Andrew Furuseth

Infobox Person
name = Andrew Furuseth


image_size = 180px
caption = Circa 1879.
birth_date = birth date|1854|3|12|mf=y
birth_place = Romedal, Norway
death_date = death date and age|1938|1|22|1854|3|12|mf=y
death_place = San Francisco, California
occupation = Merchant seaman and labor reformer
spouse = None
parents = Andreas and Marthe Nielsen
children = None

Andrew Furuseth (March 12, 1854 - January 22, 1938) of Romedal, Norwaycite web | title = About Andrew Furuseth | url = http://www.ljsvendsen.com/about_andrew_furuseth.htm | work = .ljsvendsen.com | accessdate=March 18 | accessyear=2007] was a merchant seaman and an American labor leader. Furuseth was active in the formation of two influential maritime unions: the Sailors' Union of the Pacific and the International Seamen's Union, and served as the executive of both for decades.

Furuseth was largely responsible for the passage of four reforms that changed the lives of American mariners. Two of them, the Maguire Act of 1895 and the White Act of 1898, ended corporal punishment and abolished imprisonment for deserting a vessel.

Furuseth was credited as the key figure behind drafting and enacting the Seamen's Act of 1915, hailed by many as "The Magna Carta of the Sea" and the Jones Act of 1920 which governs the workers' compensation rights of sailors and the use of foreign vessels in domestic trade.cite web | title = SIU & Maritime History | url = http://www.seafarers.org/about/history.xml | work = SIU History | accessdate=March 17 | accessyear=2007] cite web | title = American Merchant Marine Timeline, 1789 - 2005 | url = http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/maritime/MaritimeNation/TimeLines/Merchant_Marine.htm | work = columbia.edu | accessdate=March 29 | accessyear=2007] In his later years, he was known as "the Old Viking." [Newell, Gordon R., ed. "H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest", at page 39, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1966]

Family and early years

Furuseth was born Anders Andreassen Nilsen,cite web | title = Andrew Furuseth | url = http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/Cambridge/entries/030/Andrew-Furuseth.html | work = jrank.org | accessdate=March 18 | accessyear=2007] the fifth child of Andreas and Marthe Nielsen. The family had recently moved to a cottage in Furuseth, which lies in what is now the municipality of Stange. In accordance with local custom, the boy was named after his residence.

In 1855, the family moved to Damstuen where the elder Nilsen took a low-paying job working at a dam. Five more children were born, causing the family financial distress. At age eight, Furuseth was sent to work for a farmer, Jonas S. Schjotz in nearby Ostby, Romedal. Schjotz, noticing the young Furuseth's keen mind, sent him to a private Lutheran school.

On June 2, 1870 Furuseth moved to Oslo (then Christiana). He worked as a clerk and attempted to enter a military academy. Although he was ultimately unsuccessful in this bid, he did develop skills with the English, German, Dutch and French languages, which not only brought him employment at the time but would become very useful later in his life.

Career at sea

Furuseth went to sea in 1873cite web
title = Andrew Furuseth Special Edition
url = http://www.sailors.org/pdf/newsletter/andrewfurusethspecialedition.pdf
work = West Coast Sailors, March 12 2004
accessdate=March 21| accessyear=2007] and sailed aboard ships under the Norwegian, Swedish, British, and American flags until coming ashore in San Francisco, California in August 1880. He briefly pursued a career in the fishing industry near Portland, Oregon.

Work in the Coast Seamen's Union

The Coast Seamen's Union was formed while Furuseth was at sea, but he joined within three months of its formation, on June 3, 1885. Less than two years later, in January 1887, he was elected to the union's highest office: the secretary-treasurer. In 1889 he returned to sea but was reelected to the position of union secretary in 1891. It was during this termcite web
title = Andrew Furuseth
url = http://www.lawzone.com/half-nor/furuseth.htm
work = Norwegian American Hall of Fame
accessdate=March 16| accessyear=2007] on July 29, 1891 that Furuseth merged the Coast Seamen's Union with the Steamship Sailor's Union to create the Sailors' Union of the Pacific, a union which is still active today. With the exception of a two-month period when he shipped out as a fisherman, he was the head of the SUP until 1935.

Furuseth was an important backer of the successful legislation known as the White Act of 1898, which among other things abolished corporal punishment on American-flag ships and abolished imprisonment for desertion in American ports. [McCurdy, at 39] Together with Walter MacArthur, secretary of the Coast Seamen's Union, Furuseth compiled and published the so-called "Red Record", an inventory of the various brutalities and oppressions practiced upon seamen by officers and shoreside thugs.

One of many examples was in 1897, when the British four-masted ship "Gifford" was lying at Port Townsend, Washington, about to depart to round Cape Horn. Her master contracted with the keeper of a Tacoma boarding house to recruit sailors for the voyage. The boarding house keeper tricked the sailors into boarding the "Gifford" with promises of shore leave afterwards. The ship's mates locked them on board, paid the boarding house keeper $40 per man, which they then deducted from the men's salaries (on the false claim that they owed the money to the keeper). When the men refused to work, the ship's officers cut off food and water until they gave in. Beatings and other inhumane treatment were also common in other cases, and continued well after the supposed abolition of such brutality. [McCurdy, at 23 and 93]

Less than a year after the birth of the ISU, Furuseth was involved in a meeting in Chicago, Illinois in which a federation of maritime unions called the "National Union of Seamen of America" was created. In 1895, this federation affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and was renamed the "International Seamen's Union of America" or (ISU). Furuseth was chosen as the ISU's president in 1897 and served in this position until 1899.

He took part to the founding meeting of the Asiatic Exclusion League in May 1905, which was almost immediately successful in pressuring the San Francisco Board of Education to segregate Asian school children.

In 1908, he was again elected to the ISU's presidency and served in that office until 1938.

The Seamen's Act of 1915

[
Senator La Follette (center), and muckraker Lincoln Steffens, circa 1915.] It was during this period, that Furuseth successfully pushed for legislative reforms that eventually became the Seamen's Act of 1915. The act was hailed by many as the "Magna Carta of the Sea," and was sponsored in the United States Senate by Senator "Fightin' Bob" La Follette. The measure also received had significant support from then Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson.

The Act promoted the living and working conditions of seamen serving in the United States Merchant Marine, specifically applying to vessels in excess of 100 gross tons. It fundamentally changed the life of the American sailor. Among other things, it:

#abolished the practice of imprisonment for seamen who deserted their ship
#reduced the penalties for disobedience
#regulated a seaman's working hours both at sea and in port
#established a minimum quality for ship's food
#regulated the payment of seamen's wages
#required specific levels of safety, particularly the provision of lifeboats
#required a minimum percentage of the seamen aboard a vessel to be qualified Able Seamen
#required a minimum of 75% of the seamen aboard a vessel to understand the language spoken by the officers

Later life

. Select periods were beneficial, including during World War I when a shipping boom and ISU's membership included more than 115,000 dues-paying members.

The strike of 1919 was a great success for Furuseth, resulting in the highest peacetime wages ever for deep sea sailors. However failures followed close behind. When the World War I shipping boom ended, the ISU shrunk to only 50,000 dues-paying members. After a round of failed contract negotiations, ISU issued an all-ports strike on May 1, 1921. The strike lasted only two months, failed, and resulted in wage cuts of 25%.

ISU also suffered a tremendous blow with the loss of the Sailors' Union of the Pacific in 1934. Furuseth charged that "radicals" from the Industrial Workers of the World were infiltrating the SUP and demanded they cease activities with the Maritime Federation. The SUP refused and Furuseth revoked their charter. [cite web
title = Harry Bridges: Rank-and-File Leader
url = http://newdeal.feri.org/nation/na36576.htm
work = The Nation
accessdate=March 24| accessyear=2007]

In 1934, Furuseth was involved San Francisco's longshoremen's strike. Furuseth had lived in San Francisco's Embarcadero for 40 years, and was concerned the strike could lead to the kind of violence experienced in the recent Auto-Lite and the Minneapolis Teamsters strikes. He unsuccessfully attempted to mediate, pleading "With confidence and justice we can settle this strike within 24 hours and without bloodshed. Men, let's get together while there is still time. The only thing in the way of peace now is distrust, one group of the other." [cite web
title = Boards for Clubs
url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,769904,00.html
work = Time Magazine
accessdate=March 28| accessyear=2007] The strike led to the unionization of all West Coast ports of the United States.

Furuseth died on January 22, 1938. His body was placed in state at the Department of Labor. He was the first labor leader honored in this way. A ceremony was held, including seventy-one honorary pall bearers, including the "Secretary of Labor, nine members of the House of Representatives, seven United States Senators, two Supreme Court Justices, and a representative of Norway." Longtime friend Senator Robert La Follettecite journal
quotes =
author =
date = 1938-05-09
year = 1938
month = May
title = Progressives at Madison
journal = Time
volume =
issue =
pages =
issn =
pmid =
doi =
id =
url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,759587-5,00.html
language =
format =
accessdate = 2007-05-27
laysummary =
laysource =
laydate =
quote = ] gave the eulogy.He had attended every meeting of the American Federation of Labor since Grover Cleveland's administration. He never took a salary higher than the men he represented. [McCurdy, at 467]

Furuseth's body was cremated and his ashes scattered on March 21, 1938 aboard the SS "Schoharoe" in the mid-Atlantic, "as far from land as possible," according to his own request. The ship's master, before the assembled crew, said, "Fellow shipmates, we are assembled here to execute the wish to (sic.) Andrew Furuseth, venerable man, an unselfish worker for the betterment of seamen, who through legal means has done more to secure improved conditions under which you can work than any other man."

Trivia

* Furuseth's SUP Book Number was 11.

Memorials

* The Sailors' Union of the Pacific established Andrew Furuseth School of Seamanship. [cite web
title = Welfare Notes - September 2002
url = http://www.sailors.org/welfare/sep2002.html
work = SUP website
accessdate=March 16| accessyear=2007]
* There is a monument to Furuseth in Romedal, Norwaycite web
title = Labor Landmarks "F"
url = http://www.laborheritage.org/IALL-F.html
work = laborheritage.org
accessdate=March 18| accessyear=2007]
* There is a monument to Furuseth outside the entrance to the Sailors' Union of the Pacific Hall in San Francisco, California. Inscribed on it is the "Furuseth Credo": "You can put me in jail. But you cannot give me narrower quarters than as a seaman I have always had. You cannot give me coarser food than I have always eaten. You cannot make me lonlier than I have always been." The monument was originally placed at the Ferry building during the mayorality of Angelo Rossi, it was later moved.
* The Andrew Furseth Memorial Bust is at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
* The liberty ship SS|Andrew Furuseth was named after Furuseth. A crewman aboard this ship told the story that would eventually become the Philadelphia Experiment.

Notes

References

* William Martin Camp," San Francisco: Port of Gold" Doubleday 1947
* "Symposium on Andrew Furuseth." New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1948. 233 p.
*Citation
last=Bergmann
first=Leola M.
title=Americans from Norway
year=1950
place=Philadelphia
pages=226—228
url=http://www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/nas/volume24/vol24_8.html#r19 .
*Citation
last=Gjerset
first=Knut
title=Norwegian Sailors in American Waters: A Study in the History of Maritime Activity on the Eastern Seaboard
year=1933
place=Northfield, Minnesota
pages=
url= .
*Citation
last =Kyne
first = Peter B.
author2-link =
year = 1939
date = December
title =Saint Andrew the Sailor; the Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met
journal = Reader's Digest
issue = 9
volume = 35
page = 14.
*Citation
last =Ljone
first = Oddim
author2-link =
year = 11954
date = February
title =Sjøens Abraham Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln of the Sea)
journal = Nordmanns-forbundet
issue = 25
volume = 47
page = 27.
*Citation
last =Rygg
first = A.N.
author2-link =
year = 1938
date = June
title =Andrew Furuseth
journal = American-Scandinavian Review
issue =125
volume = 26
page = 153.
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title =Andrew Furuseth
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*Citation
last=Weintraub
first=Hyman
title=Andrew Furuseth: Emancipator of the Seamen
year=1959
place=
pages=
url= .
*Citation
last=Gibson
first=E. Kay
title=Brutality on Trial: Hellfire Pedersen, Fighting Hansen, And the Seaman's Act of 1915
year=2006
place=University Press of Florida
pages=225
url=
isbn=0813029910 .
*cite book
last = Cook
first = Peter
editor = Garraty, John A. and Carnes, Mark C.
others =
title = American National Biography
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year = 1999
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location = New York
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isbn = 0-19-520635-5
oclc =
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pages = 8:591-592
chapter = Furuseth, Andrew
chapterurl =
quote =
ref =.

ee also

* Harry Lundeberg
* Michael Sacco
* Frank Drozak
* Paul Hall (labor leader)
* Seafarers International Union

External links

* [http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1920/senj1926/furuseth.html Furuseth testifies before the Senate on Prohibition]
* [http://www.nb.no/emigrasjon/vis_data_bilde.php?lang=eng&dok_id=32125&nss=no-nb_emidata_U03095 Furuseth Article at the Norwegian National Library]
* [http://www.sailors.org/pdf/newsletter/andrewfurusethspecialedition.pdf West Coast Sailors Andrew Furuseth Special Edition]
* cite news
author=
title=Trouble to Be Shot
date=1936-11-23
work=Time Magazine
url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,756943,00.html
accessdate=2008-08-10
* [http://www.naha.stolaf.edu/pubs/nas/volume24/vol24_8.html Gold, Salt Air, and Callouses by Thomas I. Benson (Volume 24: Page 193)]
* [http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist8/earlylabor.html S.F. Labor’s First Fight For 10-Hour Day]
* [http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist/thursday.html Bloody Thursday, 1934] San Francisco News from July 3, 1934.
* [http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist8/longshore.html Shipping, The Foundation of San Francisco's Prosperity] , San Francisco Examiner Monday, October 14, 1935.

Persondata
NAME=Furuseth, Andrew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Nilsen, Anders Andreassen
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Merchant seaman and labor reformer
DATE OF BIRTH=March 12, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH=Romedal, Norway
DATE OF DEATH=January 22, 1938
PLACE OF DEATH=San Francisco, California