Without the structure of an official branch of the military, the US Merchant Marine would have to rely on the strength of their numbers leveraged through labor unions to protect themselves.

A tale of sacrifice and survival, the USS Taylor and USS Blakeley, two Wickes-class destroyers, exemplified the bravery and resilience of the US Navy during World War II.

For Allied leaders, 1942 was a year of incredible danger and anxiety in the Battle of the Atlantic.

When the troop ship he was aboard in the North Atlantic began sinking, Rabbi Alexander Goode and his fellow chaplains sacrificed themselves so that others could live.

USS Mason was the first US Navy fleet vessel crewed by a majority of African American sailors.

Coast Guardsman Charles Walter David Jr. volunteered to rescue sailors from the doomed USAT Dorchester and also saved the lives of two of his own shipmates.

This is the story of Michael McShane and how he survived the sinking of the SS Athenia, the first ship torpedoed by a U-boat in World War II.

The Battle of the Atlantic was fought with some of the newest technologies, however, in one duel, creative sailors resorted to kitchenware in an effort to fend off boarding enemy sailors.

Winston Churchill called it "one of the most melancholy naval episodes in the whole of the war.”

Two months before Pearl Harbor, a sailor became Louisiana's first fatality in World War II.