Kermity the Navigator

The Shipping Board last week decided to merge its services to India and to Australia. Then it allocated the operation of its vessels over the new service to Kermit Roosevelt as president of the Roosevelt Steamship Co.

Kermit had sought this contract for months, might have lost out in the unusually keen competition, were it not for the recommendation of President Crowley of the Fleet Corp. Assured of operating the line, this youngest living son of the late President Roosevelt exclaimed: "I am convinced that there is an excellent future for the American Merchant Marine and intend to devote all my time toward making my operations a success."

The statement was a surprise to his friends, for it is no secret that to Kermit Roosevelt business is quite an academic affair. Ever since he played around the White House grounds 20 years ago, he has shown the naturalistic bent of his father. When Theodore Roosevelt was on his hunting trips, Kermit was usually along, taking photographs of his father and the fauna. The two were together on the African hunting trip of 1909-10, on the Brazilian "River of Doubt" exploration of 1914. (Between 1911 and 1916 Kermit made essays at engineering and banking in South America. He married Belle Wyatt Willard of Richmond, Va., in 1914.)

After the War he joined Henry Farquharson Kerr's Kerr Steamship Co. as vice president, became president of the Roosevelt Steamship Co. (The two concerns have the same offices at 44 Beaver St., Manhattan.) But the hold of shipping on him was slight. Certainly he found his affairs so well managed for him that he and Theodore Jr. could go to the Himalayas for Ovis poll pelts (TIME, March 8, SCIENCE.) Now, returned and rested, he says: "I am in shipping to stay,"