A plastic carrying bag which can also be blown up to be a pillow.

An MML desk set.

Match Book Cover.

This painting is owned by Jon McKinney.  The artist is Jack L. Gray who studied art at the Nova Scotia College of Art, and continued his education at the prestigious Montreal Museum of Fine Art.  He established a reputation for excellent marine paintings, and his series of 12 paintings of New York Harbor was made into prints which were much sought after by collectors.  His work is featured in many museums, including Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia, Peabody Museum of Salem, Mass., the Museum of the City of New York, the U.S. Marine Corps Museum and the Huntington Hartford Museum in New York.  (Courtesy of Jon McKinney.)

A post card printed with the Jack L. Gray painting shown on left.  This was the front of the two maiden voyage post cards of the S.S. Brasil in September 1958 and the S.S. Argentina in December 1958, which backs are seen under their respective "Artifacts" sections on this site. 

Ashtray

Eleanor Britton as Cruise Director for Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc., was a mystery guest celebrity on the "To Tell the Truth" television show in the 1960s.  (Courtesy of John-Paul DeRosa.)

Celebrated Shipmasters

(from Tow Line, a publication for Moran Towing & Transportation Co., Inc.,

September 1959)

By Allan Keller, "New York World-Telegram & Sun" staff writer

 THERE isn't much left to scare a man after he's had his ship break down in the north Atlantic's winter gales, the wireless cracking and intercepted messages from Nazi submarine wolf-packs. That is why Capt. Robert H. Bradsell steps on the bridge of the liner Argentina or Brasil with no more apparent concern than the suburbanite shows as he steps into his car to drive to the station.

"Don't get me wrong,"” said Capt. Bradsell.  "I'm aware of my duties, alive to my responsibilities, but I don't step up the gangplank to the echo of my knees knocking a tattoo."

As a relief captain for the Moore-McCormack Lines, Capt. Bradsell takes either of the new de luxe cruise ships on the 31-day cruise to Buenos Aires and back when there is need.   When there isn't he goes as staff captain, second in command.

He admits there is a certain loneliness to being master of a ship at sea.  Away from land the skipper is the man with all the responsibilities.  No matter how many duties he delegates to subordinates, he is the man with the ultimate decision.

"Do I pass around a hurricane or turn and run from it?  Do I dock at a port with a bad epidemic or pass it up?  Do I risk a stop where gunfire is crackling or play it safe?"

Capt. Bradsell is a good-looking man, in blues or summer whites, and he has to know diplomacy and the tactics of the social cocktail party.  Just when a storm is making up he may have to soft-talk a lady passenger who doesn't see why her stateroom is smaller than Mrs. So-and-So's.

Needless to say the passenger waits for an adjudication even if the storm comes close.  To the man on the bridge first things come first, and nothing is more important than the safety of the ship and all its passengers and crew.

"But when I see the tugs cast off and we pick up speed passing the lady on Bedloes Island I sense a freedom I never know on land," said the skipper.  "With responsibility goes a certain elation—a feeling of power over your own destiny."

It's different when the hurricane warning is up in the Atlantic.  The route the Moore-McCormack liners take to South America crosses over the area where these tropical storms breed.

"When we know one is stewing around in the West Indies it gives us a bit of a queer feeling as we leave New York," said Capt. Bradsell.  "But with modern radio and all the other equipment and information we get from the Weather Bureau we can operate with assurance the storm won't sneak up on us out of nowhere."   Capt. Bradsell explained, though, that there’s a lot more to running a ship than patrolling the decks in the sunshine and being cheerful at the captain's table.

"The weight is always there," he said.  "It doesn’t oppress you, but not enough room to swing a cat.

"Sometimes we go on new cruises to new ports.  Then we have to bone up on charts and harbor rules and the peculiarities of the different ports of call.  Sure, we pick up pilots locally, but if we had pilots from one wing of the bridge to the other we'd still have the ultimate responsibility."

Towel from the Moore-McCormack Lines.    (Courtesy of Robert Trisciuzzi.)

Robert Trisciuzzi holding the same towel at his mother's home in Mallorca, Spain.  (Photo by Liana Trisciuzzi, Robert's daughter.  Liana questioned her father's "stability" because he wanted the photo of the towel taken.)

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