Hugh Mulzak served as the primary Black Liberty ship captain in World Battle II. When supplied the command, he refused to sail with a segregated crew. An up to date repost in honor of Black Historical past Month.
Born in 1886 on Union Island in Saint Vincent Grenadines, he went to sea at 21 and served on British, Norwegian, and American sail and steam-powered ships. After finding out on the Swansea Nautical School in South Wales, he earned a mate’s license in 1910. He served as a deck officer on 4 ships throughout World Battle I.
In 1918, he grew to become a naturalized US citizen and in 1920 sat for his Grasp’s license, incomes an ideal rating on the take a look at. Regardless of his expertise and {qualifications}, he was usually solely capable of finding work aboard American ships as a messman or cook dinner. Mulzak has been described as “essentially the most over-qualified ship’s cook dinner in maritime historical past.”
When World Battle II broke out and there was a scarcity of deck officers, Mulzak was given the chance to command a brand new Liberty ship. At age 56, it could be his first and probably final probability to command. The ship was the SS Booker T. Washington, named after the influential Black educator, creator, and orator. The ship would even have an all-Black crew.
When supplied the command, Hugh Mulzak mentioned no. He wouldn’t serve on a “Jim Crow” ship. In the USA, “Jim Crow” referred to the legal guidelines that codified racial segregation. Captain Mulzack refused to command a segregated ship.
After a protest by the Nationwide Affiliation for the Development of Coloured Individuals (NAACP) and different black organizations, the Maritime Fee backed down.
At a time when the U. S. Navy would enable black sailors to serve solely as stewards, the story of the Booker T. Washington and her African American skipper acquired huge protection. For instance, the October 5, 1942 challenge of Time Journal had the next story:
“Slight, grizzled Hugh Mulzac, ex-seaman, ex-mess boy, was catapulted entrance and middle final week to change into a Image of Negro participation within the struggle. When the Liberty freighter Booker T. Washington goes into service from California Shipbuilding’s Los Angeles yard in mid-October, the Maritime Fee determined, she shall be commanded by a British West Indies-born Brooklyn man, the primary Negro to carry a U. S. grasp’s certificates and the primary to command a ten,500-ton ship.
“Captain Mulzac not solely promised that he would be capable to get certified Negro officers to serve beneath him however mentioned that he knew white in addition to Negro crewmen prepared to serve beneath him—for the Booker T. is to not be a Jim Crow ship. The Booker T. (for Taliaferro) will serve not solely within the struggle of ocean transport however within the struggle in opposition to race discrimination.”
In 1942, the SS Booker T. Washington sailed with an built-in crew of 81 representing 18 totally different nationalities from eight nations and 13 American states. Between 1942 and 1947, the ship, beneath the command of Hugh Mulzak, had made 22 round-trip voyages to Europe and the Pacific theatre, ferrying 18,000 troops and 1000’s of tons of provides.
After the struggle, Mulzac couldn’t get a place as a ship’s captain. In 1948 he unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit in opposition to the ship’s operators. In 1950 he made an unsuccessful bid for Queens Borough President beneath the American Labor Get together ticket.
An early member of the Nationwide Maritime Union (NMU), his robust ties to the labor motion triggered him to be blacklisted within the McCarthy period, ensuing within the revocation of his seaman’s papers.
Mulzac was a self-taught painter, and in 1958, thirty-two of his oil work had been placed on exhibit at a one-man present within the Countee Cullen Library in Manhattan.
In 1960 a Federal Decide restored his seaman’s papers and license, and on the age of 74, he was capable of finding work as an evening mate.
Captain Mulzac died in East Meadow, New York on January 30, 1971, on the age of 84.
The Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Coast Guard service commissioned the ‘SVGS CAPT. HUGH MULZAC’ on January twenty first, 2019, the second SVG Coast Guard vessel to be named in honor of Captain Mulzac.
