant Marine Everywhere

[pnorman]

Featuring Bob Hope and the crew of an American merchant vessel, steam up and ready to leave for a Pacific fighting front, an outstanding radio program was presented over the NBC coast-to-coast network at 11:30 AM on Saturday, December 23, 1944 under the auspices of the United Seamen's Service. It was arranged by A. B. Larsen, USS West Coast Publicity Representative.
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"This is Bob Hope speaking to you from Hollywood. Three days from now we'll be celebrating Christmas here in the United States. We'll gather around Christmas trees with our children and exchange presents with those we love. Merry Christmas with stars on the Christmas tree and stars in the eyes of our kids.... and stars in the windows of our homes. Blue stars for those still at home. Gold for the men who'll be spending Christmas with God. And silver stars for the ones over there, like the boys I'm going to introduce to you in a moment. They're Z-men. Did you ever hear of Z-men? Sounds like a gag, doesn't it? Well, it isn't. Z-men are the guys without whom General "Ike's" army and Admiral Nimitz' navy couldn't live. Five thousand seven hundred of them have died from enemy torpedoes, mines, bombs or bullets since our zero hour at Pearl Harbor.

Z-men are the men of the Merchant Marine. They carry a big wad of identification papers in a book called a Z book, so they call them Z-men. They're union men, too. They work for scale. Yeah, scale! Joe Squires worked for scale. He was a seaman on the S. S. Maiden Creek. He and Hal Whitney, the deck engineer, stayed aboard to handle the lines so the rest of the crew could get away before the Maiden Creek sank under waves thirty feet high. The crew was saved. They never saw Joe or Hal again. Did anyone ever make a wage scale big enough to pay for a man's life? Joe and Hal gave theirs voluntarily. So did 5,698 others. Did anyone ever devise a scale big enough to make men brave?

Listen, it takes nerve to go to work in a hot engine room, never knowing when a torpedo might smash the hull above you and send thousands of tons of sea water in to snuff out your life. It takes courage to sail into the waters of an enemy barbaric enough to tie your hands and feet and submerge you so you can drown, like a rat, without a fight. It takes courage to man an ammunition ship after you heard how Nazi bombers blew up 17 shiploads of ammunition at Bari and not a man was ever found of the crews. I was there about that time. I'll never forget it. Neither will men like Admiral King, who said, "The Navy shares life and death, attack and victory with the men of the U. S. Merchant Marine." Yeah, it's Merry Christmas Monday for a lot of us except the boys of the Army, Navy and Merchant Marine. Our Z-men will be on the high seas or in ports far away from home, like a crew you're going to meet right now.
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http://www.usmm.org/hope.html

I just recently posted the above on my union's BBS. The abridgment was to keep it within the 3KB size limit. Since it's a maritime union, it was particularly appropriate, especially the following:

"Z-men are the men of the Merchant Marine. They carry a big wad of identification papers in a book called a Z book, so they call them Z-men. They're union men, too. They work for scale. Yeah, scale! Joe Squires worked for scale. He was a seaman on the S. S. Maiden Creek. He and Hal Whitney, the deck engineer, stayed aboard to handle the lines so the rest of the crew could get away before the Maiden Creek sank under waves thirty feet high. The crew was saved. They never saw Joe or Hal again. Did anyone ever make a wage scale big enough to pay for a man's life? Joe and Hal gave theirs voluntarily. So did 5,698 others. Did anyone ever devise a scale big enough to make men brave?"

pnorman

[YankmeCrankme]

1. Thanks for the reminder of the service and sacrifice of the US Merchant Marine nt

[Historic NY]

2. It took many years for this country to give Merchant seaman...

veterans benefits. My 92yoa cousin was a merchant seaman making many trip across the Atlantic. He baked the bread the men ate on those cold winter trips. I know quite a few old salts, some with unbelievable tales of terror and suffering.

I recommend the following book if it can be found:

A careless word...a needless sinking by Capt. Arthur R. Moore
7th printing 1998.

The SS Maiden Creek, was a Hog Islander built in 1919. She sank in heavy seas 65 miles south of the Montauk Point off Long Island on Dec. 31, 1942. The ship was carrying a load of ore from Halifax N.S. The crew consisted of 38 and 13 Naval Armed Guard. When she sank one life boat of 18 men was lost and no trace was found of them, 31 survived with 16 injured, 2 seaman went down with her.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. Oh, I have to send this link to my husband, HullBoss,

who's a retired marine engineer. His passion is collecting merchant marine memorabilia from the WW II era - his "man room" looks like a little merchant marine museum. :)

[pnorman]

4. Marine Engineer Beneficial Association (AFL-CIO)

is the union I was referring to. I started shipping unlicensed in 1946, and as a licensed engineer in 1964. I retired in 2000, but remain "active" as a unionist-agitator on the union's BBS and related listserves.

My father, a life-long "Wobbly", began sailing before WW1, and returned to the sea in 1942. He sailed mainly in the Pacific, and he too would have enjoyed that website. Be sure to direct your husband to the home page of that site, as it's chock-full of stuff that would be of great interest to him: http://www.usmm.org/

pnorman

[Blue_In_AK]

5. MEBA's keeping us going these days.

My husband retired in 1993 or so after 25 years at sea. His dad also was a marine engineer. I think it must run in families. :) You would love to see my husband's collection - he has some really great stuff. He's always on eBay looking for more, but it's getting harder and harder for him to find things he doesn't already have.

(Incidentally, he and I were high school sweethearts in 1963, broke up, went our separate ways and reunited in 2000. We've been married since June 2003 and couldn't be happier. And we love those trips to the MEBA clinic in the Bay Area every year.)

Maybe you guys know each other.