The following is a copy of a book review of Brooklyn Steel-Blood Tenacity dated October 26, 2008;
George Mason University History News Network By Robert Parmet Professor of History,
York College of the City University of New York
The Brooklyn Navy Yard has had a long life. A shipyard along the East River, it was owned and operated
by the United States Government from 1801 to 1966, purchased by New York City in 1967, and then
reopened in 1971 as an industrial park. Two years later, Frank Trezza found a job there as a marine electrican
for Seatrain Shipbuilding. Under conditions that he describes in vivid detail in his autobiography,
Brooklyn Steel-Blood Tenacity, he worked on four VLCCs ( very large crude carries), an ice breaker
barge, eight ocean going barges, and two roll-on/roll-off (R0-Ros) until two herniated discs and
nerve damage along his right leg incurred on the job forced him into retirement from Seatrain.
Determined not to be sidelined permanently, he afterward worked at the Bath Iron Works in Maine, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire, and a European defence contractor in South America.
In 1999 at the age forty-six, he recived a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of
Southern Maine. Interesting enough, at the same time his son received a BA in political science from
the same school.
Though Trezza provides a brief historical perspective on the Yard towards the end of his account,
what he essentially presents is autobiography, the story of how he and his wife, Milagros,
managed to survive and have three children under difficult circumstances.
Trezza and his fellow shipbuilders endured long layoffs, twelve-hour work days, seven-day work weeks,
an often treacherous workplace with dangerous walkways, falling equipment, icy decks in winter,
hot decks in summer, toilets without privacy, and obnoxious human beings. Labor relations in building
the VLCC Williamsburg, for example, involved dealing with the "rat patrol," people who would raid the
restroom and take note of the workers who were there rather than at work and then accuse them of
not producing enough, which was punishable by suspension without pay or dismissal. One such
individual, "Mr. Rat," received his comeuppance on a bus, where he was beaten in the face with a
tow truck chain. While building the Stuyvesant ("Economic Hell!), workers gained revenge on
an unpopular supervisor by making a voodoo doll to represent him and sticking pins in its crotch.
More Pleasant is what happened to Mary Lindsay, the wife of Mayor John Lindsay. Before a crowd
of some 5,000 people, she attempted to christen the Brooklyn by smashing a bottle of champagne
on a bracket over the bow. To everyone's dismay, her aim was poor and the bottle not only failed to break,
but also fell out of her hands onto the dry dock below. To the rescue came a marine electrican, who had
anticipated the problem, with another bottle of champagne, which he smashed as the crowd cheered.
Along with this account of a ceremony are those accidental deaths, reminiscent of Upton Sinclair's
indictment of the meatpacking industry in The Jungle. For example, one workers died from loss of blood
after his legs were crushed by an I-beam, another from a forty-foot fall when he lost his footing on an
overhead crane.
Dispite the sometimes terrible working conditions, Frank Trezza expresses gratitude for the opportunity
to have worked for Seatrain Shipbuilding, which fell victim to international competition and
economic conditions and shut its gates in 1979. "A very large group of economically disadvantaged
minorities living in the bowls of poverty were given a chance to work and better themselves against all odds"
Those people, coming from diverse backgrounds, which the author does not stress in his account,
are this book's heroes. They were workers struggling with each other, their union, and their bosses,
as they built great ships. Trezza tells his story and theirs without pretense, in the often raw language of the workplace, and illustrates it with his own photographs.
Brooklyn Steel-Blood Tenacity publisher; Publish America.
ISBN1-4241-8273-5
Brooklyn Steel-Blood Tenacity Copy Right 2007 All Rights reserved.
To order Brooklyn Steel-Blood Tenacity, you can use the following links.
www.PublishAmerica.com www.Amazon.com www.Borders.com
Questions, coments or just want to talk to the Author, please go to Contact Us [above].
No picture may be copied or reproduced without wriiten permisission by Frank J. Trezza, all rights reservised.
Pictures inside the Yard
If you ever worked for Seatrain Shipbuilding Corporation inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard and would like to
give an oral history please contact the Brooklyn Navy Yard Historian.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard Historian,
Brooklyn Navy Yard Corp. Building 292
Flushing Ave. Unit 300, Brooklyn N.Y. 11205
or Phone 718-907-5900
Please ask for the Seatrain Shipbuilding years be included in the history of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
.