"Entering our third century of continuous operation, the mission remains unchanged: to maintain and develop skill in seamanship, to effect a change in maritime law towards the development of the American Merchant Marine, to assist the seamen of other countries towards the establishment of the Brotherhood of the Sea."
The full and precise horror of the fire and sinking of the dive boat Conception is still unknown, but enough details have emerged to list the Labor Day weekend tragedy
among the worst maritime disasters in decades.
The origins of the Sailors' Union of the Pacific go back to March 6, 1885, when the Coast Seamen's Union was organized on the San Francisco waterfront by a group of three hundred sailors dissatisfied by the wages and conditions aboard ship that existed at that time.
In 1886, the Steamship Sailors' Union was organized and in 1891 merged with the Coast Seamen's Union to form the Sailors' Union of the Pacific.
The Sailors' Union of the Pacific has been in continuous operation, through good times and bad, for over 129 years an achievement unequaled by any maritime union in the world.
