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The articles contained herein were published by and for Mooremack Employees Ashore and Afloat. |
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Commodore Lee Honored ("The Mooremack News," October 1948) (Courtesy of Vincent Fiorenza)
In a brief ceremony at the Brazilian
Consulate in New York, Commodore Robert C. Lee
The accompanying photograph was taken just after Commodore Lee had accepted the decoration from J. B. Berengar-Cesar, Brazilian Consul-General in New York. Commodore Lee has played an important role in developing trade between Brazil and the United States, particularly in the last ten years through the medium of the American Republics and Pacific Republics Lines. He has also been decorated by the Polish government for his work in developing trade between the United States and Poland through our American Scantic Line.
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Slot machines and coffee beans, Career Girl ("The Mooremack News," January 1949) (Courtesy of John-Paul DeRosa)
In late 1948, "Career Girl" was broadcast on Station WGHF-FM, featuring Eleanor Britton, Chief Cruise Director, who was interviewed with Ruth Gallo, Assistant Cruise Director on the Uruguay, and Bess Bugara, Purserette on the Brazil, by Ann Sedgwick, sponsor and star of the program. After the interview, during which Miss Britton, Miss Gallo, and Miss Bugara discussed their careers, the group was photographed by Ken Donaldson.
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Spotlight on Mooremack ("The Mooremack News," December 1949) (Courtesy of Vincent Fiorenza) Moore-McCormack has been in the national press spotlight considerably the past few months. First, Fortune magazine devoted much space in their piece on “The Shipping Men,” in the September issue, with a photograph of A. V. Moore and E. J. McCormack on the opening page. This was followed by several columns of type telling the story of Moore-McCormack from the early start in 1914 up to the present-day world-wide operation. This was followed by a complete article on Moore-McCormack in the Pacific Marine Review, one of the better marine trade publications, in which a story traced the history of Mooremack from its earliest days up to the present. This was a most comprehensive story. Photographs of some of the early Mooremack ships in the Scantic and Gulf services were reproduced, in addition to a description of the newly-redecorated Big Three liners of the Good Neighbor Fleet. The October issue of Coronet magazine hit the stands with a striking 16-page picture story of a trip to South America aboard the Argentina, entitled, “Dream Cruise.” The history of this fine piece goes back over a year ago when Coronet first approached Mooremack about a story of our cruise. It was arranged that a Coronet photographer, Miss Ruth Orkin, be given a trip aboard the Argentina last November, and the ship’s staff were ordered to give her every cooperation. She made the cruise, shooting over 400 photos, and at the end of the trip, turned in to Coronet 85, from which the 16-page selection was made. Coronet editors were enthusiastic about the story. Mooremack did considerable promotion work when the story was announced for the October issue. Eleanor Britton, chief cruise directress, was on the Luncheon at Sardi’s radio program over the Mutual network and Bill Slater interviewed her about the magazine story and about our cruises. Hundreds of extra reprints of the Dream Cruise story were made and sent to various groups, whom it was felt might have missed it, and might be prospective travelers. Finally, with the Coronet story publicity just abating, U. S. Camera magazine issued the November number featuring the first installment of a “Camera Cruise” story, written by Tom Maloney, publisher of the magazine, and Ewing Krainin, a prominent New York photographer. Messrs. Maloney and Krainin took the cruise on the Brazil this past Summer and returned with a full kit of copy and pictures that U. S. Camera plans to stretch through the January issue. Also in the November issue was a story on “Photographing Uruguay,” written by Jose Aguiar, of Mooremack’s Montevideo office. Another installment of the cruise story appeared in the December issue, along with a special feature on the Neptune ceremony at the Equator. The December issue of the Port of New York Authority’s bright and newsy publication “Via Port of New York” carries a story on essential oils that move through the New York-New Jersey port area, and leads the story with a photograph of a cargo emerging from a ship, with the following caption: “A consignment of ocatea cymbarum, an aromatic root extract used in flavorings, is discharged from the Moore-McCormack freighter at a pier in Brooklyn.” 
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The President Reports to His Staff by Albert V. Moore, President ("The Mooremack News," December 1949) (Courtesy of Vincent Fiorenza) To the men and women of the Moore-McCormack Lines family, at sea and ashore, in the domestic offices, and in Latin America and Scandinavia, I am happy to extend the season’s greetings, speaking for Mr. McCormack, the board of directors of the company, and for myself. We approach the end of a year that has been difficult in many ways, and rewarding, too, in the experience which we have gained, in the feeling of satisfaction that comes with having ventured, and in the knowledge that Mooremack has written another page in its history. We face the new year with a healthy optimism, with our minds and desks piled with plans and with several challenges facing us. One of the rewards of hard work—or penalties, if you will, is that the future forever offers a challenge to the man or the group who is ready to accept it. Our organization, I know, faces new problems with enthusiasm.
During the past year we
dealt with several disconcerting situations. In Latin America the lack of
dollars severely hampered the movement of cargoes. United States exporters
had enquiries for great volumes of their goods, but the dollars with which
to pay for them were not available. The result was they did not move. A somewhat improved northbound movement developed which only in part offset the reduction in southbound, but all of you realize that a truly healthy shipping operation cannot depend upon one-way movement. There must be a two- way movement, with ships carrying profitable cargoes when they go out and when they come home as well. The backlog of payments due on shipments from the United States to Latin American importers, standing on the records for some time, has caused many of our exporters to decline to sell any more in certain Latin American markets. In recent months this backlog has been somewhat reduced and we have reason to believe that further reductions will be made, especially in Brasil. This should be an encouragement to our exporters and increase their confidence in the market. The result would be, of course, increased shipments, a share of which we feel our ships should obtain. The situation in the Scantic service is a bit different. There our shipments eastbound are quite good, due partly to the movement of E.C.A. goods, despite the fact we have not yet attained our goal, which is to carry 50 per cent of the E.C.A. goods in American bottoms. We have worked to impress upon the E.C.A. that we should receive our full share of these shipments in line with the declared policy of our government, but we still have some way to go before we attain that volume. The situation westbound is more difficult. As you know, the Scantic countries export largely fish, wood and paper products, and the competition in the United States which these particular goods face is very severe, what with Newfoundland fish products and our domestic and Canadian wood and paper products. Devaluation came after the Christmas buying programs in the United States had been completed, so the Scandinavians did not gain the advantage from it which they might have won, had it been timed differently. I have just made a two-month trip to our Pacific Coast offices, with return through the Panama Canal to Venezuela, thence by air to Trinidad and back to New York aboard the S.S. Brazil. I found much to encourage me on this trip. We now plan to add a fifth ship to the Pacific Republics Line fleet in order to provide a regular sailing every seventeen days on that route. We will have to work hard, terribly hard, to make good on this expansion of service, but I feel, and those others of us associated with the decision feel also, that the improved service which we will be able to offer in the Pacific route is worth all the extra work and worry that the fifth ship will entail. As part of this operation we have announced the sailing of the Mormacsun from Pacific Coast ports with a stop scheduled at the port of LaGuaira, Venezuela in January, this to be the first call on the new schedule. With our present stop at Puerto Cabello, we will now have two stops at Venezuelan ports and hope that we can build up a good trade there. During the year several of our Pacific Republics Line ships called at the Mexican port of Guaymos, to take on cargoes for Caribbean points. A notable change this year in our American Republics service to South America was, of course, the addition of Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, to the itinerary of the passenger ships southbound. With this addition we are able to offer the traveler an eleven-day round trip, with 4½ days aboard ship each way, and two days ashore in Port-of-Spain. This service also opens a field for express cargoes to Trinidad and we are hard at work trying to develop that phase. Also, it offers a frequent service to travelers from Venezuela bound for South America or for the United States, and already we have developed some business, especially between Trinidad and South America. I submit this rapid survey of what we have done, but I assure you one of our biggest problems involves a matter that is now only in the planning stage. I refer, of course, to the program of building replacements for the liners Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. This is a difficult and important problem and we are hard at work on it. We are gathering all shades of opinion from within the organization so that we may eventually go ahead with new ships that will be worthy successors to these grand three which we now operate. We are planning to make them fast and handsome and profitable, and I feel confident we will come up with a good program. I want all of you to know what we are thinking and planning, so that all can contribute of our experience, and as we tackle our day-to-day problems feel that we are all members of the one team, a good team, as fine a team as American shipping—or American industry as a whole — can boast. I ask for your continued loyalty. May the coining year be a happy one for you and yours.
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