January 25, 2010
It started with this e-mail from Laura J. Sherrod, senior vice president at Atlass Special Risks, a marine insurance company in Ft. Lauderdale:
"My mother would kill me if I did not take a moment to clear up some information regarding the Syncrolift in your note of lore [accompanying the A1 story about Merrill-Stevens laying off its employees in the January issue].
"The 'young man full of confidence and short on experience,' Raymond Pearlson, was working at Merrill Stevens at the time for a fellow named Alex Merrill Balfe, my grandfather. Alex designed the Syncrolift with Raymond.
"Alex was president of Merrill Stevens at the time and was taught engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy, although he never graduated due to an injury. Alex came up with the design and Raymond was able to finalize the engineering requirements. The Syncrolift was patented under both Alex Balfe's and Raymond Pearlson’s names. Alex later sold his portion of the patent to Raymond. That’s the rest of the story."
Being a lover of history, I invited Johnson and her mom, Susan Johnson, to lunch. Her father, Lester, joined us as well, as did a large cardboard box filled with photographs, photocopies of old Miami News and Miami Herald articles, and even a synopsis of the family history by Joanna Gilman Merrill, the sister to Merrill-Stevens founders, brothers Alex "The Colonel" and James "Gene" Merrill.
Joanna Gilman was the shipyard's first secretary, and as anyone knows, it's the secretaries who really keep businesses operating. She is also Sherrod's great grandmother and still alive at 101 on Florida's west coast.
There were stories of the beginnings of the company in Jacksonville, where the Merrill brothers operated a foundary. Perhaps their biggest customer was Henry Flagler, who referred the Merrills on to another wealthy man, Henry Plant, and tales of repairing his ship with salt pork.
Once in Miami, Joanna's son -- Alex Merrill Balfe, Sherrod's grandfather -- ran Merrill Stevens for 50 years, from 1930 to his retirement in 1980. While there, he designed the wire marine elevator in which a series of motors positioned around a ship were synchronized to each raised a portion of the ship, making it possible to lift even the heaviest of vessels out of the water.
"He had a brilliant mechanical mind," Lester Johnson, Sherrod's father, said during lunch. "He was just a little undercapitalized."
Alex Merrill Balfe was awarded the E Award by the U.S. government during World War II for "stellar performance in a war effort." He sold his shares in the family business before he retired, and Susan Johnson sold her about 10 years ago so the Johnsons and Sherrods don't have a personal stake in the shipyard's seeming end.
Still, they agreed, it's sad to watch. But they'll always have their history.
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