For more information about the San Jacinto Battleground and the Battleship Texas, visit the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s website. (3523 Independence Parkway, South LaPorte, TX; Ph. 281 4792431; www.tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/ battleship-texas) ... The Wood Island Life Saving Station Association (WILSSA) has received a challenge-match donation pledge of $200,000 from the Thomas Haas Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. WILSSA formed in 2011 to restore the former US Life Saving Service Station, built in 1908, with hopes of opening it to the public as a maritime museum. The life-saving station and tool shed were built by Sugden Brothers of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for the US Life Saving Service; they became property of the US Coast Guard when that organization was founded in 1915. The US Navy took over the station in World War II to protect submarine production at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and then the site was included in the coastal defense system, protecting the area from German submarines. After the war, control reverted to management and use by the US Coast Guard. When the Coast Guard moved to a facility across the harbor in New Castle, New Hampshire, the land was surplused, changing hands a few times. It is now under stewardship of the town of Kittery. The years of disuse and lack of upkeep took their toll, until WILSSA stepped in, spending a total of $2.2 million thus far in hazardous material removal and restoration. The group has already raised approximately $50,000 to match the grant, and hopes that continued support will get them that much closer to their goal of opening the site to the public. (Wood Island Life Saving Station Association, PO Box 11, Kittery Point, ME 03905; email: contact@woodislandlifesaving.org) … The Maine Maritime Museum broke ground in March on an ambitious program to transform the museum grounds, creating a five-acre space that will provide improved accessibility, river access, and opportunities for visitors to explore the museum’s unique environment. The landscaping project, titled “First Impressions,” will serve to reinforce the relationship between the museum and its location along midcoast Maine. New plantings of 73 native trees
Congressional Sail-In
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by Salvatore Mercogliano PhD
n 6 March 2019, 150 representatives from the United States maritime industry—ship owners, union representatives, shipbuilders, and advocacy groups—made the trek to Capitol Hill to speak to 195 members of Congress regarding issues facing the American merchant marine. The Maritime Industry Congressional “Sail-In” is an annual event—now in its 10th year—to advocate on the issues facing the domestic shipping industry. The Sail-In, a direct response to the decline in the ocean-going fleet of American-flagged vessels, has grown over the years. At the end of the Second World War, the American merchant marine was the largest in the world. With the introduction of new registries and escalating costs to keep ships documented in the United States, the current fleet ranks 22nd in the world, with only 180 ships over 1,000 gross tons in service. This year, the delegates from the Sail-In focused on one major national challenge resulting from this decline in the merchant marine—the deficiency in qualified mariners to crew vessels in case of war or national emergency. In 2018, the current Maritime Administrator, Rear Admiral Mark Buzby, identified an 1,800-person shortfall in the event of a full and prolonged mobilization. Ships of the Ready Reserve Fleet and those maintained in a reduced operating status by the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) require licensed mariners from the active fleet to crew these vessels. The decline in the unlimited tonnage category of the American merchant marine marks a significant concern for national security. To help offset this danger and to facilitate the growth of the American maritime industry, the representatives in the Sail-In advocated several actions. The first request was for better enforcement of cargo preference, under which a percentage of US taxpayer-financed exports and imports are transported in American ships. Sail-In participants requested that all military cargoes be transported in that way and in accordance with American laws. Second, they asked for members of Congress to affirm their support for the Jones Act, which requires American-built, American-owned, American-crewed, and American-flagged ships operating in the protected coastal—or cabotage—trade. Third, they supported efforts to encourage American vessels in the transportation of energy exports. Fourth, they aimed to garner support for the Maritime Administration’s (MARAD’s) Marine Highway Program to alleviate congestion on the nation’s highways and railways by shifting cargo afloat, using the nation’s rivers and coastal waterways. Finally, those participating in the Sail-In advocated the full funding of the sixty ships enrolled in the Maritime Security Program. Since 1996 and following the end of the operational differentials under the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, the nation has supported these privately owned and military-useful ships as a key component of the nation’s commercial sealift capability. Some argue that the maritime transport covered by the Maritime Security Program, the Jones Act, cargo preference, energy exports, and the Marine Highway Program can be outsourced to foreign-flag shipping, such as those under open registries, such as Panama, Liberia, or the Marshall Islands. While foreign ships could provide the transportation for the United States commercial cargo, in times of war and national emergencies, this would mean endangering the nation’s seapower capability. All the great thalassocracies in the world possess not only military fleets, but also commercial abilities. Without a domestic merchant marine, the United States could find itself at the mercy of international corporations and foreign shipping lines during periods of extremis. This year’s Congressional SailIn aimed to promote not just the current state of the maritime sector, but its past and future. (www.maritimesailin.org)
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