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The Merchant Marine Act of 1916 (also known as the Alexander Act) was passed by the US Congress in 1916 to create the US Shipping Board. The bill was sponsored by Representative Joshua W. Alexander (D) of Missouri, who was Chairman of the House Merchant Marine Committee. The act signified the birth of the modern American merchant marine.
The purpose of the United States Shipping Board was to develop water transportation, operate the merchant ships owned by the government, regulate the water carriers engaged in commerce under the US flag, and enforce the La Follette Seamen's Act regulations and national defense. [1]
The board consisted of five members and was empowered to
The dispersing of the $50 million was to be overseen by the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC). Senate Democrats managed to get the bill amended prior to its passage to forbid the US from purchasing ships from belligerent powers, "tremendously emasculating" the act according to US Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo. Despite such criticism by hardliners, the Act signified the birth of the modern US merchant marine.
During the war, the Shipping Board was headed by Edward N. Hurley, and the EFC passed to the direction of the Bethlehem Steel magnate Charles Schwab. The bill also stipulated that the shipping lines that were owned and operated by the Shipping Board should go out of business five years after the end of the European war and that all the Board's property, except vessels designed primarily as naval auxiliaries, should then be sold. Many of the ships commissioned during the war were never completed, and many of the ships that were fully completed were destroyed or auctioned off in the early 1920s.
As of June 18, 1984, the duties of the US Shipping Board were reduced, and they now apply only to domestic offshore ocean transport.
The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act, on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War I efforts. The program ended on March 2, 1934.
SS Absaroka was a steamer, named after the Absaroka Range of mountains in Montana and Wyoming, completed in February 1918 for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) which briefly operated the ship. From 17 September 1918 to 4 March 1919 the ship was commissioned as USS Absaroka with the identification number IX-2581 in United States Navy and operated by the Naval Overseas Transportation Service.
Commerce raiding is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging its combatants or enforcing a blockade against them.
The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 1950. The commission replaced the United States Shipping Board which had existed since World War I. It was intended to formulate a merchant shipbuilding program to design and build five hundred modern merchant cargo ships to replace the World War I vintage vessels that comprised the bulk of the United States Merchant Marine, and to administer a subsidy system authorized by the Act to offset the cost differential between building in the U.S. and operating ships under the American flag. It also formed the United States Maritime Service for the training of seagoing ship's officers to man the new fleet.
The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 is a United States federal statute that provides for the promotion and maintenance of the American merchant marine. Among other purposes, the law regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters and between U.S. ports. Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act is known as the Jones Act and deals with cabotage. It requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried on ships that have been constructed in the United States and that fly the U.S. flag, are owned by U.S. citizens, and are crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents. The act was introduced by Senator Wesley Jones. The law also defines certain seaman's rights.
The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the United States needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Commission and ship allocation under the WSA to Army, Navy or civilian needs were closely coordinated though Vice Admiral Emory S. Land who continued as head of the Maritime Commission while also heading the WSA.
SS Vaterland was an ocean liner launched on 3 April 1913 and began service in 1914 for Germany's Hamburg America Line. The ship, second of three running mates and then the largest passenger ship in the world, made her first voyage to New York arriving on 21 May 1914 under the command of a Commodore and four Captains of the German Naval Reserve to celebrations featuring German and American officials at the line's Hoboken facilities.
Hog Islanders is the slang for ships built to Emergency Fleet Corporation designs number 1022 and 1024. These vessels were cargo and troop transport ships, respectively, built under government direction and subsidy to address a shortage of ships in the United States Merchant Marine during World War I. American International Shipbuilding, subsidized by the United States Shipping Board, built an emergency shipyard on Hog Island at the site of the present-day Philadelphia International Airport.
The Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) was established by the United States Shipping Board, sometimes referred to as the War Shipping Board, on 16 April 1917 pursuant to the Shipping Act to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant ships to meet national defense, foreign and domestic commerce during World War I.
A merchant navy or merchant marine is the fleet of merchant vessels that are registered in a specific country. On merchant vessels, seafarers of various ranks and sometimes members of maritime trade unions are required by the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) to carry Merchant Mariner's Documents.
The Long Range Shipbuilding program was implemented by the U.S. Maritime Commission shortly after its establishment in 1937 as part of the mandate of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 which stated that:
United States shall have a merchant marine
(a) sufficient to carry its domestic water-borne commerce and a substantial portion of the water-borne export and import foreign commerce of the United States and to provide shipping service on all routes essential for maintaining the flow of such domestic and foreign water-borne commerce at all times
(b) capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time of war or national emergency,
(c) owned and operated under the United States flag by citizens of the United States insofar as may be practicable, and
(d) composed of the best-equipped, safest, and most suitable types of vessels, constructed in the United States and manned with a trained and efficient citizen personnel. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to foster the development and encourage the maintenance of such a merchant marine.
USS Majaba (AG-43/IX-102) was the Design 1049 cargo ship Meriden built in 1919 by the Albina Engine & Machine Works, Portland, Oregon. All the ships were requisitioned by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) for World War I service. The ship was bought by the E. K. Wood Lumber Co., of San Francisco, California in 1923 and renamed El Capitan. The ship was chartered by the U.S. Navy through the War Shipping Administration (WSA) in April 1942 and commissioned as Majaba.
USS Besboro (AG-66) was built as Caddopeak, a United States Shipping Board (USSB) Emergency Fleet Corporation Design 1049 cargo ship built by Albina Engine & Machine Works, launched 18 October 1918. From 1922 Caddopeak served several commercial shipping companies until sold in 1937 to Burns Steamship Company and renamed Lurline Burns. On 2 February 1942 the ship was delivered to the War Shipping Administration, allocated to the United States Army and operated by Burns and Alaska Steamship Company under an Army charter agreement.
The Design 1023 ship was a steel-hulled cargo ship design approved for mass production by the United States Shipping Board's (USSB) Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) in World War I. Like many of the early designs approved by the EFC, the Design 1023 did not originate with the EFC itself but was based on an existing cargo ship designed by Theodore E. Ferris for the United States Shipping Board (USSB). The ships, to be built by the Submarine Boat Corporation of Newark, New Jersey, were the first to be constructed under a standardized production system worked out by Ferris and approved by the USSB.
SSCapillo was a Design 1022 cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board immediately after World War I.
Suremico was a Design 1023 cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) immediately after World War I. She was later named the Nisqually and converted into a barge and later a scow. She was bombed and sunk during the Battle of Wake Island.
SSSuedco was a Design 1023 cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board immediately after World War I.
SSSuboatco was a Design 1023 cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board immediately after World War I.
SSSuportco was a Design 1023 cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board immediately after World War I.
SSCambridge was a Design 1023 cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board immediately after World War I.
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