AM THE GOOD SHIP REEF MOT SPILEO FOR ALASKA
This is the story of a ship# The story of the relief ship,
Reef Knot, that was sent to Alaska in answer to a plea for food.
A plea that was carried to the executive heads of the nation by
Delegate *Bob Bartlett and Governor Srnest Gruening.
And of the many Alaskan voices that were raised high in that
earnest request for food, one of the loudest came from the city of
Seward# Seward, whose children cried for bread, whose mothers
pleaded for the ingredients needed to mix a baby’s formula. Se
ward, whose school children were found to be living on a deficient
diet which was threatening tne whole school population with malnu
£j»2.£ion# Seward, where tuberculosis patients in the Hospital lost
weight because essential fresh foods were lacking in their diet.
And because of the clamor for food, Alaska’s governor made a
decision to by-pass the strike-bound port of Seattle and load a
relief ship, the Reef Knot, from Portland. Cargo consigned to
that vessel held top priority in handling on the Portland docks.
In addition to the urgently needed' food supplies, the Reef Knot
was to carry medicines, warm winter clothing for Alaska’s children
and Christmas toys and candies.
The Reef Knot sa'iled from Portland on Dec, 18, And although
Seward merchants had denied the stories of food shortages (which
had been verified by statements from that city’s physicians and
school heads) the fathers and mothers of the, city of Seward were
happy, for boats in Seward meant money to spend for the food that
was needed. Almost the entire payroll of that port city is de
pendent on the longshoring work on its docks.
The Reef Knot docked in Seward the week of the Christmas holi
days*,* iust a day or two late with the Christmas packages, toys and
candies, and with a good supply of the more necessary fresh fruits
and vegetables. And at a late hour last week, over two weeks af
ter she first tied up at Seward, the Reef Knot still carried her
cargo of foods (not so fresh, now) and Christmas packages. •
For the workers of Seward chose to greet the ending of a weary
three-month-long shipping strike, which had been nationally cried
as one of the most crippling blows ever dealt the territory of
Alaska, with the beginning of a new strike -- one fomented and
crystallized in that city which so recently had voiced its pleas
for bread to the listening ears of a sympathetic nation.
Not new is this argument of who draws the winch operator’s
pay -- the sailor or the longshoreman. And should the Seward
longshoremen win the decision in that argument, what have they
won? Perhaps the malnourished children of Seward or the' under
weight patients of the sanitarium there can best answer that
question.