WORLD SHIP SOCIETY

Our June guest speaker, maritime historian J. Fred Rodriguez, was immediately inflicted with a condition when he first saw a well-painted Revell model of the S.S. UNITED STATES in 1954. The condition is understood by only a select few, and to this day no one really knows how it starts within us – only how to keep it under control. The visiting family doctor eventually hung a name on it: he called it “Shipitus,” and the rest is history. PONY Branch members and guests heard the real-life stories of a U.S. Merchant Mariner and the sometimes wacky, wacky stories of lives at sea that covered the good, the bad and the sometimes ugly of the vast “Maritime Industry” that affects all of us one way or another.

J. Fred Rodriguez has been a Merchant Mariner of both brown and blue water for 31 years, and holds the title of Able Bodied Seaman–Unlimited. J. Fred has also guest lectured on 76 different passenger and cruise ships on well over two hundred voyages, using 51 slide presentations that he’s researched and produced. June’s program evolved from the many great people within the maritime industry who have crossed his headings both on deck and at the Port of New York Branch of the World Ship Society, where he is a “Plankowner” of the branch.

(Image: USL/Bob Allen collection)