Forty Two Years Ago Today — Remembering the SS Marine Electric

Maritime Topics Maritime History
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When she sailed in February of 1983, there were holes in her deck and hatch covers, many of which were patched with epoxy and duct tape. The chief mate had altered the company of the deficiencies, but nothing had been done. Inspections by the Coast Guard and the classification society, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), were perfunctory and in some cases were simply falsified.

Philadelphia Inquirer reporters, Tim Dwyer and Robert Frump, won the George Polk Award for their reporting on the loss of the Marine Electric. Robert Frump also wrote a book about the sinking, Until the Sea Shall Free Them.

Until the Sea Shall Free Them is a very good book

In the video below, Chief Mate Robert Cusick Jr. describes the surviving the icy waters while singing Stan Roger’s “Mary Ellen Carter.”

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Every time I have a new training Captain, I buy them a copy of “Until the Sea Shall Free Them”. I believe it should be mandatory reading at the academies AND in any shore side management program.

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We were headed for Norfolk when the Marine Electric sank. We heard their distress but were too far away to help. Sad day indeed.

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Absolutely.

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How about a song about the MARINE ELECTRIC, sung by Jerry Cronan of The Dramtreeo. Jerry is a USCGA grad, served in the USCG, sailed on USCGC EAGLE, and is a great singer and song writer.

Take Your Pay

Or if you prefer a live performance. Take Your Pay Live

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Hard to get through listening to that…the YouTube video is good and, if I recall, was originally posted by Bob Cusick’s daughter.

No telling what kind of song Stan Rogers would have written, had he lived.

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Stan Rodgers was so good. A great loss. His brother is pretty fine as well.

I’ve known Jerry Cronin and the original members of the Dramtreeo for over 40 years, with many a night at Reggie’s British Pub at Waterside. And Mead Stith sitting on our sailboat doing the entire Alice’s Restaurant Massacre with his guitar.

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Pathetic that the Coast Guard, the backbone of SAR did not have rescue swimmers until after the Marine Electric. Also, I seem to remember a sinking off the coast of Alaska that, once again, had no one to go in the water. One of the ship’s crew managed to grab ahold of the basket but couldn’t get in and fell back into the water. As long as the Coast Guard was the "red-headed stepchild. things like this would have continued. Someone in DC finally realized “we have a problem”.

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I remember being on watch just outside the Panama Canal Zone when the Sat-C rattled off about the news of El Faro. Never felt my guts and heart sink so deep, nor such a feeling of helpless urgency embedded in sudden loneliness like that in my life — and haven’t since. The juxtaposition of what they were going through (or had already been through/were experiencing) with the tropic peace around me was like an agonizing taunt.

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The book is amazing. Does anyone remember the lawyers for the sailors families getting someone to go out in the Atlantic in horrible winter weather in a rented Boston Whaler from Ocean City (IIRC) to dive on wreck and get info that made a big difference? It was incredible they weren’t added to the list of victims.