Show youths win out in ship venture three new england college boys repair old hulk for cargo run BOSTON three youthful colle 9 gians lans have turned back the reces areces sion this year and have gone down to the sea in a ship actually the trio were aided by four others but the originators of a plan to revive an abandoned 90 year old coastwise shipping line were three new england boys the eldest a 1936 graduate of massachi Mass achu institute of technology the leader of the bold pioneers was john C stapler a graduate of tech s ship operation course and employee of a new york steamship line with him were alden H an derson a classmate and employee of a boston ship agency and fred enck erick E drake jr who left bow dom doin college to ship around the world as an assistant purser stapler is credited with or blamed with the business venture old hulks tied up early in 1935 the eastern steam ship lines suspended operation of their bangor boston line and de spite protests of a few shippers tied up several old hulks and announced they never would run again but stapler had other ideas he called a score of meetings with an derson and drake where they pored over maps and charts figured gross tonnage and discussed maritime la bor problems the upshot was that all three threw up their jobs abs and gallantly dumped their savings into a corn com mon pile but it was scarcely sum chent to meet their personal needs so with an inspired sales talk on their tongues and an armful of pa pers showing the advantage of a diesel powered ship for coastwise use the frantic financiers sold stock to their friends to business men or anyone who would buy they sold stock and bought the foot diesel powered ship P ecob scot they sold stock and bought paint they sold more stock and hired a crew last spring they announced a shipping schedule loaded the ves sel set with 38 tons of cargo and nosed out of the island dotted harbor for points down east beat hard luck off rockland the engines broke down and the good ship penobscot hobbled into port unable to proceed for many days and with the cargo still undelivered by hiring trucks the young own ers delivered the cargo on sched ule and repaired the motors but their bank account was woefully de plated however at bangor the shippers were delighted at the resourceful skippers who delivered the goods on time and despite the accident were nere ready to ship again that was the beginning of sue suc cess since then the ship has in creased tonnage on each trip the engines have held together and there has been no labor trouble perhaps we can help solve the merchant marine problem stapler said if we can show youth h how W to make good at it that 11 be so some me thing incidentally with less than a year years s experience the youths are planning an expansion program that will take their ship farther north along the coast to get cargo from the fish canneries but stapler says I 1 that s an other story |