02 July 2008
Tall Ships
New York Harbor, 1976 during Operation Sail
It is almost the 4th of July, and the weather has broken in the right direction. It is sunny but cool in Washington. If it wasn’t so nuts at the office it would be a great time to kick back. The Government customer dropped a contract opportunity on the vehicle I am supposed to manage, timed so the contracting officer could take a vacation over the holiday.
I remember the days when I was not a marionette to the vagaries of a junior Government worker. Maybe my favorite 4th of July was the one right before I decided to become a junior spook myself. It was 1976, the Bi-centennial. There were all kinds of great ceremonies that year, but the Parade of the Tall Ships in New York was going to be something special.
The sea-faring nations of the world agreed to send their big sailing ships, the last of their kind, to New York as part of Operation Sail.
President Kennedy founded the concept in 1961 to promote unity and international goodwill. It was in common with his vision of the Peace Corps: the gathering of majestic tall ships would provide a place for the young sailors to unite in a single passion and purpose.
JFK did not live to see the first edition of OpSail in 1964, but he was remembered in the second iteration that would be bigger and better, in keeping with the significance of America’s two hundredth birthday of the nation. Nineteen of the big ships arrived to be in the nautical review, and the ships would later dock and allow the general public to come aboard for tours.
The sailors would get a chance to pull liberty in The Big Apple, and all around it would be a public relations extravaganza.
As a matter of course, I don’t believe in coincidence. Professional training and cynicism have built up over the years. When something happens, it normally happens because somebody did something to make it so. But I acknowledge that sometimes stuff happens.
It is delicious, really, since there obviously can be no rational connection between what was happening in 1941 and what happening twenty five years later on the Fourth of July in 1976.
Consider that the concept of the Tall Ships review was originated by John Kennedy. Of the nineteen tall ships in New York Harbor, three were former training ships of Adolf Hitler’s Navy, the one that lit up the Long Island sky with burning freighters in the War.
Harbor security was provided quietly by the same vendor that had done it the last time New York was threatened. The Mob made sure that the sailors were safe, and the petty thugs who normally prey on them wereon their very best behavior. Crime dropped to near zero. People were happy and friendly.
The Parade of Ships moored on the West side of Manhattan, and the German Navy warship Gluksburg was among the ships berthed at Pier 88, along with two steel-hulled sailing ships that had once flown the Swastika, the US Coast Guard Cutter Eagle and the Soviet Navy'sTovarishich.
Crime dropped to just about zero, which was remarkable considering police estimated the crowd at Pier 88 at nearly 150,000 celebrating people.
If you thought it was just about a great celebration, you would have been right and ignored the significant contributions of the soon-to-be closed Third Naval District, headquartered on Church Street near the new World Trade Center complex. And the Mob, of course.
And that is the other thing. Pier 88 is where the magnificent French ocean liner Normandie had been interned when the war broke out, and the Navy decided to take over the most luxurious ships since the Titanic over as a fast troop ship.
She was under conversion as Naval Intelligence swarmed over the docks, looking for saboteurs and spies. In so doing, they naturally came in contact with the men who worked for Mario “Socks” Lanza. Couldn’t help it. Lanza and Albert "Tough Tony" Anatasia and a crew of vicious entrepereurs owned the docks, and they ran it for their Boss, Lucky Luciano.
Lucky was in the slammer, though, and it was unlikely he would ever see the light of day again. Socks And Albert were men of honor, though, and loyal to a fault. They thought they might have a great opportunity to leverage the war, and the Navy, into freedom for the Boss.
The most luxurious ocean liner of the day might be just the ticket to Lucky’s freedom.
It’s late. I’ll have to get to that tomorrow.
Copyright 2008 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com