The Goal: Resurgence In the 1980s! By C. William Neuhauser
The superliner United States. Painting: William G. Muller.
Corning Up to Speed with The Merchant Marine Today The United States is being recommissioned to sail on West Coast-Hawaiian cruises . Built in 1952 as the world's fastest and safest passenger ship, she had been laid up since 1969. New, economical power systems use both her giant enginerooms, and her new owner, Richard Hadley of Seattle, says: "We'll use soybeans for fuel if we have to, but the SS United States is here to stay." The liners Independence, Santa Rosa, Monterey and Mariposa, all retired in the 1970s, will also be reactivated, under revised maritime law which makes their sailing economically possible. Sea-Land, whose innovative service in high-speed SL-7 containerships has changed the patterns of fast freight around the world in our time (see SH 12), is launching this year a whole fleet of intermediate-size diesel ships to carry integrated service to lesser ports with maximum flexibility. Twelve of these highly efficent DZ-9s will be in service before this year ends, under the American flag. On the Great Lakes, American Steamship completed a second 1,000 foot supercarrier last year, and two more are scheduled for launching by other owners in 1980. In coastal waters, the fishing industry is looking up following belated US adoption of the 200 mile Fishery Conservation Zone; American fishermen are now taking a majority of the harvest, and foreign vessels operating in the zone fell from about 2500 in 1976 to 700 in 1978. Congressman John M. Murphy (whose efforts on behalf of the merchant marine in foreign trade are reported in a following article) looks to further measures to cultivate underutilized fish breeds, and to reduce the $2 billion in fish products imported annually by this nation-a nation whose initial wealth was generated by colonial fishermen. These stirring signs of revival take place against this dismal background: over 95 percent of US overseas trade is now carried in ships of other nations. World trade today is controlled by national bargaining, SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980
resulting in interlocking carriage agreements in which the US is effectively locked out. New law and revised regulations to enable American flag ships to compete effectively are coming up for action this year; we urge all who understand the importance of seafaring to play some part. The sea is in our blood, and if it has stirred sluggishly of late in the arteries of public opinion, let it now awake! Reaching People Americans are stirred by adventure and high endeavor, and in a confusing age, they are intelligently casting back on the trail that brought them here-the true challenge of our seafaring experience, which is more than mere nostalgia. In their millions, they seek out the truth of that experience in historic seaport centers today-centers which offer very new challenge from old roots. The whole nation was stirred when the tall ships of Operation Sail came to New York in 1976 on the 200th anniversary of a republic born of the sea. Frank 0. Braynard, Advisory Chairman of the National Society, was the originator and impresario of that event. A founder of South Street Seaport Museum, Braynard conducts the annual New York Harbor Festivals each July 4. He is Chairman of Op Ship, Ltd., which offers sea-oriented programming to commercial enterprises across America. Things that work commercially, reach people and get into our bloodstream. We are unabashedly a nation of work and commerce. Seamen and scholars carry the story forward in other ways. John Bunker recently wrote the first history of our greatest port, New York, to appear since 1941. This good work (reviewed on page 39) recalls such years as 1943, when the port sent 10,000 ships to sea to relieve the battlefronts of a world at war, so turning the tide of a struggle that began very badly; and it illustrates how pervasively seafaring affects the life of the nation. "The port's heritage,'' he writes, ''is the people and the wealth of the land ." PS
Executive Secretary, National Maritime Council When the American flag was new on the oceans, President George Washington called for such "encouragement to our own navigation as will render our commerce and agriculture less dependent on foreign bottoms." President Thomas Jefferson, though of quite a different school, told the House of Representatives that as "a branch of industry, our navigation is valuable-but as a resource of defenseessential." In 1936, when US ships were carrying only some 30 percent of our foreign trade, the Merchant Marine Act was adopted, calling for 50 percent to be carried in US ships . Yet today less than 5 percent of our foreign commerce is carried in US bottoms. How has this happened? Other seafaring nations, and those entering this arena such as China and the USSR, provide support to their merchant fleets without parallel in the US. Excess tonnage is subsidized and "dumped" on world trade routes . Increasingly, who carries what is determined by international bargaining, in which the United States cannot participate effectively due to US antitrust laws, and other laws and regulations which apply only to US shippers. To restore order to this scene, the United Nations is considering a policy under which trading partners would each carry 40 percent of each nation' s total trade, with 20 percent allowed to "cross traders" sailing under third flags. That overall policy is unlikely to get far unless backed by national actions. Why have we alone, among major seafaring nations, failed to act forcefully to maintain our position? Our policies, more than those of other maritime powers, are set by public opinion. And most Americans simply are not aware of the role merchant ships play in their lives, and their livelihoods. They see trucks, trains and planes every day-but they don't see the ships that carry their products to ports of call throughout the world. The National Maritime Council is working for adoption of a national maritime policy through development of a fair, competitive international cargo policy, and through even-handed enforcement of US laws that currently apply only to US merchant ships but not to foreign vessels that trade in our ports. We invite public debate and participation.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION : National Maritime Council, 1742 N Street, NW, Washington DC 20036. 21