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The first African American merchant marine naval officer to
command an integrated crew during wartime
When the United States entered the Second World War in December 1941, it faced a shortage of merchant mariners. Supplies were desperately needed overseas. The massive sealift would require not only a huge fleet of cargo ships, but the seafarers to sail them. Thus the door opened a bit to African American mariners for a range of shipboard jobs. One of the most dramatic stories of the era involved shipmaster Hugh Mulzac.
Born on St. Vincent Island, British West Indies, Hugh entered the Swansea Nautical College in South Wales to prepare for a seaman's career while in his twenties.
He became an American citizen in 1918, and continued his training at the Shipping Board in New York. He earned his captain's rating in the merchant marine in 1920, but racial prejudice denied him the right to command a ship. He sailed instead as a mate, working his way up through the ranks to chief cook.
Later he was offered the command of a ship with an all-black crew. He refused, declaring that "under no circumstances will I command a Jim Crowvessel."
Twenty-two years passed before Mulzac would again receive an offer to command a naval ship. During World War II, his demand for an integrated crew was finally met, and he was put in command of the S.S. Booker T. Washington.
With its crew of eighteen nationalities, the Booker T. Washingtonmade twenty-two round-trip voyages in five years and carried 18,000 troops to Europe and the Pacific.
On the day his ship was launched, Mulzac recalled, "Everything I ever was, stood for, fought for, dreamed of, came into focus that day.
The concrete evidence of the achievement gives one's strivings legitimacy, proves that the ambitions were valid, the struggle worthwhile.
Being prevented for those twenty-four years from doing the work for which I was trained had robbed life of its most essential meaning. Now at last I could use my training and capabilities fully. It was like being born anew."
The Booker T. Washington was turned back over to the Maritime Commission in 1947. Despite his many years of service, Mulzac was never again given a similar assignment.
The Liberty ship BOOKER T. WASHINGTON was the first major U.S. oceangoing vessel to be named after an African American. (A later Liberty would bear the name FREDERICK DOUGLASS.)
The BOOKER T. WASHINGTON was built by the California Shipbuilding Corp. at Terminal Island, Los Angeles. Launched in 1942, the Liberty ship was christened by Black opera star Marian Anderson.
The 10,500-ton vessel made its first trans-Atlantic crossing in early 1943 from New York City to Great Britain, under the command of Captain Hugh Mulzac. He remained at the ship's helm for the next four years and 22 successful voyages. During this time, he expressed pride for his integrated crew, which represented 17 nationalities.
After World War II, the BOOKER T. WASHINGTON hauled coal for the Luckenbach Steamship Company, under the command of another Black shipmaster, Captain James H. Brown, Jr. In 1947, the vessel was laid-up in the defense reserve fleet, where it remained for the next 22 years.
The BOOKER T. WASHINGTON was scrapped in July 1969 in Portland, OR, but remains an interesting and significant footnote in the chronicle of African American seafaring.
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