United States Merchant Marine - Noted U.S. Merchant Mariners

Noted U.S. Merchant Mariners

Merchant seamen went on to make their mark on the world. The first was mariner John Paul Jones, who went on to become the "Father of the American Navy".

Douglass North went from seaman to navigator to winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Economics.

After completing service in the Merchant Marines, multiple merchant seamen earned the Medal of Honor. George H. O'Brien, Jr. earned the award in the Korean War. Lawrence Joel earned the honor in the Vietnam war. Granville Conway, public servant, was a Presidential Medal for Merit recipient.

Some became notorious criminals. William Colepaugh was convicted as a Nazi spy in World War II. Perry Smith's own murderous rampage (in 1959) was made famous in Truman Capote's non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. George Hennard was a mass murderer who claimed twenty-four victims on a rampage at Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas (1991).

Mariners are well represented in the visual arts. Merchant seaman Johnny Craig was already a working comic book artist before he joined up, but Ernie Schroeder would not start drawing comics until after returning home from World War II. Seaman Haskell Wexler won two Academy Awards, the latter for a biography of his shipmate Woody Guthrie.

Merchant sailors have also made a splash in the world of sport. Drew Bundini Brown was Muhammad Ali's assistant trainer and cornerman, and Joe Gold went made his fortune as the bodybuilding and fitness guru of Gold's Gym. In football, Dan Devine and Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich excelled. Seamen Jim Bagby, Jr. and Charlie Keller played in Major League Baseball. In track and field, seamen Cornelius Johnson and Jim Thorpe both won Olympic medals, though Thorpe did not get his until thirty years after his death.

Writers Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Ralph Ellison, Herman Melville, and Jack Vance and were merchant mariners, as were prominent members of the Beat movement: Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, Bob Kaufman, Jack Kerouac, and Dave Van Ronk. Peter Baynham, the coauthor of the film Borat, and Donn Pearce, who wrote the movie Cool Hand Luke, were formerly merchant mariners. Filmmaker Oliver Stone won multiple Academy Awards.

WWII-era merchant mariners played well-known television characters. The list includes Raymond Bailey (who played Milburn Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies); Peter Falk (who played the title character on Columbo); James Garner (who played Jim Rockford on The Rockford Files); Jack Lord (who played Steve McGarrett on the original Hawaii Five-0); Carroll O'Connor (who played Archie Bunker on All in the Family); Denver Pyle (who played Uncle Jesse Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard); and Clint Walker (who played Cheyenne Bodie on Cheyenne).

Songwriter and lyricist Jack Lawrence was a mariner during World War II and wrote the official United States Merchant Marine song, "Heave Ho! My Lads, Heave Ho!" while a young lieutenant stationed at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, in 1943.

Writer/businessman Robert Kiyosaki claimed to have been a mariner.

Paul Teutul, Sr., the founder of Orange County Choppers and Orange County Ironworks, was a merchant mariner during the Vietnam War.