Does the United States Need a Maritime Policy?

[Kennebec Captain]

Does the United States Have a Maritime Policy? - Does it need one?

Clay Maitland is Managing Partner, at International Registries, Inc which administers the Marshall Island Registry believes that the Unites States can and should have U.S. flagged ships built in U.S. yards - here at Clay Maitland on Maritime TV

As a bonus he seeks U.S. licensed officers for Marshall Island flagged ship.

What say you?

K.C.

[c.captain]

This sir is the official policy of the US federal government TODAY! This remains an Act of Congress with full weight of Federal statute! I AM NOT SHITTING YOU!

Merchant Marine Act, 1936

AN ACT

To further the development and maintenance of an adequate and well-balanced American merchant marine, to promote the commerce of the United States, to aid in the national defense, to repeal certain former legislation, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

TITLE I -- DECLARATION OF POLICY

SECTION 101. It is necessary for the national defense and development of its foreign and domestic commerce that the United States shall have a merchant marine

(a) sufficient to carry its domestic water-borne commerce and a substantial portion of the water-borne export and import foreign commerce of the United States and to provide shipping service on all routes essential for maintaining the flow of such domestic and foreign water-borne commerce at all times

(b) capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time of war or national emergency,

(c) owned and operated under the United States flag by citizens of the United States insofar as may be practicable, and

(d) composed of the best-equipped, safest, and most suitable types of vessels, constructed in the United States and manned with a trained and efficient citizen personnel.

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to foster the development and encourage the maintenance of such a merchant marine.

Now, let's all go to Federal Court and sue our own government for failing to uphold the law of the people (as represented by their elected Congress) of the United States of America!

naww, forget it...nobody gives a shit anyway!


.

[Kennebec Captain]

naww, forget it...nobody gives a shit anyway!

I don't have much expertise in this subject but the ATB thread got me thinking that the industry is just competing on costs so the bar gets lowered every time someone figures out how to wring another nickle worth of work out of the crew or the wring a little more out of the boat, they get ahead.

Given the many different actors involved, terminal owners, ship owners, shipyards, maritime workers, unions and so forth I don't see how we can achieve a very favorable outcome if it is every man for him self. Seems like a little coordination could go a long ways.

That video got me thinking, maybe it is doable.

K.C.

[c.captain]

Given the many different actors involved, terminal owners, ship owners, shipyards, maritime workers, unions and so forth I don't see how we can achieve a very favorable outcome if it is every man for him self. Seems like a little coordination could go a long ways.

...maybe it is doable.

Of course anything is doable but there has to be will to do it and in over three decades I have seen that will not only never materialize but actually diminish. I see the great beginning of this slide to have started with Ronnie Reagan when his administration committed a wholesale gutting of US maritime policy in 1981 when the CDS and ODS were ended. From that moment onwards it has been a great race downwards. Only the MSP (ODS light) managed to keep the slaughter from being utter and complete. Commercial merchant shipbuilding has for all intents and purposes vanished with only the barest minimum number of Jones Act qualified ships being built these days. The workboat and barge sectors though are reasonably healthy and are the only bright spot at all in any of this. The GoM will be the job driver for US mariners in the foreseeable future imo.

Take away the Jones Act though (or significantly undermine it with more and more waivers) and the US maritime industry will vaporize into the mists of history.