Oral History Interview with Frank Trezza: Brooklyn Navy Yard oral history collection: NYU Special Collections Finding Aids

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Frank J. Trezza discuss his experiences as a marine electrician for Seatrain Shipbuilding in the Navy Yard in the 1970s, the injury that lost him the job, and his subsequent career at other shipyards. Through this discussion, he also touches on national and international politics of shipbuilding, his photography of the Yards, and the writing of his book. He also talks about his training at the Food and Maritime Trades Vocational High School. He tells about his family's four-generation history in Brooklyn, including several family members who worked at the Navy Yard. His wife, Millie, was also present for the interview, and she told the story of their courtship and marriage. Interview conducted by Sady Sullivan.

Biographical / Historical

Frank J. Trezza (1952- ) was hired by Seatrain Shipbuilding as a Mechanic Helper at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1973 and eventually worked his way up to the position of First Class Marine Electrician. He worked at the Navy Yard until 1978 when he was injured on the job and told by doctors that he would never work in the shipbuilding profession again. Following rehabilitation from his injuries, Mr. Trezza relocated to Maine where he resumed working as a First Class Marine Electrician at Bath Iron Works, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire, and in South America for a European defense contractor. In 1999, Mr. Trezza earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Southern Maine, and in 2007, he published the book, Brooklyn: Steel-Blood Tenacity, a memoir of the years he spent working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Conditions Governing Access

This interview can be accessed onsite at Brooklyn Historical Society's Othmer Library and online at the Oral History Portal.

Subjects

Organizations

International Workers Order; Seatrain Shipbuilding Corp; New York Naval Shipyard

People

Trezza, Frank J.

Topics

Places

Sheepshead Bay (New York, N.Y.); Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)

Oral History Interview with Frank Trezza, October 9, 2009, inclusive