The Men At Sea Radio Program

Background

Anyone who's ever watched the classic 1943 war movie, Action In The North Atlantic, will readily understand the absolutely critical role our Merchant Marine fleet--and those of the free countries around the world--played in prosecuting World War II to a successful conclusion. We make the comparison to the 1943 movie since the Radio program Men At Sea was a perfect complement to the public relations and recruiting campaigns being waged by the War Shipping Administration and the U. S. Maritime Commission to encourage more new and returning seamen to join the Merchant Marine.

By 1943 there was no hiding the alarming rate at which the U.S. and its allies had lost commercial vessels and their crews to the German U-boat packs roaming the Atlantic. The war against Japan simply compounded the problem even further. And all propaganda aside, by 1943, the Allied Navies were, indeed, turning the corner on shipping lane losses in both the Atlantic and Pacific. But the toll taken on our Merchant Marine fleet and its experienced seamen had been heavy.

By 1943 we were also turning out Liberty ships in extraordinary numbers to replace the thousands of ships we'd already lost in the first two years of the war. But Liberty ships needed experienced crews to meet the exponential demands placed on the sea lanes as the Allies pressed their growing advantage to find an early end to both the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific.

To their great credit, neither the War Shipping Administration nor the U. S. Maritime Commission made any atttempt to sugar-coat the immediate problem. Despite the Allied Navies' growing dominance, the sea lanes of the world were still some of the deadliest locations of conflict until the very end of the War. Anyone who's watched Action In The North Atlantic or listened to either The Pacific Story, Battle Stations!, or Man Behind The Gun understands all too vividly the dangers of protecting the sea lanes.

Merchant Marine duty was heroic duty. There's simply no two ways about it. The moment a ship and its crew passed the imaginary line beyond which they could reliably expect a sea plane or response vessel to come to their rescue, that ship and that crew were at risk--at War or at Peace. But at War, the risks remained exponential, irrespective of the rate at which the Allies were decimating the Axis submarine and surface warship fleets.

One might well imagine that any recruiting campaign for Merchant seamen and officers might well be an uphill struggle. Fortunately, America's young men and able-bodied, experienced seamen met the challenge, responding in tens of thousands to meet the call--and understanding all too gravely the risks they were undertaking. Such was the extraordinary heritage and loyalty of the hundreds of thousands of seamen, officers, and their families in every free port dotting both coasts of the United States, including the large numbers of Lakes Region ports as well.

This was a chapter of World War II that rarely gets the same level of attention and press that the so-called 'hot' regions of the War received, but there's no question that the losses were almost as great on the seven seas throughout World War II as they were on land--and in many instances far costlier as well. Certainly more hopeless and poignant once a catastrophe did strike, in any case.

Men At Sea: Three Summers of A Constant Reminder

Men At Sea was produced to be aired in three, eight-week sets, beginning with the Summer of 1943 and airing each subsequent Summer for the next two years as Summer replacements for The Great Gildersleeve.

Each of the three summer replacement seasons of Men At Sea contained a mix of stories covering all aspects of the various important missions of the Merchant Marine. The scripts were well-paced and compelling, given the fifteen-minute format. The acting was of the highest caliber, employing the finest east coast talent available for the era, among them, Parker Fennelly, Lon Clark, Joseph Julian, Alan Bunce, Staats Cotsworth, Roc Rogers, Arthur Kohl and Ted Jewett. The stirring narration itself was provided by a alternating combination of Berry Kroeger, Bernard Lenrow and Guy Sorel, all famous actors in their own right.

The first two seasons of eight broadcasts ran from start to end without a hitch. The third season's fourth program was pre-empted by an All-Star Golf Match broadcast nationally by NBC. In an apparent effort to make up for the lost broadcast, NBC put together a special re-enactment of the famous short story, 'Faith of Our Fathers,' written by Captain Elwood C. Nance and adapted for Radio by Father Timothy Butler. The remaining two episodes aired as announced.

The equal of any patriotic dramatizations of the War years, this series is remarkable in several respects. For one, it aired for three successive seasons throughout the most difficult three years of World War II. For another, the productions maintained consistent high standards in spite of the eleven month span between seasons. And last but by no means least, the series continued to hold the interest of summer listeners used to listening to one of Radio's most successful and popular situation comedies in that timeslot. This is a tribute to The Great Gildersleeve's advance promotion of the series each summer, to NBC for its continued response to the Nation's vital need for promoting the Merchant Marine, and to the outpouring of support the series received over those three seasons.

As an historical footnote to the Radio years of World War II, it remains one of the more compelling, well-produced, well-written and well performed exemplars of wartime appeals of the era. We characterize the series as a wartime appeal, as opposed to wartime patriotic propaganda for several reasons. The most obvious point of contrast is supported by the very real need for new and replacement able-bodied seamen and officers for the Merchant Marine Fleet. This need was as great as, for example, early rationing, resource conservation efforts and civil defense. Another point of contrast is the means in which the overwhelming majority--of at least the circulating exemplars--were crafted. They were neither preachy, jingoistic, or fear-mongering in nature. One must conclude that the War Shipping Administration and the U. S. Maritime Commission, jointly, both knew and understood their target audience.

It goes without saying that the United States Merchant Marine Fleet, past, present, and future, remains as vital to national security as any of the military services--indeed its day-to- day mission in both peace and war, continues to provide the life-blood of commerce that any healthy national economy requires. That these unsung heroes of the Seven Seas remain, for the most part, under-represented in contemporary media, doesn't for a moment diminish their actual day-to- day heroism. Given the tradionally stoic characterization of merchant seamen as a whole, it would seem they accept their under-recognized lot just as resolutely as the generations of their brethren that have preceded them.

All the more reason to give this stirring series another listen from time to time. These programs remain a poignant reminder of these truly unsung, selfless heroes and their day-to-day struggles with nature and the elements, to keep the life's blood of any healthy nation moving.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the radioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

We invite you to compare our fully provenanced research with the log from the '1,500 expert researchers' at the OTRR and their Men At Sea log. We've therefore provided a screen shot of their current log for comparison, HERE to protect our own ongoing due diligence and intellectual property.

Men At Sea was a relative delight to research, for an NBC program:

• There was a smattering of named titles in newspaper listings
• Almost all of the programs in each series announced their order
• All one really had to do is listen to them to provenance them.

With 1,500 expert researchers there's no excuse whatsoever to not listen to the programs your commercial organization logs and promotes as the 'most accurate database of otr in the world.' There's just one teensy disconnect--apparently none of the 1,500 researchers actually listened to Men At Sea when they logged it. If they had, they'd have heard what anyone actually listening to their treasured vintage Radio recordings would have heard: virtually every single circulating episode announcing its own provenances.

You will note that certain of the titles below are highlighted in red. Red denotes that we have little confidence in that title. Take it or leave it. They're generally widely circulated titles. If they help you, fine. If they don't, then join the club. We don't trust them yet, either.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here are the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

We ask one thing and one thing only--if you employ what we publish, attribute it, before we cite you on it.

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We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

All rights reserved by their respective sources. Article and log copyright 2009 The Digital Deli Online--all rights reserved. Any failure to attribute the results of this copywritten work will be rigorously pursued.

[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]