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The Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Coast Guard service, within the Ministry of National Security, commisioned the 'SVGS CAPT. HUGH MULZAC' on January 21st, 2019, at the Kingstown cruise ship terminal.

The SVGS CAPT. HUGH MULZAC was built by Damen Shipyards in Gorichem, Netherlands and delivered to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' Coast Guard Service on December 15th, 2018. She is commanded by Lieutenant Enos Hamlette.

The ship's name is SVGS CAPT. HUGH MULZAC. It has a length of 42.8 metres with a beam of 7.1 metres. The ship has a capacity of 19 members and an endurance of fourteen days. 

Biography of Captain Hugh Nathaniel Mulzac 

Hugh Nathaniel Mulzac, the first African American ship commander, was born on March 26th, 1886, on Union Island, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. After graduating from high school, Mulzac served on the British merchant vessels. He earned a mate's license from Swansea Nautical College in Great Britain and reached the rank of mate. During World War I, Mulzac served as a ship's officer on British and American ships. In 1918 Mulzac immigrated to the United States, became a citizen and two years later he became the first African American to pass the shipping master's examination. 

In 1920, Mulzac joined Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Because of his history with seafearing vessels, he was named a chief officer on the SS Yarmouth, one of the UNIA's Black Star Line vessels. Mulzac resigned from his position in 1921 because of disagreements with the Garvey organization. For the next twenty years, racial discrimination in the shipping industry forced Mulzac to work as a steward despite his previous experience. 

On Friday, 23rd October, 1942, during World War II at the age of 56, he became the first black naval officer to command a ship in the United States Merchant Marine. This opportunity came to command the first Liberty ship named after an African American, the SS Booker T. Washington. He initially declined the offer because commission policies required him to command an all-black crew. When the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other black organizations protested, commission officials then changed the racial policy and from 1942 to 1947 he commanded an integrated crew. Various Liberty ships under his command made 22 round trips, transporting 18,000 soldiers to the war theater in Europe and the Pacific. 

He retired from seafearing in 1947 at the age of 61 and turned to radical politics. In 1950, Mulzac ran on the American Labor Party (ALP) ticket for Queens Borrough President. With the United States in the midst of the Cold War, Mulzac in 1951 was blacklisted by shipping companies because of his affiliation with the controversial ALP; which many considered a communist organization. The U.S. Government also revoked his seaman's papers and license. In 1960, a federal judge reinstated Mulzac's seaman's documents and license and soon afterwards at the age of 75, Mulzac found work again as a seaman. Hugh Mulzac died at the age of 86 in 1971 in New York City. 

On June 13th, 1987, a Coast Guard Cutter was Commissioned and given the name "Captain Mulzac" in his honor, the vessel served the Coast Guard for twenty-four years and was decommissioned in 2011. On today's date, January 21st, 2019, in further recognition and honor of Captain Hugh Nathaniel Mulzac's contribution to the black seafearing community, Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Vessel is given the name 'CAPT. HUGH MULZAC'

SOURCE: Information Technology Services Division