"A Medium in Which I Seek Relief": Manuscripts of American Sailors 1919-1940

Cecil Northrop Biography

Cecil Pinckney Northrop was born September 7, 1901 in Brooklyn, NY. At age 18 he shipped out to sea on a freighter. In 1921 he continued his maritime path by enrolling in the New York State Nautical School (now SUNY Maritime College), training on the Schoolship Newport. After graduating in 1922 he worked as fourth officer on a freighter from 1922-1923. From 1923-27 he worked as a third and then second officer aboard Dollar Line's S.S. President Hayes "Round the World" cruises. After he married Lucy Stewart of Washington, Pennsylvania on February 1, 1927, he retired from the maritime life and had subsequent careers as an airline pilot and journalist. 

During his years as a mariner, Northrop kept extensive diaries (handwritten and typed) where he recorded his impressions of life aboard the ship, foreign ports visited, people he met on his travels, and relationships with friends, family, and love interests. It appears Northrop was compiling some of the manuscripts into essays, and viewed his writing as part of the great sea narrative tradition popularized by Richard Henry Dana in the 1840s.

For the full biographical note and description of the Northrop papers, read the Cecil Northrop Papers finding aid. The collection is held by the Stephen B. Luce Library of SUNY Maritime College. 

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