Master Mates and Pilots Magazine October 1938

·.• gIL ]M gM/J.J& ... W Merchant Marine Program NOMMP Chosen As Agcm:y Who Is George Harrison? Changes in Navigation Aids Marine I. & N. Orders The Lurcher Light Ship A. F. of L. Convention He's Got Something to Say About It- By John Baer .4 THE ANSWER IS: STAYOUTI ;fThe Master~ Mate and Pilot Official Journal of tho NoltioR"l Organization of Mastlll"$, Matos and Pilots- of Amarica. Published on tho 15th of each month .. t 810-16 Rhode Island Ave., N. E., Washington, D. C. Vol. I OCTOBER, 1938 No.6 Admiral Land Outlines Program to Build Strong Merchant Marine Under U. S. Flag Head of Maritime Commission Says This Country Attempting to Regain Its Proper Place In Shipping Among Natiom of World - Stresses Need for Trained Personnel Speccl~ delivered recently by Admiral Emory S. Land, the oldest ships of eight major maritime nations. chairman, United. States Maritime Commission, over the Columbia Broadcasting System. At this moment, those statistics still prevail. BUT the disease has been recognized. President My purpose in talking to this audience is to make Roosevelt on March 4. 1935. sent a message to Con a. brief report to the taxpayers on what the United gress urging a remedy. Congress wrote a prescrip~ States Maritime Commission has been doing and to tion and out of that, the Maritime Commission was give you as briefly as possible a little of what may created the following year. Then, this year, at the be expected in the future. It is from YOU that the last session of Congress. the Act was further im dollars come which make it possible for us to carry proved. We obtained amendments making possible on our work. It is FOR you that we have undertaken more construction. Another amendment minimizes a broad program at the request of Congress. the danger of interruption to service in the event The Maritime Commission is trying to restore the that a shipping company goes bankrupt. A new American flag to its proper place among the mari section was added to the act setting up a Maritime time nations of the world, and THAT is no mere Labor Board for the more orderly and constructive sentimental gesture. It is not for boastful display settlement of labor disputes. Still another amend that we would put our flag back on the mainmast ment provides for mortgage insurance under which of a great merchant fleet. nor have ·we been inspired applicants may build new vessels with capital pro by an uncontrolled burst of patriotism. Both have vided from private sources under a mortgage insured played their part, but sound business reasons and by the Commission. This is similar in principle to requirements of national defense have dictated es the Federal Housing Act. Several important changes tablishment by Congress of the Maritime Commis were made also in the subsidy sections contributing sion and led to the appropriation of millions of dol to a more efficient administration of the act itself. lars for its purposes. In the beginning, the Commission faced an almost It is in the cargoes of merchant ships that over impossible task. Millions of dollars had been poured three billion dollars of goods and products were into the shipping lines through mail subsidy pay brought into this country last year. More than three ments. This money was supposed to have been used and one-half billion dollars of goods and products to build new ships but not all of those millions were were carried from our shores to foreign countries. used for that purpose by those who received them. THIS is foreign trade, and it is well to remember The fleet continued its deterioration, and the com that nearly one-sixth of our population of 130 mil plexities increased. lion people earn their living directly or indirectly The Commission. under my predecessor, Joseph from this trade. P. Kennedy. our present Ambassador to Great For 75 years the American merchant marine has Britain, went to work. One of the first things under- been the subject of controversy-both political and economic. Shipping is our oldest industry. It is taken was the first thorough study ever made of the probably our most complex. Several systems of entire merchant marine problem. Many experts fostering the fleet, of promoting its growth and were engaged. They were told pointblank that noth maintenance, have been tried and, for the most part, ing was to be taken for granted. They were to be failed. During the last ten years, the merchant fleet skeptical. They were to poke a finger in every plum has sunk lower and lower in quality and per -and there were a good many plums in the subsidy· formance. Today we stand fourth in tonnage, sixth orchard. in speed and, with the exception of Italy, we have Scientists, naval officers, lawyers, statisticians,.. financial experts, engineers, industrial analysts, and Since January 1, 1938. the Maritime Commission, students of the problem of training seamen were either in cooperation with private operators or for turned loose upon the industry. These men, many of its own account, has placed orders for 37 new ships them working 16 and 18 hours a day, compiled a including a fleet of fast modern tankers, of which report which took the merchant marine apart, put it the country may be proud. In addition, shipyards under the glass to find out what made it tick-or to have been invited recently to bid on an additional be more exact, what had made it stop ticldng. group-a new type of cargo vessel designed by Com w mission architects and engineers. There is also tak- The basic question was: Shall the United States have a strong competitive merchant marine? The answer was, YES! Then came three simple ques tions: What do we need? How do we get it? What will it cost? The answer to the first, after much careful study, was "50 ships a year for 10 years." This was the best opinion of specialists in both the purely commercial aspects of carrying foreign trade and naval experts interested primarily in the na tional defense. Fifty ships a year for 10 years is considered the minimum for an orderly and sys tematic replacement of our present obsolete tonnage. What was wrong with the existing fleet? It was all built at one time and the lives of these ships are therefore destined to expire at one time. A majority was approaching the scrap pile then when the ex perts applied the stethoscope. ADMIRAL EMORY S. LAND What of the financial condition of the operators? Seventeen who were receiving subsidies, including ing shape still another addition to the fleet which we some of the biggest, had among them, when their hope eventually will go far toward remedying the pockets were turned inside out, only abou~ $12,300, lack of tonnage existing on the Pacific Coast. Our 000 in cash. And it costs more than that to build a record for orders placed this year exceeds the total single liner such as that for which the keel was laid number built during the eight years that the Jones at Newport News, Virginia, in August, at the direc White Act was on the statute books. tion of the Maritime Commission and the United It shouid be said here that it is not our intention States Lines. This will be the largest ship ever built to create a boom in shipbuilding from the point of in American yards. view of speculative profits. The Commission is pre In substance. I have said that adequate replace pared to pay and pay a fair price for what it builds ments had not been initiated under previous legisla and for what it finances with others. It has NO tion and practically a new fleet was necessary. That intention of paying unreasonable prices for ships, nor will it tolerate any attempt by the unscrupuious is why President Roosevelt and the Congress found to make its program the opportunity for exorbitant it necessary to move in and take action. profits. The Commission was appointed September 26, This intent already has been indicated by the 1936. Themail subsidy contracts which have been Commission's readvertisement of bids on a group so bitterly criticised were canceled aJ of June 30, of 12 cargo vessels for its own account. The Com 1937. The Commission, pressed for time, worked mission had estimated that these ships should cost out a system of settlement without interruption of about $23,000,000. The original bids were con service on essentiaf trade routes. Claims of $73, siderably higher. Upon readvertisement the Com 000,000 were settled at a net loss to the Government mission's judgment was proved sound. of less than $750,000. At the same time, annual This construction program that we have under subsidies were materially reduced. taken answers the second major question: How do we get it? Difficult and trying as were the circumstances surrounding these settlements, this procedure was The new ships are financed under a system of but an incident in the Commission's work. After loans whereby the Commission may advance 75 per all, cancellation added nothing physically to the cent of the cost to the operators. Loans are repay fleet, and that was the major problem which the able in equal installments over a 20-year period. When the vessel goes into foreign trade service. com country faced. peting with foreign flag ships that have lower wage I can tell you that the beginnings of the new fleet scales and lower operating costs, the Commission are off the drawing boards.

Load more