5,500 people gathered together at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan on November 7, 1943 to honor Allied merchant seamen “who are giving generously of their blood and labor in the great battle for decency and liberty.” 1,025 seamen cadets from New York training stations joined 400 seamen from Europe in a procession that featured the flags of the 34 nations fighting the Axis. The service was led by Bishop of New York William T. Manning, with SCI’s Director, Rev. Harold H. Kelley delivering a sermon on the sacrifice of merchant seamen during wartime:

“Without our merchant seamen, Guadalcanal might now be a powerful Japanese air base and Australia a Japanese colony. Russia might not have fought her marvelous campaign for freedom had not merchant seamen from Great Britain, Norway, the United States, Holland and Belgium been courageous and skillful enough to brave the heat of the Persian Gulf and the terrible wintry runs to Murmansk with supplies. Truly global has been the task of merchant seamen in this vast war. If they as a keystone had pulverized, the living arch would have collapsed and we would be rubble under the Nazi heel.” [see New York Times 1943 November 8]