Grapevine, June 1944 -- A.A. GOES TO SEA
...Or rather the merchant seamen have discovered A.A.! Just over a year
ago, Dr. Florence Powdermaker, a well-known psycho-analyst, sent us a
patient - who promptly dried up, pleasing the good doctor no end. Then
Dr. Powdermaker put on a naval uniform and took up the problems of tired
or shell-shocked seamen. Oddly enough she found that many of them had
just the same problem we landlubbers are cursed with ... they were
alcoholics and they wanted the worst way to get over it. She tried the
A.A. literature on them - the book and the pamphlets - and it worked!
When there got to be about 40 of them, those who were still ashore put
their heads together. Like the rest of us, they wanted to help others
recover - but they felt they had a special field in other seamen. They
know seamen, and they know that most regular seamen look at landlubbers
as almost a race apart. Their name for us is "shore people," and they
don't easily feel at home with us. Add that to the alcoholic apartness -
and you have something. So they figured they'd catch more seamen if they
had their own group - for seamen only. But we're sure that will be only
at the beginning - they'll find, as we did, that alcoholics are buddies
under the skin, no matter what their profession or background, and as a
matter of fact the original delegation who came to tell us of their plans
and ask our cooperation, were instantly absorbed, to their own and our,
intense pleasure.
But if and when they form their own group and get their own clubhouse, we
wish them all the luck in the world - as one drunk to another, fellows in
A.A
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The Legacy Group of Alcoholics Anonymous © 2005