Shore Job

Because it is largely responsible for the safety of vessels at sea, the U. S. Bureau of Navigation & Steamboat Inspection has had to take its share of blame for the Morro Castle disaster.* Notably concerned by the Bureau's apparent inefficiency was President Roosevelt. Last week, as the first step in its reorganization, he drafted a famed seaman to take what the Bureau's Director Joseph B. Weaver called "the most important job of its kind in the world." The job: supervising inspector of the Bureau's 2nd District (New York, Philadelphia, Albany, New Haven). The man: Captain George Fried of the S. S. Washington.

Best-known shipmaster in the U. S. Merchant Marine, Captain Fried, at 57, is famed for his ocean rescues--25 men from the British freighter Antinoe in 1926, 32 men from the Italian freighter Florida in 1929. Month ago, as skipper of the S. S. Washington, he sent out a lifeboat to pick up the survivors of a cinema-chartered plane which crashed 600 mi. at sea, while trying to take off newsreels of King Alexander's assassination (TIME, Oct. 22). For that rescue Captain Fried, standing last week for the last time in the shadow of the Washington's funnels, received his company's distinguished service gold medal from Vice President P. V. G. Mitchell.

In resigning from the U. S. Lines to take a job ashore, Captain Fried will have to take a salary cut. In his new position he will, among other things, be responsible for the physical inspection of all U. S. vessels in his district, the inspection and examination of all life-saving equipment, licensed officers, able seamen and lifeboat men. On his nights ashore he loves to sit for hours at a window smoking his pipe and watching traffic. His wife, whom he met when she was a guest at the captain's table, does not permit him to drive in it. It makes him too nervous.

* Last week the charred Ward Liner, still stuck on the beach off Asbury Park. N.J., added another life to its toll of 134 when the assistant wrecking master of the salvage crew fell to his death down an open hatchway.

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