Page 12: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 15, 1971)

U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

Honors Admiral Emory S. Land

Vice Adm. Emory S. Land speaks at ceremony marking rededication of Land Hall at Kings Point, N.Y. At right is Andrew E. Gibson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Maritime Affairs, and Rear Adm. Arthur B. Engel,

USCG (ret.), Academy Superintendent.

Vice Adm. Emory S. Land, the man who directed the building of 5,600 ships in four years in World War II, is a legend in his own time.

The 92-year-old Adm. Jerry Land, one of the great figures of the American merchant marine and the U.S. Navy, stood quietly by at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings

Point, N.Y., as Andrew E. Gibson, Assistant

Secretary of Commerce for Maritime Affairs, rededicated the Midshipmen Activities Build- ing, Land Hall, in honor of the admiral.

Rear Adm. Arthur B. Engel, USCG (ret.),

Superintendent of the U.S. Merchant Marine

Academy, which is under the direction of the

Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of

Commerce, welcomed the Congressional Board of Visitors and the Academy Advisory Board to the dedication ceremony, which was a high- light of the joint meeting of the Congressmen and the advisers.

Earlier in the day, Secretary Gibson opened the spring joint meeting of the Congressional

Visitors and the Advisor}' Board.

Admiral Land, known as "Jerry" to his thou- sands of friends, was born in landlubber country, Canon City, Colo., January 9, 1879.

He graduated from the University of Wyom- ing with B.S. and M.A. degrees, then went to Annapolis, where he graduated No. 6 in the class of 1902. While there, he engaged in baseball, track, swimming and made the winning touchdown over Army in the 1900 game.

Assigned to construction work in the Navy, he was sent to M.I.T., picked up an M.S. de- gree, and went back to building for the Navy in the First World War. He received the

Navy Cross for his wide study of German submarines. He learned how to fly a plane in the 1920s and was a booster for naval avia- tion. He also scouted, coached and refereed

Navy football teams in his spare time. "The busiest guy in the Navy" shocked his fellow officers in 1937 by stating he was going to retire. But following the admiral's favorite axiom, "You can't keep a squirrel on the ground," President Franklin D. Roosevelt ap- pointed him to the Maritime Commission.

In 1939, Admiral Land foresaw the emer- gency ahead and pulled out all the stops. His great feat of building the "Bridge of Ships" made him one of America's great figures in the history of the merchant marine.

Today, at 92, Admiral Land goes to his office every day from 9 to 5 as a consultant for

General Dynamics in Washington.

Regimental Comdr. Frederick Muqjhy, Rox- bury, Mass., presented Secretary Gibson with a scroll signed by all the midshipmen in appre- ciation of his great efforts in behalf of the

Academy.

Admiral Engel presented the keys to Land

Hall to Midshipman Robert Draves, Chairman,

Midshipmen Activities Committee.

The invocation at the ceremony was pro- nounced by Comdr. Ronald Walsh, the Acad- emy's Catholic chaplain.

Land Hall was once the home of Nicholas

Schenk, one of Hollywood's great film mag- nates. The residence was acquired when the

Government purchased the neighboring estate of Walter P. Chrysler, the automobile manu- facturer, in 1941.

Land Hall was first opened for midshipmen activities in 1959 through the generosity of

Admiral Land. Prior to that, the building was used as a dining hall for staff members.

Present at the day-long session were Senator

Russell B. Long of Louisiana; Representative

Lester L. Wolff, Great Neck, N.Y., in whose district the Academy is located; Representa- tive John W. Wydler, Garden City, N.Y.;

Representative Thomas N. Downing of Vir- ginia; Representative John M. Murphy, Staten

Island, N.Y., and Representative Charles A.

Mosher of Ohio.

Other Congressional members who com- prise the Board of Visitors are: Senator War- ren G. Magnuson, Washington, and Represen- tative Edward A. Garmatz, Maryland, both ex-officio members; Senator Mike Gravel and

Senator Ted Stevens, both of Alaska.

Chairman of the Academy Advisory Board, whose members are appointed by Secretary of Commerce Maurice H. Stans, is Norman

C. Scott, San Francisco, Calif., vice-president,

Natomas Company. Members include Albin

W. Smith, senior vice president, Shaheen Natu- ral Resources Co., Inc.; Erik F. Johnson, presi- dent, Central Gulf Steamship Corp., New

Orleans, La.; Joseph Kahn, chairman of the board, Seatrain Lines, Inc., New York, N.Y.;

Joseph Lane Kirkland, secretary-treasurer,

AFL-CIO; Rear Adm. Wilfred J. McNeil,

USN (ret.), former president. Grace Line and former Assistant Secretary of Defense, and

Edgar F. Luckenbach Jr., president and chair- man of the board, Luckenbach Steamship

Company.

Board members Smith, Johnson, and Kirk- land are graduates of the Academy.

MAXIMUM MANEUVERABILITY is a major design fea- ture of this twin-screw, ram hull towboat recently built by Dravo Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa., for United States

Steel Corporation. The vessel, 70-feet long, 20-feet wide, and 8-feet deep, handles barges and performs other har- bor service at U.S. Steel's Clairton Works on the Monon- gahela River near Pittsburgh. The boat is powered by two 330-hp diesel engines and all electrical power is supplied by two 50-kw generators. It was built at Dravo's Neville

Island shipyard on the Ohio River below Pittsburgh.

Seatrain Lines, Inc. Elects

A.C. Novacek And F.D. Troxel

Seatrain Lines, Inc. has announced the elec- tion of Arthur C. Novacek as president of the company's container division, and Frank T.

Troxel as president of Seatrain Lines of Cali- fornia, the Pacific Coast container operation.

They succeed William M. Cole, who held both titles, and who has resigned to form his own managing and shipping consultant firm,

Cole International, Inc.

Seatrain chairman Joseph Kahn noted that

Mr. Cole had helped to develop strong man- agement to succeed himself in the container division in anticipation of the move, which has been contemplated for several months.

His departure was timed to coincide with the completion of Seatrain's expansion in the North Atlantic container trade and im- provement in the business which now appears encouraging for the coming year, Mr. Kahn said.

Mr. Cole, who was elected president of the container division last year, said that as an independent, his new organization would be able to make equity investments in shipping as well as serve as a consultant to major com- panies in the industry, including Seatrain.

He had been an independent transportation consultant and shipping broker before joining the company in 1965.

Mr. Novacek was president and chief operat- ing officer of Grace Line before he joined

Seatrain in March 1970 as senior vice president of the container division. A graduate of the

U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and of the

Graduate School of Business at New York

University, Mr. Novacek was formerly with

Isbrandtsen tankers and Transamerican Trail- er Transport.

Mr. Troxel was associated with Matson

Navigation Co. in its container service be- tween Hawaii and the West Coast for 13 years, before he joined Seatrain Lines as director of marketing in early 1969. He was elected senior vice president for Pacific serv- ices in Seatrain's container division a year ago.

Burmeister & Wain Engines

To Power Three Ships For

Canadian Pacific Bermuda Ltd.

Burmeister & Wain Engineering Company

Limited has received a large engine order—the third since the formation of the company in Janu- ary this year.

The latest order consists of three main engines for installation in products carriers of some 30,000 dwt, which the owners, Canadian Pacific Bermuda

Ltd., have ordered from the Dutch yard Van der

Giessen-de Noord N.V. for delivery in the course of 1972-73. The engines are six-cylinder units of the K74EF type, having a continuous service rat- ing of 11,400 bhp at 130 rpm and a mean effective pressure of 9.6 kp/cm2.

The B&W Engineering Company has, during the months of February, March and April, re- ceived orders for a total of 10 main engines which, together with spare parts deliveries, represent a value of about $10,005,000.

Arthur C. Novacek Frank D. Troxel 14 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News