Project Introduction
"A Medium in Which I Seek Relief" - a Maritime and Naval Studies Graduate Capstone by Annie Tummino
In February 2016 I took a position as Archivist at SUNY Maritime College, a school that specializes in preparing students for careers in the maritime industry. My knowledge of the maritime world was marginal at best, and at times I felt I had washed ashore in a foreign country, filled with unfamiliar customs, language, and practices. I was enthralled each day by the sight of the huge Empire State training ship, by the magnificent views of the Long Island Sound, and by the opportunity to work in Historic Fort Schuyler, preserving and making accessible a significant body of maritime records, personal papers, and artifacts. As I familiarized myself with the collections, the sailor memoirs and diaries sprinkled among the more formal documents and log books piqued my interest. I also accessioned several new collections that contained diaries, including the Malcolm Peters Nash Papers, the Thomas Caldwell Papers, the Phylipp Dilloway Papers, and the Cecil Northrop Papers. These more personal writings beckoned as rich sources of insight, guides that would help elucidate the seafaring life to a newcomer to the maritime world like myself.In 2017 I enrolled as a graduate student in the college's Maritime and Naval Studies graduate program, an interdisciplinary program that allows students considerable freedom to shape their studies. Given my position as an Archivist, I assumed I would focus on maritime history... but instead, I fell in love with maritime literature. I love how sea memoirs and fiction illustrate historical periods, sailor life, and sea facts, while also tapping into those universal themes- life, death, the natural world, human labor, economics, religion. Moreover, through reading Hester Blum's View from the Masthead for my American Sea Fiction class, I was excited to discover that the sailor diaries and memoirs in the archives connect to a larger tradition of sea literature and literary life.
This project, then, is an attempt to tie together an exploration of previously unpublished sailor writings from the Maritime College Archives with a larger body of sailor literature and maritime scholarship through commentary and annotation. The golden age of sail dominates most investigations into American sea fiction and sea memoirs. Here, I expand that discussion to writings produced by students of the New York State Nautical School (now SUNY Maritime College) who went to sea between the world wars (1919-1930). Memoirs and journals were clearly still an important mode of self expression for these young men, and literary mentions abound within the writing. What do these manuscripts tell us about mariner labor and literary expression during this period? About the newly developing system of maritime education? Why was it important for these sailors to record their experiences? How do the writings contribute to what Hester Blum calls "maritime epistemology?"
The project also grew to encompass a more personal exploration: that of my family's own sea history. While I was vaguely aware that my grandfather, Van Horne Morris, was in the Merchant Marine, I hadn't thought much about it. He died tragically when my mother was only nine, so I never got to meet him. Luckily, my mother saved a treasure trove of documents from her parent's formative years, including diaries, letters, and photographs. This personal archive includes fascinating textual and visual evidence of life in the Merchant Marine in the late 1930s and in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Here, I transcribe, annotate, and reflect upon this family history, and how it fits into the broader narrative of sailor life and literature.