Hugh Mulzac

Infobox Person
name= Hugh Mulzac
birth_date= birth date|1886|3|26|mf=y
death_date = 1971
birth_place= Union Island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines


image_size= 200px
caption = Captain Mulzac served in World War I and World War II
title = Master Mariner

Hugh Mulzac (March 26 1886–1971) was an African-American member of the United States Merchant Marine. He earned his Master rating in 1918 which should have qualified him to command a ship, but this did not happen until 1942 because of racial discrimination.cite web |url=http://www.usmm.org/african-americans.html |title=African-Americans in the U.S. Merchant Marine and U.S. Maritime Service |accessdate=2007-02-24 |date=2003-11-17 |publisher=U.S. Maritime Service Veterans]

Life and career

Early life

Born on March 26 1886 on Union Island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, his life at sea started right after high school when he served on British schooners.cite news |first=Roy |last=Rydell |title=Maritime association honors Black seamen |url=http://www.pww.org/past-weeks-2000/Honoring%20Black%20seaman.htm |work=People's Weekly World |publisher=Long View Publishing Co. |date=2000-02-16 |accessdate=2007-02-25]

With a mate's licensecite web |url=http://www.marad.dot.gov/education/history/BlackHistory/world_war_ii_and_hugh_mulzac.htm |title=WORLD WAR II AND HUGH MULZAC |accessdate=2007-02-24 |publisher=United States Maritime Administration] from Swansea Nautical College he rose to the rank of mate before immigrating to the United States in 1918. Within 2 years he had earned the first ever master's certificate ever issued to an African American.cite news |title=First Negro Skipper |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,773722,00.html |work=Time Magazine |date=1942-10-05 |accessdate=2007-02-25] He served as a mate on the SS "Yarmouth" of the Black Star Line until that line went out of business in 1922.

For the next two decades the only shipboard work Mulzac could get was in the steward's departments on several shipping lines.

World War II

In 1942 he was offered command of the SS "Booker T. Washington", the first Liberty ship to be named after an African-American. He refused at first because the crew was to be all black. He insisted on an integrated crew, stating, "Under no circumstances will I command a Jim Crow vessel." The Merchant Marine finally gave in and agreed to an integrated crew, and he took command from 1942-1947, making 22 round trip voyages.

After the war

After the war, Mulzac again couldn't get command of a ship. In 1948 he unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit against the ship's operators. Then in 1950 he made a bid for Queens Borough President under the American Labor Party ticket. He lost the election, having gotten 15,500 votes.

Due to his strong ties to the labor movement, he found himself blacklisted in the era of McCarthyism. In 1960 a Federal Judge restored his seaman's papers and license, and at the age of 74 he was able to find work as a night mate.

Captain Mulzac died in 1971.

In popular culture

*He was mentioned in the episode "A Nugget of History" in the television series "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" on the Disney Channel.

Further reading

*cite book |last=Mulzac |first=Hugh |title=A Star to Steer By |origyear=1965 |publisher=Seven Seas Publishers |isbn=B000-7JUWU-M

References

External links

* " [http://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/ww2-pictures/index.html?template=print SS Booker T Washington Images] " at the U.S. National Archive