Inbound in New York's East River. (Photo courtesy of Capt. Tom Ellsworth Copyright © 2003-2004 - All rights reserved. Do not reproduce. If anyone wants copies, please email Tom at tbells@cox.net.)

Mormachawk in New Bedford

("The Mooremack News," March 1951)

The Mormachawk called at the port of New Bedford, Mass., in December to load machinery from a recently closed textile mill for transport to Santos, Brasil, which prompted the "Standard-Times," the city's daily newspaper, to pay the ship a visit, describing her as "one of the few ocean-going freighters to call at this port in several months."

The reporter indicated as much interest in the master's story, even a bit more interest in fact, than in the ship herself.  And the story is, indeed, an interesting one.  Said the "Standard-Times":

"In charge of the Mormachawk was Captain S.E.G. Innes, a transplanted Montanan, with twenty years of service under the Moore-McCormack ensign.  As proof that seamen are made, not born, the veteran ship's officer submitted that he caught his first glimpse of the sea when he was 22 years old, promptly found a berth before the mast and has scarcely ever been more than a stone's throw away from salt water since.

Prior to taking over his present command last April, Captain Innes served aboard the line's cruise ships, the Argentina and the Uruguay – luxurious passenger liners in peace-time and efficient troop transports during World War II.  It was in 1943, on one of his wartime 'cruises' aboard the Argentina, that he met his lovely British wife, who accompanies him on his current coastwise voyage."

Captain Innes explained to the reporter:  "She was an officer in His Majesty's Royal Navy (WRENS) en route to a post in South Africa.  We became acquainted on shipboard and were married soon after we reached port."

The Inneses have their home on Long Island.