Conclusion and Dedication

Herman Pederson was one of more than 5,000 purser-corpsmen serving aboard merchant ships in World War II.  It is estimated that between 230,000 and 250,000 seamen served in the Merchant Marine. Over 6,000 lost their lives, and 733 merchant ships were attacked and sunk.  

The success of the Liberty and Victory ship construction programs meant that despite these grievous losses the merchant fleet and its crews went from strength to strength in carrying out their responsibilities and enabling military victory over Japan and Germany.

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Dedication

This exhibition was published by the New London Maritime Society's Frank L. McGuire Maritime Library in the 100th year of Herman R. Pederson's birth and is dedicated to his memory. That he carefully preserved the documentary evidence of his wartime career suggests that he was proud of what he did. We would like to think he would be pleased that a public display of his archive could contribute to an understanding of the wartime role played by merchant seamen.

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The exhibition is also dedicated to the seamen less fortunate than Herman Pederson who made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.

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Their legacy lives in the hearts of their descendants, in the many books written about the Merchant Marine, in documentary films, and in the active programming of the two surviving Liberty ships: the SS John W. Brown in Baltimore and SS Jeremiah O'Brien in San Francisco.

----Brian Rogers, Online Exhibits Librarian,  September, 2021

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