The Society Of Port Engineers, Los Angeles & Long Beach

The Society of Port Engineers, Los Angeles/Long Beach is an organization dedicated to the advancement of the marine industry on a professional working level. It provides a forum for dialog in the maritime industry and supports education through scholarships. Anyone who has an interest in any aspect of the marine industry is welcome to membership. Although our organization was officially chartered on October 2, 1946, the Port Engineers of the various steamship companies had been meeting informally for several years. They shared many common problems, so it was natural that they would get together to exchange ideas and help each other. For example, during the war years, multiple and often conflicting inspections were required by the War Shipping Board, the American Bureau of Shipping and the Coast Guard. This made work difficult for the Port Engineers, to say the lease, so they banded together to discuss the problems and to try to get more cooperation from those groups. Ross Marble, reporter for the Log (and later founder of Mayday Magazine), was traveling up and down the Coast and was in close touch with each of the local ship building communities. When the San Francisco Society formed in February 1946, Ross reported the event and encouraged a similar move by the Los Angeles-Long Beach group. He went so far as to set up a special meeting at the Virginia Country Club, and invited a group of the San Francisco Port Engineers down to help with the “official chartering’.