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Government Hesitancy Amidst Industry Discord: Decline of the United States-Flag Merchant Marine After World War II

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Government Hesitancy Amidst Industry Discord: Decline of the United States-Flag Merchant Marine After World War II Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2006 Government hesitancy amidst industry discord: Decline of the United States-flag merchant marine after World War II Deborah J. Hennen West Virginia University Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Hennen, Deborah J., "Government hesitancy amidst industry discord: Decline of the United States-flag merchant marine after World War II" (2006). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 798. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/798 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Government Hesitancy amidst Industry Discord: Decline of the United States-Flag Merchant Marine after World War II Deborah J. Hennen Thesis submitted to the Eberly College of Arts & Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History A. Michal McMahon, Ph.D., Chair Jason Parker, Ph.D. Kenneth Fones-Wolf, Ph.D. Department of History Morgantown, West Virginia 2006 Keywords: Merchant Marine, American-Flag Shipping, Maritime Industry Copyright 2006 Deborah J. Hennen Abstract Government Hesitancy amidst Industry Discord: Decline of the United States Flag Merchant Marine after World War II Deborah J. Hennen The American-flag merchant marine became the world’s largest during World War II. U.S.-flag ships carried most of the nation’s commerce, and the world looked to America for shipping strength. After the war, the different parties in the maritime industry began to fight for their individual interests as the American standard of living became the highest in the world. The federal government hesitated to step in and calm the growing discord, and several decades passed as American maritime policy stagnated. Only after the parties in the industry began cooperating with each other did Congress take positive steps to aid the American-flag merchant marine, but it still hesitated when industry disagreement or American foreign policy concerns surfaced. Since the U.S. government today remains ambivalent toward its national merchant fleet, cooperation by the parties comprising the maritime industry will be the only road toward recovery of a strong American-flag merchant marine. Acknowledgements I would like to thank the professors in the History Department at WVU for their encouragement and support as I entered a new field of study. I am especially grateful to Dr. Michal McMahon for pushing me to think like a historian and for helping me to develop writing skills that made my work more coherent and understandable. Also, thank you to Dr. Jason Parker for pointing me in the right direction to begin this project and to Dr. Ken Fones-Wolf for his patient assistance. I am also indebted to my colleagues, shipmates, and friends in the maritime industry both ashore and at sea. Without them, I would not have been able to advance my career beyond my first days as a cadet. I owe a very special thank you to the Department of History Graduate Committee for bestowing on me the honor of the Regina Hale Canaga Memorial Scholarship for the 2005-2006 academic year. Without that generous award, I would have been unable to finish my studies without interruption. And finally, to my family: thank you for always providing me with a home to return to after countless months of sailing the seas. iii Table of Contents Abstract............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements............................................................................................................iii List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... v List of Figures.................................................................................................................... vi Glossary of Industry Terms and Acronyms.....................................................................viii Chapter 1: The American-Flag Merchant Marine ............................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Negotiating Cooperation and Competition: Britain, the U.S., and Merchant Shipping, 1940-1948......................................................................................................... 16 Cautious Partners: Britain and America during the War............................................... 19 Planning for the Post-War World .................................................................................. 26 Flags of Convenience: Competition on the Sea under the New World Order .............. 30 The Effect of International Competition ....................................................................... 35 Chapter 3: Policy, Labor, and Technology: The Beginning of the Downward Spiral, 1946-1984 ......................................................................................................................... 38 Unions, U.S. Policy, and the Post-War World Maritime Order .................................... 41 The U.S.-Flag Merchant Marine and Changing Technology ........................................ 49 Vietnam and the Continuing Deterioration of the U.S. Merchant Fleet........................ 57 Is There Hope For The American Fleet?....................................................................... 67 Chapter 4: Cooperation and Maritime Reform, 1984-2006............................................. 70 Liner Shipping and the Shipping Act of 1984............................................................... 71 American-Flag Ships and National Security ................................................................. 79 The Maritime Security Program.................................................................................... 83 Where the Industry Stands Today ................................................................................. 87 Selected Bibliography....................................................................................................... 91 Primary Sources............................................................................................................. 91 Secondary Sources......................................................................................................... 94 iv List of Tables Table I. Top 20 Merchant Fleets of the World; Self-Propelled Oceangoing Vessels 1,000 Gross Tons and Greater; As of July, 1, 2004; available from http://www.marad.dot.gov/MARAD_statistics/Flag-MFW-7-04.pdf; Internet: accessed on 20 June 2006………………………………………………13 Table II. Rise & Decline of the Merchant Marine 1939-2003; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstracts of the United States, for years 1939-2005; and “U.S.-Flag Merchant Fleet,” available from http://www.marad.dot.gov/MARAD_statistics/US-FLAG-HISTORY.pdf; Internet: accessed on 20 June 2006 when information not available from Statistical Abstracts………………..…………………………………..…...14 v List of Figures Figure 1. Liberty ship, SS Anson Jones, underway. A. A. Hoehling, The Fighting Liberty Ships: A Memoir (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1996), Cover. ........................................................................................... 25 Figure 2. Victory ship underway. Christopher Batio, Super Cargo Ships (Osceola: MBI Publishing Company, 2001), 17. ............................................... 26 Figure 3. Schenectady in 1943 moored in its dock after sea trials, available from http://www.fiu.edu/~thompsop/liberty/photos/schenectady.jpg; Internet: accessed on 02 May 2006. ................................................................... 49 Figure 4. Malcolm McLean’s first containership, Ideal X, available from http://www.portofhouston.com/pdf/pubaffairs/PHA- 90th%20History%20Brochure.pdf#search='ideal%20x%20ship'; Internet: accessed on 17 May 2006. .................................................................................. 54 Figure 5. The United States’ only nuclear-powered merchant ship, the NS Savannah. Christopher Batio, Super Cargo Ships (Osceola: MBI Publishing Company, 2001), 83. ................................................................ 55 Figure 6. San Clemente Class supertanker underway. “Commercial Ship Portfolio: San Clemente Class Tanker,” available from http://www.nassco.com/cdc/cportfolio/sanclem_enlg.html; Internet: accessed on 08 March 2006. ................................................................ 60 Figure 7. Marine Electric underway, available from http://www.northernatlanticdive.com/2004_expeditions/marine_electric.jpg; Internet: accessed on 22 June 2006. ............................................................. 61 Figure 8. Maersk Virginia, formerly named Maersk Geelong, was built in 2002 and reflagged from the Singapore registry to the American flag to
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