Remember the Stranger-Merchant Mariner

When I was a boy I remember watching the tv series "Victory at Sea." I doubt if any young boys today have ever heard of this series about the brave and courageous captains and seaman who during World War Two manned the freighters transporting vital goods and supplies to Europe and Africa. Sadly many of the "Liberty Ships" as they were aptly named were torpedoed and sunk by German submarines. Many members of the U.S. Merchant Marine went down with their ships.
I'm sure many older adults remember the series "Victory at Sea" but I doubt if many remember the U.S. Merchant Marine ships during World War Two that were lost within sight of land off the east coast of the United States and off the coasts of the gulf states delivering precious cargoes necessary for our wartime factories and even goods and supplies for the civilian population. Many brave and courageous captains and seaman went down with their ships which were also sunk by German submarines.

Dear Lord-Remember our brave and courageous captains and seaman who were members of the U.S. Merchant Marine and went down with their ships in World War Two. We also remember the brave and courageous members of the U.S. Merchant Marine who have lost their ongoing battle with the sea during peacetime serving their country and have gone down with their ships. Grant them grace at the moment of their awful overtaking. Thank you Lord.


"...pray, pray to the merciful Master for help...in their final agonizing moments, since for God time is infinitely malleable, and he will have heard what the poet (and the reader) asks even now, a month or a century on:

the prayer thou hearst me making
Have, at the awful overtaking,
Heard: have heard and granted
Grace that day grace was wanted...

It is all one can do. As for those precious souls...only God can be in at the end, only the Father can help there. "Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life," Paul Mariani. Father Gerard Manley Hopkins was an English poet and Jesuit priest.