One of my tasks as an intern to a steamship agent was to escort sea captains to the Customs House to enter and clear their vessels so the government could know who was in port. Never mind that the master was up all night on the bridge coming up the Delaware Bay/River and might not be in top form. This day circa 1952 as we arrived for our presentation, we found all the Customs clerks surrounding another pair causing us to cool our heels. It developed that the captain preceding us was Capt. Kurt Carlsen of the ill fated vessel SS FLYING ENTERPRISE which sank in a storm in January 1952 forty-one miles from a safe English port. He managed to get his crew and passengers off with only one fatality and stayed with the foundering vessel until it slipped into the sea to avoid being salvaged. He was acclaimed a hero and was given a parade in New York City and in his New Jersey town. Now most of our USL Masters had been thru WWII - some sunk by German raiders - several interned by the Japanese.
These impressive men were never given parades but they are my heroes.
tjs
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