Abstract

American Gallantry at Sea

The remarkable feat of the steamship America in picking up the sinking Italian steamer Florida, after receiving signals which placed her one hundred and fifty miles away from the place where she actually was, is something much more than a triumph of the radio compass. It enabled ship captain George Fried to prove, as he did before, when U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt under his command rescued the crew of the Antinoe, that there is nothing wrong with the spirit and fiber of the men who are manning the new U.S. merchant fleet. The names of the men who take their lives in their hands and enter the lifeboats are different from those that were written on the muster rolls of the beautiful old frigates of the War of 1812 and the Nantucket whalers, but the spirit of gallantry remains unchanged.