Going Places Near & Far: Exhibit Marking Sinking of SS Robin Moor Opens at American Merchant Marine Museum

Karen Rubin

A small museum on the campus of the US Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point is hosting its most ambitious exhibit to date, marking the 75th anniversary of the torpedoing of the merchant ship, SS Robin Moor by a German submarine, a full six months before Pearl Harbor and before the US had entered World War II. It was believed to be the first American merchant ship sunk in the lead-up to the US engagement in World War II, but would not be the last. 

The event was almost lost to history – warranting a small footnote perhaps. It did not produce the rallying cry that the sinking of the Maine in Cuba’s harbor produced (“Remember the Maine!”) that led to the Spanish-American War, or the sinking of the Lusitania (100 Americans among those lost) that spurred the US to enter “The Great War” (as it was known before it became only World War I to World War II). 

Indeed, the event had a relatively happy ending: all 38 crew and 8 passengers, cast into four lifeboats in the middle of the southeast Atlantic, survived their weeks at sea, with the exception of one young mariner who tragically committed suicide while on his way home. 

The Robin Moor became pivotal in the battle between interventionists and isolationists. It provided the focus of Franklin D Roosevelt’s appeal to Congress for the US to engage and not back down to Nazi Germany’s “terrorism” in its quest to “Exact acquiescence from nations victimized” so they would submit to the Third Reich’s global domination,” 

But more than that, it was a human drama of ordinary people cast into extraordinary events that are so effectively expressed in the exhibit. 

“It’s not just survival skills,” related George Haber, who was commissioned to write a history of the event, “Outrageous and Indefensible: The Sinking of the SS Robin Moor, 1941.” “It’s about the never-say-die spirit of people, caught up in a life-changing event.” 

And finally, it shows the grit, gumption and sense of purpose that merchant mariners have, and how they have figured so significantly in this nation’s defense, security as well as commerce. It is the life to which this Academy, which was founded during World War II and is the only service academy that flies the battle standard for the 142 cadets killed in that war, sends its graduates. 

Now the human and political drama of that event is brought back to life with amazing photos – many taken from the survivors from their lifeboats – artifacts, personal accounts in the museum’s most ambitious exhibit to date, “How to Abandon Ship: The Sinking of the SS Robin Moor, 1941” on view at the US Merchant Marine Academy’s museum through March 30, 2017. 

We learn the Robin Moor story, how, on May 21, 1941, the American freighter  was steaming from New York City to Cape Town, South Africa.  The United States had not entered World War II, and the ship clearly displayed neutrality markings –  the large white letters USA and a large American flag painted on its hull – that announced to all belligerent nations that this ship had no part in the war. 

Before dawn, a German U-boat stopped the American ship, and after speaking with the freighter’s officers, announced the Robin Moor would be sunk, giving the crew and passengers just 20 minutes to launch the ship’s lifeboats.  The submarine then torpedoed and shelled the freighter, and departed, abandoning four lifeboats with some 38 merchant seamen and eight passengers to fend for themselves in the middle of the ocean.

They drifted for weeks/ Three of the boats stayed together and were rescued off of Cape Town, South Africa after 14 days; the fourth lifeboat got separated but was skillfully sailed by John Banigan, the 3rd mate, toward Brazil and was picked up by a Brazilian ship after more than 18 days, and taken to Recife. 

After his ordeal, Banigan wrote a survival manual, “How to Abandon Ship” – a copy is in the display case, which is the inspiration for the title of the exhibit. The manual likely saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives during World War II. 

During the opening reception for the exhibit on Friday, May 20 – just a day before the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the Robin Moor – I meet scores of descendants of the crew and passengers. Among them, three generations of descendents of Melvin V. Mundy, the chief officer of the Robin Moor, including Grant Golden, his great, great grandson, who, his grandmother says, would have been the same age as she was when her own father faced this challenge. 

They fuss over a photo from a newspaper showing him looking through a sextant.  “In one article, they referred to him as ‘slovenly dressed’ – “but he was never slovenly dressed,” Mundy’s daughter insists., refusing to imagine that he might have looked a bit ragged after being cast out onto the sea for two weeks. 

Mundy, the first officer, had gone over to the German submarine and in the process, his boat smashed him against the sub’s side and he broke his ankle. “The German U boat captain said the American merchant ship was carrying contraband, but they weren’t. They were given 20 minutes to abandon the ship before it was torpedoed,” his daughter, Shirley Fuhlner, relates. They were not allowed to radio for help or give their position before the Robin Moor was destroyed, and though the U-Boat commander apparently promised Mundy he would send a distress call, “he never did.” They pleaded for more time in order to get the passengers off the ship, but were denied. 

“His favorite word was ‘improvise’ so he set his own ankle and treated it with salt water,” Fuhlner says. Mundy was unflappable, exuding calm. After being rescued, he immediately went back to sea, until 1952. 

I meet Kiki Schaffer, the daughter of Berta and Ben Cohn, film and radio people from Manhattan, who were passengers on the Robin Moor. They are credited with keeping morale up and caring for their fellow survivors. Much is known about what transpired because Berta kept a detailed journal “that places the reader alongside her and relates both the good and the bad in her empathetic but honest account of survival at sea.” Her journal was published in a South African newspaper. 

I meet many relatives of John J. Banigan, the third mate who wrote “How to Abandon Ship.” They are looking into the display case at his photo, along with the Wesetern Union telegram that his family sent to him after finding he was saved. It is largely due to his relative, Ellen Fornaro, who chanced upon his personal effects and offered them to the museum, that the exhibit happened at all. 

The Western Union telegram from Banigan’s family that is so touching in its casual humor: “HELLO CHUBBY ARE YOU OKAY DO YOU NEED ANYTHING SURE A RELIEF TO HEAR YOU STILL OUR SALTY  LOVE BANIGANS” 

It made me realize that for all the time they were adrift, their families did not know they were alive. 

Also rescued were the McConnells, a couple who had their two year old with them (which gives you an idea of the cruelty of the Germans), who apparently relished the hard tack, the main food they had to sustain them. Berta wrote about having a “treat” – putting tomato sauce on the hard cracker with some onion that they had. 

They had 80 lbs of rations with them, especially hard tack (recalls how the Hebrews escaped Egypt with matzo) – a kind of a soda cracker with flour and water (which we get to sample because of Lee Kasten, longtime museum volunteer, baked enough for everyone to sample. They rationed food, collected rain water. 

I join Berta’s daughter, Kiki Schaffer, as she looks at the photos of her glamorous mother. 

It is this human story that the exhibit captures so well. The exhibit “endeavors to tell this story, both in its historical and human dimensions.” 

The exhibit is largely based on George Haber’s book, “Outrageous and Indefensible The Sinking of the SS Robin Moor,1941” for many of the fascinating notes, a specially-commissioned ship model, painting, photos, newspaper accounts, personal artifacts, including a copy of the survival manual that Banigan wrote after his ordeal, which gives the title to the exhibit that saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives. Most moving – and extraordinary- are the photos that were taken by the survivors in the lifeboats, plus recreated radio broadcasts from 1941, artifacts from the actual lifeboats. 

Haber, who was commissioned to write his Robin Moor history for the US Merchant Marine Academy, pointed to the implications of the Robin Moor.  “It was no more than footnote, except that it gave force to the interventionists over the isolationists to become engaged in the war.” 

The title, “Outrageous and indefensible,” comes from President Franklin d. Roosevelt’s June 20 address in which he named the Third Reich as the perpetrator of the criminal sinking of the Robin Moor and argued for the need to confront Nazi Germany’s “terrorism,” which FDR asserted was a tactic for Germany to seize control of the seas in its quest for world domination. 

But, Haber noted, after the Robin Moor was torpedoed, there was no “Remember the Robin Moor” moment, because no lives were lost, as with the Luistania, and because it took place against a backdrop of intense battle between isolationists and interventionists. 

The isolationists included the America First party and the Keep America out of War lobby that included such notables as Eddie Rickenbacher, Wilber Hutchins, actress Lillian Gish, socialist Norman Thomas, ex-President Herbert Hoover, and most notable of all, Charles Lindbergh (Lucky Lindy) who “applied his pro-German, anti-Semite, anti-Roosevelt sentiment to isolation.” 

But FDR and the interventionists, including Sgt Alvin York, numerous editorial writers called for America to actively support Britain. 

“After the Robin Moor, the Herald Tribune declared, “the Earth not large enough…”  

FDR spoke to Congress and newspaper editors began to see the wisdom to act against Germany. The Christian Science Monitor editorialized that the Nazis cannot be allowed to control the seas and called for Congress to repeal the Neutrality Act.” 

Haber related some of the efforts that went into researching his book on the Robin Moor, and noted that in a small library in rural Georgia he found a copy of the memoirs of U boat captain who torpedoed the Robin Moor. 

At this point, we were treated to an FDR reenactor who in remarkable realistic terms, recited his June 20, 1941 message to Congress on the “Robin Moor” affair, in which he accuses Germany of “terrorism” aimed at cowering other nations into submission so that the Third Reich can proceed with its program of world domination (the text is available at https://www.usmm.org/fdr/robinmoor.html):

“The total disregard shown for the most elementary principles of international law and of humanity brands the sinking of the Robin Moor as the act of an international outlaw,” Roosevelt declared.

“The Government of the United States holds Germany responsible for the outrageous and indefensible sinking of the Robin Moor… Our Government believes that freedom from cruelty and inhuman treatment is a natural right…We must take the sinking of the Robin Moor as a warning to the United States not to resist the Nazi movement of world conquest…

“Were we to yield on this we would inevitably submit to world domination at the hands of the present leaders of the German Reich. We are not yielding and we do not propose to yield.”

This exhibit –the first of its kind – relied on gathering artifacts that belonged to the descendants like Ellen Fornaro, who set the whole thing into motion when 2 years ago, she came upon the effects of her uncle, Third Mate John J. Banigan, which she donated to the museum. 

People traveled from near and far including 3 generations of descendants of Melvin V. Mundy, first officer (Shirley Furlhner, his daughter, Heather, his granddaughter and Grant Goldan, his great grandson); as well as descendents of George Newton, the radio operator; a ‘boatload” of relatives of John J. Banigan, the third officer, relatives of Robert Taylor, Second Officer, the Cohn and Schaffer families from New York City, relatives of Berta and Ben Cohn who were passengers on board the Robin Moor. People came from as far as Florida, Colorado and the United Kingdom for the opening reception, said Interim Director Joshua Smith. 

Also during the opening reception for the exhibit, Capt. Charles Renick, USMMA Class of 1947, was honored for his work in founding the museum, in 1979 and serving as its executive director for many years (he still holds the honorary position of director emeritus). 

Capt. Charles Renick, USMS, who graduated in 1947, one of the first graduating classes at the academy. During his Academy’s “sea year” he sailed in convoys during World War II. After graduating, he sailed on commercial vessels, worked in the office of the Secretary of the Department of State, as well as serving on both active and reserve duty with the US Navy, retiring after 30 years. In 1961, he joined the staff of the USMMA, serving in a variety of positions including alumni director, director of external affairs and deputy chief of staff, retiring in 1997. He was honored at the reception with a portrait that is now on permanent display in the foyer. 

From the time he returned to the USMMA, he began finding all sorts of artifacts and historical items in closets, in the boiler room, and It became his mission to establish a museum. He organized for the purchase of the Barstow Mansion – the home of Kings Point’s first Mayor, William Slocum Barstow – and then donated it to the federal government. 

His children, Peter Renick (long time superintendent of Great Neck Parks) and Tina Sobel spent much of their childhood polishing and cleaning. “My first job, my father handed me a toothbrush” to clean the woodwork; the next summer, he cleaned and polished the newly acquired display cases until they shined. 

The American Merchant Marine Museum preserves displays and interprets historic artifacts and artwork related to the United States Merchant Marine Academy, the U.S. Merchant Marine, and the profession of seafaring. The Museum will educate and instill in midshipmen and the public an appreciation for the significant contributions made by the maritime services to the nation’s heritage, and in particular by USMMA graduates and personnel in peace and war. 

One of the most interesting artifacts in the museum is a Japanese sword surrendered by Vice Admiral Matomu Ugaki to Supreme Allied Commander and General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on October 18, 1945. General MacArthur bestowed the sword and sheath (one of only five in existence) to the United States Merchant Marine Academy “as a memento to the valiant service rendered by the sons of the Academy in our struggle in the Pacific.” 

The collection also includes ship models of all sizes spanning through and representing decades of maritime history;  a superb collection of historic and modern navigational tools, such as sextants, barometers in the Carroll Bjornson Navigation Instrument Room; china from shipping companies around the world, and some marvelous  Historic and modern maritime artwork, displayed in the breathtakingly beautiful rooms of the former mansion. 

Established in 1942, the US Merchant Marine Academy is the only one of the service academies that flies the Battle Standard – a tribute to the 142 Academy cadets who perished during World War.II. One of the rooms in the museum, the “142 Gallery” – a stunning, intimate setting – pays homage to each one. 

The Gold Coast mansion, harking back to the Gilded Age, is utterly stunning, William Slocum Barstow, the first mayor of Kings Point, made his fortune first, as a partner with Thomas Edison until he set out on his own, in 1901, one of the first electrical engineers. He founded many electric utility companies and was the man responsible for lighting the Brooklyn Bridge. He was very much involved in Great Neck community, even funding the bridge and overpass at the Long island Railroad to cut down on the fatalities when the train crossing was a street level, and he and his wife donated the funds for the Woman’s Club of Great Neck. The Mediterranean Revival-style mansion was Barstow’s main residence The Barstow Mansion was his main residence from 1 915 until the end of his life, in 1942, and then his wife’s until 1953 when it was sold to the Lundy family (of Lundy Restaurant fame). The architectural features – wood paneling, decorative ceilings – are breathtaking. 

It is most fitting that during this ceremony, Dr. Joshua Smith noted “this is a new day for the museum: that there is a new website (fammm.us) and plans to expand, with the addition of a new wing. 

“How to Abandon Ship” is on display through March 30, 2017.  The American Merchant Marine Museum is located on the grounds of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, 300 Steamboat Road, Kings Point, NY 10024fammm.us. Admission is free, and it is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Friday (closed during USMMA holidays and the month of July).  It is highly recommended that you call (516) 726-6047 or e-mail museum@usmma.edu before visiting.

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