Merchant Marine Veterans Inch Closer to Getting Floating Museum

During the course of his long-running battle with the Port of Los Angeles, Joseph B. Vernick, a feisty former merchant seaman who is trying to convert a mothballed cargo ship into a floating museum, once predicted that he would win his fight bit by bit.

“We’re just chipping away little by little,” said the 76-year-old Vernick, who heads a group that is pressing the port for a permanent berth for the vessel.

True to his prediction, Vernick has just carved out another little chip.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners authorized the port staff to study possible berthing sites and to spend up to $15,000 to hire a marine surveyor to assess the cost of refurbishing the ship, the 45-year-old Lane Victory.

“Two or three years ago, they told us there’s not an inch of space for us,” Vernick said in an interview Tuesday night. “Now they say there’ll always be a place for the Lane Victory in Los Angeles Harbor.”

Although port officials don’t go that far, they do say they are committed to working to find a spot for the ship. Just where that might be, however, remains a matter of dispute.

In 1988, Congress granted the 455-foot, 7,000-ton ship to Vernick’s group, the U.S. Merchant Marine Veterans World War II. Ever since, the group--which claims 7,000 members nationwide--has set its sights on obtaining the Port of Los Angeles’ Berth 87, near the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in San Pedro, as a permanent home for their ship.

But port officials have repeatedly said that berth is needed as a cargo terminal. In a report to the commissioners Wednesday, the port staff said it has identified four alternative sites: Berth 84 in San Pedro, also near the Maritime Museum; Berth 93E in San Pedro, north of the World Cruise Center; Berths 184-186 in Wilmington, near a proposed recreational waterfront development, and Berth 53 in San Pedro, near where the ship is now temporarily docked.

On Tuesday, Vernick gave various reasons--lack of parking and inconvenient access among them--as to why those berths are unacceptable. “We’re gonna get 87,” he declared.

But Wednesday, he appeared to soften, especially after Wilmington activists Gertrude Schwab and Simie Seaman told commissioners they would like to see the ship come to their community.

“Long Beach has the Queen Mary,” Schwab said. “San Francisco has the Jeremiah O’Brien. San Diego has the Star of India and Wilmington could have the Lane Victory.”

Asked what he thought of that, Vernick replied, “Everything’s a possibility.”

Ron Kennedy, port director of operations, said the ship’s final location will depend on how much it will cost to make each site suitable for the Lane Victory and also on the marine surveyor’s study.

The surveyor will be asked to determine the cost of refurbishing the vessel for use as a museum. In addition, because the veterans have said their long-range plans include using the vessel for occasional harbor tours, the Harbor Department wants the surveyor to estimate the cost of putting the Lane Victory into working order.

Port spokeswoman Julia Nagano described the marine survey as “a rather unusual move for us,” given that the Harbor Department has no plans to pay for the refurbishing effort. But she said the department needs a concrete estimate of what the project will cost.

Both Nagano and Kennedy said the veterans have failed to provide the port estimates of what it will cost to restore the ship and have not said how much money they have raised for the effort. Vernick also declined to provide details of the group’s fund raising to a reporter, although he did estimate his organization will need about $500,000 to make the ship into a museum.

In addition, he said the group recently received federal tax exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, which may make it easier for the veterans to obtain corporate funding for their effort.

For Vernick and his fellow World War II veterans, Wednesday’s decision by the commissioners was yet another step in a long fight to gain recognition for their comrades who died at sea. The group has spent countless hours writing letters, making phone calls and seeking political support for its project. Vernick said that he will see that the Harbor Department finds a suitable spot for the Lane Victory, if it’s the last thing he does.

“They never ran across a bunch of determined old geezers like us,” he said. “You know, I’m up in years, and I’ve gone through a lot in my life. In addition to being a prisoner of war for three years, I’ve had two open heart surgeries, and I’m still in there battling. . . . It’s because we have a purpose.”