Letters Jones Act in the News From the Editor: In the previous two issues of Sea History, we’ve looked at the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, a.k.a. the Jones Act—its origins, benefits, and controversies. The Jones Act is an important and complicated piece of legislation and one misunderstood by most Americans, even by many who work in the maritime industry. No time has this been more evident than this fall, when a series of hurricanes in quick succession devastated American shores, from the US Virgin Islands to Puerto Rico, to the mainland at Florida and Texas. Suddenly the Jones Act was on everyone’s lips, and most times it was oversimplified and misinterpreted. The aspect of the Jones Act on everyone’s minds was not so much the components that we covered in Sea History, but about the cabotage laws and restrictions on shipping within territorial waters. Commissioner William Doyle of the Federal Maritime Commission, the independent federal agency responsible for regulating the US international ocean transportation system, explains here the role that Jones Act compliant companies and ships played in the recovery efforts during the 2017 hurricane season. Commissioner Doyle will contribute to our series on the Jones Act in the next issue of Sea History by looking at cabotage laws, manning requirements for Jones Act vessels, and domestic shipbuilding. —DO’R With the storms Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate, it has been a tough 2017 hurricane season, but the US Merchant Marine has once again answered the call. Now that there has been time to reflect on the recovery efforts, one thing is certain—the Jones Act played no role in slowing down relief aid to Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico. US-f lag and Jones Act sealift performed exceptionally. Recent US-flag maritime actions demonstrate the importance of Jones Act shipping. American-owned Jones Act companies like Crowley Maritime, Trailer Bridge, SEACOR Marine, TOTE, and FOSS Maritime are some of the US companies leading the response efforts. Additionally, US government-owned ships have been
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dispatched, including those operated by the private sector and crewed by American mariners. In the early 1990s, when the American military began operations in the Persian Gulf, the United States needed ships to support our troops overseas, and a massive effort was launched by the US government to break out mothballed ships from the National Defense Reserve Fleet. We needed skilled, experienced mariners to operate those ships, and we needed US companies to fly the US flag in support of American efforts overseas. During this period, the federal and six state maritime academies were called on for support. The cadets— college students—were asked to sail ships. Cadets relieved seasoned mariners so that they could be dispatched to the war zones. Further, the maritime academies were asked to release cadets to their respective regional US shipyards to break out ships for the war effort. Upon conclusion of Desert Shield/ Storm the Ready Reserve Force Fleet of prepositioned vessels was further developed and the Maritime Security Program was enacted. The Ready Reserve Force Fleet consists of ships owned by the US government, prepositioned around the US, contracted to the private sector and crewed by US mariners. The Maritime Security Program consists of vessels owned or operated by domestic and international
companies that domicile part of their business operations under US Department of Defense protocols, register their ships under the US flag and are required to crew their vessels with American mariners. Additionally, American companies have continuously worked to re-capitalize the Jones Act fleet of tankers, tugs, barges, container ships, container-roll on/roll off vessels, dredgers, and ferries, investing billions of dollars in American shipyard construction and modernizing ports and marine terminal operations. Over the past two decades, the US Merchant Marine and its Jones Act companies have responded effectively to every major maritime-accessible conflict and disaster that challenged the United States. Recall that horrific morning on September 11th sixteen years ago, when nearly 500,000 people were trapped in Lower Manhattan. The US Merchant Marine went to work. In fewer than nine hours, Jones Act vessels had rescued hundreds of thousands of people desperate to flee the area. It was the largest boat lift evacuation in history—moving more people by boat than in the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk, France. This year’s devastating hurricane season has been no different. Crisis after crisis, the US Merchant Marine is on duty. Under pressure from the general public, the Administration did waive the Jones Act
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