Box 1

Content Description This collection provides an intimate picture of Cecil Northrop's life at sea in the 1920s as a cadet in traning and merchant mariner. Northrop kept extensive diaries (handwritten and typed) where he recorded his impressions of life aboard the ship, foreign ports visited, people he met on his travels, and relationships with friends, family, and love interests. It appears Northrop was compiling some of the manuscripts into essays, and viewed his writing as part of the great sea narrative...

Content Description From the Collection: This collection provides an intimate picture of Cecil Northrop's life at sea in the 1920s as a cadet in traning and merchant mariner. Northrop kept extensive diaries (handwritten and typed) where he recorded his impressions of life aboard the ship, foreign ports visited, people he met on his travels, and relationships with friends, family, and love interests. It appears Northrop was compiling some of the manuscripts into essays, and viewed his writing as part of the great sea narrative...

Scope and Contents

Memoir of Northrop's time aboard the SS Santa Paula. Also titled "Before the Mast to the West Coast." Manuscript is 32 pages. Narrative starts two days out from New York, bound for the West Coast of South America through the Panama Canal.

Scope and Contents

Typed narrative titled "At Sea" June 26, 1921. Handwritten note: "Introduction Needed." Last entry July 17, 1921. 25 pages (but seems like there may be missing pages). At this time Northrop was a student at the New York State Nautical School, training aboard the Schoolship Newport.

Scope and Contents

First entry February 1, 1922; Last entry December 1922. At this time Northrop was a student in the New York State Nautical School.

Scope and Contents

Entries begin January 7, 1923 and end June 29, 1923, in North Sea East of Pentland Firth. 42 pages.

Scope and Contents

Entries begin July 1st, 1923, in Copenhagen, Denmark and end at home in Tenafly, New Jersey, December 14, 1923. 30 pages.

Scope and Contents

Entries start "At Sea New Years Eve" 1924 Lat. 34-00 N, 71-30 W. Last Entry is "At Sea Dec 30th 1924 Off San Salvador." 44 pages.

Scope and Contents

Three letters on Dollar Steamship Line stationery. The first was sent from San Francisco, dated December 3, 1925, and addressed to "Dearest Mama". The others were written to "Dearest Pop" on November 19th, 1926, on route from Honolulu to Kobe, and on December 1, 1926 from Shanghai, China. All were signed "your loving son Mick" (Micky was Cecil's nickname).

Scope and Contents

Clipping of article published in the Nautical Gazette, April 3, 1926.