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.
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.
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. 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.
Seatrain Shipbuilding was doomed to fail from the start International Politics, Nation Politics,Local Politics, Bad Management and Bad Shiboard Equipment! The site is free to view.
A limited number of autographed copies can be obtained from the author for $16 each plus $2.50 for S&H [less than the book sellers]
Questions, want a autographed copy, coments or just want to talk to the Author, please go to Contact Us [above].
Picture may not be copied or reproduced without wriiten permisission by Frank J. Trezza, all rights reservised.
Pictures inside the Yard
Please ask for the Seatrain Shipbuilding years be given ample space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at Building 92.
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
Trezza, Frank J.
The Frank J. Trezza Seatrain Shipbuilding Collection, 1861-1988, 0.25 linear feet
ArMs 1988.016
The Frank J. Trezza Seatrain Shipbuilding Collection documents shipbuilding activities at the Brooklyn Navy Yard from its closing by the Department of Defense in the mid-1960s through its rebirth and eventual demise under the management of the Seatrain Shipbuilding Corp. Though the dates of the collection span from 1861 to 1988, the bulk of the records span the period 1973-1978, when Frank J. Trezza was an employee of Seatrain Shipbuilding. Included in the collection are newspaper clippings, union publications, pamphlets and newspapers published by Seatrain, a Seatrain employee orientation kit, black & white photographs, color photographs, color slides, and black & white negatives.
Subjects
- International Union, United Industrial Workers of America
- New York Naval Shipyard
- Seatrain Shipbuilding Corp.
- United States. Navy
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
VLCC's built by Seatrain Shipbuilding Corp; Brooklyn, Williamsburg, Stuyvesant, Bay Ridge.
Crown Hights was never built one of her boilers is still in the Yard near dry dock #6.
Barges; 7 Deck Barges, 1 Ice Breaker Barge, 1 Tank Barge were completed.
Ro-Ro's; 2 started but never finished, one was scraped and the other was towed to another yard
to be finished, a 3rd was never started.
The Sea Witch, work was started on her in an effort to turn her into a stainless steel chemical tanker.
Newport News finished work on her.