Andrew Furuseth
| Andrew Furuseth | |
|---|---|
Circa 1879
|
|
| Born |
March 12, 1854 Romedal, Norway |
| Died | January 22, 1938 (aged 83) San Francisco, California |
| Occupation | Merchant seaman and labor reformer |
Andrew Furuseth (March 12, 1854 – January 22, 1938) of Åsbygda, Hedmark, Norway was a merchant seaman and an American labor leader. Furuseth was active in the formation of two influential maritime unions: the Sailors' Union of the Pacific and the International Seamen's Union, and served as the executive of both for decades.
Furuseth was largely responsible for the passage of four reforms that changed the lives of American mariners. Two of them, the Maguire Act of 1895 and the White Act of 1898, ended corporal punishment and abolished imprisonment for deserting a vessel.
Furuseth was credited as the key figure behind drafting and enacting the Seamen's Act of 1915, hailed by many as "The Magna Carta of the Sea" and the Jones Act of 1920 which governs the workers' compensation rights of sailors and the use of foreign vessels in domestic trade. In his later years, he was known as "the Old Viking."
Furuseth was born Anders Andreassen Nilsen, the fifth child of Andreas and Marthe Nielsen. The family had recently moved to a cottage in Furuseth, which lies in what is now the municipality of Stange. In accordance with local custom, the boy was named after his residence.
In 1855, the family moved to Damstuen where the elder Nilsen took a low-paying job working at a dam. Five more children were born, causing the family financial distress. At age eight, Furuseth was sent to work for a farmer, Jonas S. Schjotz in nearby Ostby, Romedal. Schjotz, noticing the young Furuseth's keen mind, sent him to a private Lutheran school.
On June 2, 1870 Furuseth moved to Oslo (then Christiania). He worked as a clerk and attempted to enter a military academy. Although he was ultimately unsuccessful in this bid, he did develop skills with the English, German, Dutch and French languages, which not only brought him employment at the time but would become very useful later in his life.
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