Mulzac, Hugh Nathaniel

Impact on the world

Earned his ship master's license in 1918 with a perfect examination score but was denied any command for 24 years due to racial discrimination, until 1942, when he was finally offered captaincy of the SS Booker T. Washington, the first Liberty ship named for an African American; he refused to accept command of the all-Black crew the U.S. Maritime Commission had planned, declaring he would never command a 'Jim Crow' ship, and the Commission relented, making him the first Black captain of a fully integrated American vessel.

Life & background

Born on Union Island in what is now St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Mulzac went to sea after high school and earned his mate's license in Wales before becoming a U.S. citizen in 1918 and passing his shipmaster's examination with a perfect score that same year, a credential that nonetheless secured him no command for over two decades due to racial discrimination in the shipping industry. He briefly served as a captain for Marcus Garvey's Black Star Line in the early 1920s before its collapse forced him back into steward's department work for 20 years. In 1942, the U.S. Maritime Commission offered him command of the SS Booker T. Washington, but only with an all-Black crew; Mulzac refused, insisting on integration, and after NAACP pressure, the Commission relented, making him the first Black captain of a fully integrated American merchant vessel. Over the next four years he completed 22 round-trip voyages, transporting roughly 18,000 troops and vital war supplies, but lost his command when the war ended and, due to his labor union activism, was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, having his seaman's papers revoked entirely until a federal judge restored them in 1960, when, at 74, he finally found work again as a night mate.

Sources

1. U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD); Baltimore Sun; gCaptain; Caribbean Life