Impassioned Call for saving the Merchant Marine

Professional Mariner Forum
21

True but where would the great us merchant marine of history be without US banks funding grain shipments to Russia in the cold war, Russian truck and weapons factories during the Vietnam war. German factories in World War II…

And out of all of the new “points of power” that we have stumbled into during the last decade the most important for US merchant mariners is the Pentagon’s newfound realization that they can’t fly all their shit to China.

(I said in a previous post that nobody realizes this, that’s not entirely true, Admiral Busby realizes this which is why he has spent so much of the last four years negotiations with the Pentagon. He has thankfully set the stage for us to exercise the point of power)

And that realization would never have happened if it weren’t for the fact that US banks are the ones funding Chinese factories which are paying taxes to a government that’s building a ginormous navy… and… are the ones funding Russian oligarchs.

So we have two options:

  1. yell and scream at Congress to reform the banking industry which, btw, also is the funding source Behind most of the special interests which pour cash into their campaigns.
  2. Work with the banks to create domestic alternatives to overseas investments.

To be clear I am not advocating making a deal with the devil. I grew up in a town surrounded by investment bankers. We can sit on her high horse and point fingers at them but the truth is they are not doing this on purpose. Most of them work 16 hour days and don’t have the time or desire to understand the global implications of their lending policies.

We need to educate them but you don’t educate someone by walking in and calling them assholes. You educate them first by showing them better alternatives for their investments then, once they have taken the bait, you real them in I explaining the global implications in a non-judgemental way.

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22

IMHO it is worse than no voice at all.

Einstein said the definition of lunacy is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

Specifically it is worse because:

  1. it’s giving everyone false hope.
  2. it makes Mariners feel like they are doing their part to help.

Instead we need to admit failure, try new strategies, and make it clear to every US mariner that they are not doing enough to help.

Lobbyists can be affective the problem is the union lobbyists spend their time in Congress but Congress no longer hold political power.

Two entities control political power today:

  1. extraordinarily wealthy special interest groups
  2. The media

We will never ever be able to compete with the number one so those union lobbyists should leave Congress and spend their time lobbying journalists and social media influencers. That’s where influential lobbyists like the NRA spend the majority of their time in dollars today… getting news articles, air time, and most importantly little one line tweets that instantly set off electronic “dings” on the phones of millions of voters.

We no longer live in a democracy, we live in a tweetocracy.

I happened to know that zero dollars and zero time is being spent lobbying media outlets because I run the most popular maritime media outlet in the world and I can’t remember the last time a union lobbyist ever picked up the phone and called me.

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23

Nothing to do with number of ships on register, or indeed number of US citizens manning US owned vessel.

US corporate Owners control the 6th most valuable fleet in the world (2019):


That is down from 5th place the last few years, but have dropped due to age of ship under ownership, especially offshore vessels.

PS> Haven’t seen any 2020 figures yet.

24

Based strictly on U.S. ownership, I’m not sure that I agree that the U.S. isn’t a powerful and influential leader of the industry. It seems to me that the owners simply don’t want anything to do with the U.S. flag and the additional requirements that come with it. The U.S. Merchant Marine certainly doesn’t have any influence and is likely seen by the rest of the world as largely irrelevant. But isn’t that the very plan of the U.S. centers of power and influence?

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25

First, the Navy is spending billions of dollars on autonomous ships to take my job, not yours. :wink: And you’ve got enough on your plate to not try and solve the FTZ for us. The CIVMARs gangway up order is pretty shitty though, I wouldn’t try and defend that. If I were a maritime journalist I’d be blowing up Adm. Wettlaufer’s aide trying to get him to sit for an interview.

I don’t really understand your strategy either. Abandon the attack on Congress and go after the media instead? ProPublica ripped the Navy a new asshole last year (and won a Pulitzer for it), but I don’t know what it really changed. Maybe you could get Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to do a piece on the Merchant Marine; he’s got an audience and loves niche stories.

You’ve also got an opportunity in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; it looks like SUNY Maritime College (and maybe Kings Point?) fall in her district. Tell her that Wall St. Fatcats are taking jobs away from students she represents and watch the tweets fly. Hell, get SUNY to name a building after her if you have to; that’s what Adm. Rickover would do (“fish don’t vote”).

In fact you should have a congressional database of every senator and representative that has a maritime academy or maritime jobs in their district. Go after Rep. Elaine Luria; she’s another freshman who represents the Norfolk area, sits on the HASC subcommittee on seapower, retired SWO, and friend of the Navy (who is no friend of Big Navy). I doubt she has as many twitter followers, but when she asks questions people answer.

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26

Don’t know why they didn’t call you John. Wish they would. They have been on Capitol Hill lobbying quite often for the mariners and lack of recognition. OK with that.

27

Well that is technically correct it’s not the whole story. The biggest trends in finance over the last decade have been hedge funds, derivatives, and all those other complicated finance mechanisms. Most of the companies behind these mechanisms are incorporated overseas and hidden behind a complexity of partnerships in order to reduce liability and avoid taxes but… The majority of these are fully owned and operated from the United States.

So if you include all of the tax haven countries and analyze their ownership structures you’ll find that America is number one in ship finance.

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28

No disagreement on that note.

29

[quote=“portofdc, post:24, topic:56733”]
Based strictly on U.S. ownership, I’m not sure that I agree that the U.S. isn’t a powerful and influential leader of the industry. [/quote]

It’s not powerful simply because it is so segmented. Each segment holds a decent amount of power but that power is limited to their segment. For example the American businessman Micky Arison is extremely powerful in the cruise segment but is he influencing votes in IMO. Yes. But is he influencing tanker rules, and bunker rules, and Drillship rules. Probably not. He only influences his segment.

They certainly prefer FOC’s but they would build us ships if they could get money from the banks to build them.

Yes, maybe. And maybe that’s the real core of the problems we face?

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30

True. Problem is nobody in my industry is going to pay Billions to develop it… but if you guys develop it then the Defense contractors will figure out a way to sell it to us and put me out of work. So yeah, we’ll both be out of jobs.

Ughh… you really know how to press my buttons. My favorite captain keeps calling me and asking “John, why do you give a shit?”. I’ll tell you why. Because I’m human and humans care about their kids. When the next pearl harbor happens in san diego bay and you don’t have a single fireboat or salvage tug and the fleet sinks… that’s going to put my family at risk.

And I care about my own safety. I’'m a patriot. If war does come I know I’m going to sign up and end up in some convoy sailing alongside you guys. And I’d like to know you ain’t going to crash into me. :wink:

ProPublica: How the Navy’s Top Commander Botched the Highest-Profile Investigation in Years. Hmm… I wonder why propublica would give us copyrights and let us copy and paste their article on our site. :thinking: Maybe because I helped them investigate it?

How are you guys going to win a war if you don’t even know who’s helping the enemy or what their strategy is?

Hence the tears in my video.

Been there, done that, got the tshirt. Ok, not that show specifically but we did get the Daily Show to do a special with our friends at Maritime Executive. Didn’t change anything.

Ok but does she know the stern from back aft? My sources at SUNY say no. How can we influence someone who doesn’t understand anything about what we do?

Every congressman who has maritime jobs in their district also has big social, infrastructure, finance, and countless other problems. That’s why farms always get their bills passed. The senator of Nebraska doesn’t have much else beyond farms to worry about. Maritime districts do.

Did you watch my video. Because asking a senator to launch an investigation of our industry is exactly what I asked for.

31

:man_shrugging:

32

You might want to look at what she stands for. Ocasio-Cortez is a dedicated socialist who proposes open borders and full rights for all immigrants including welfare and free medical services. That’s not someone looking out for the american worker, especially what many consider overpaid merchant mariners.

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33

Automation is coming, we can either get ahead of it or not. I certainly don’t want to risk sailors or mariners in war if I don’t have to. I don’t think we’ll see the end of manned ships in our lifetime though.

I know you care, that’s why I’m here. And although I won’t speak for my shipmates, I don’t consider a free press the enemy. Didn’t know you worked on the ProPublica pieces though.

There is not going to be a “one and done” on the media front - it’s going to be a years-long campaign, which you won’t be able to let up on. Eternal vigilance will be the price of your secure Merchant Marine.

Does she need to? Are you looking for advocates or acolytes? Present the problem, point her at the bad guy, and fire. Save blue collar mariners from the evil bankers. Politicians use people and causes. Do the same. Why do you think we’re building a USS John P. Murtha?

All 45 minutes? :flushed: Rep. Luria. She’s the one you want.

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34

It is not only a US problem. All developed countries face a similar problem, where shipping is no longer a strictly maritime affair but is run largely as any other business, by finance people with accountants to advise them on how to manage their “assets”, not ships and seafarers.

The family owned shipping company started by a Mariner still exists in Europe, Now mostly run by 3rd or 4th generation of the family with an MBA, not with any seagoing experience and with the same type of advisers.

One noticeable exception is Fred Olsen Jr. who was sent to sea by his father, as he had been by his father. He is still active and an impressive personality. A forward looking thinker, not just a businessman.
BTW; Now the Fred Olsen conglomerate is run day-by-day by his daughter, with no seafaring background:

The big difference between the US and Europe in as much as Shipping is concerned, is that the Europeans have accepted that Shipping has changed and moved with the time, while the US is “flogging a dead horse” in as much as just about everything is seen in military terms.
There is not a great likelihood that there will be a WWII 2.0, Any major war in the future will be VERY different, not necessarily requiring a lot of logistics. Keeping a fleet of obsolete ships afloat and in readiness is expensive…

The other big difference is that the other OECD countries have accepted that they cannot compete on wages with seafarers from developing countries. But they can use them to man their ships. Thus they have all established a Second Ship register to compete with the FOC registers and ensure a national fleet of ships.

They have also accepted that they cannot compete on building relatively simple large ships, or to weld steel together. They concentrate on building the small complex ships, or high cost Cruise ships etc. Welding together empty hull can be done just as good and much cheaper in low coast countries. With modern HLV hull sections, or even whole hulls, can be transported quickly and cheaply across the globe.

By working together it is possible to maintain adequate security. Mutual dependency makes wars less likely.
Cooperation is better than confrontation, sanctions and mutual distrust.

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35

Yes sir. That’s why I’ve been working up at MIT with the top marine automation scientist. It’s coming regardless only question is do we want to be on the inside of development or wait until it’s forced upon us?

I know you do too… and that’s why I look forward to your posts.

Yes just don’t tell your bosses :wink:

I was the shipping and electronics expert helping them. That’s actually what we spend most time on. We help big media outlets investigate incidents in return for links to our site (which is what drives google traffic) and letting us repost their articles.

IDK John Boyd and his “fighter plane mafia” were able to get what they wanted in a few short years during the military reform movement of the early 80’s. And they did it by leveraging media.

The only problem is they did it from inside the pentagon. And while I have sources inside, I sure don’t have anyone inside brave enough to speak to the press.

IDK. Right now I’ll take anyone I can get who’s willing to speak on the record with a big media journalist.

Here are the top two problems I hear repeatedly from most of my contacts inside the beltway:

  1. there is a lot of deadwood in that wood and we can’t fire anyone
  2. I can’t talk to the press because I’ll get fired.

:thinking:

36

In these times, I have to ask why do US-flagged vessels use foreign (Filipinos, Indians, Poles) seafarers to do welding and electrical work on those vessels, particularly when the US-flagged vessels are under contract to the US government?

Are there not enough US union welders, fitters or electricians to fill those positions?

37

John, Elaine Luria is member of the House. She is on the House Armed Services Committee, and serves as the Vice Chair of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. She should be very much interested in US maritime issues and should be on your contact list.

38

IDK. A better question is why are the new training ships being outfitted with foreign equipment.

I talked to one foreign company (let’s call it X) that opened a US plant just to manufacture equipment for jones act vessels. The equipment is identical to that made in X’s european plant.

Problem is equipment procurement has been outsourced to a korean yard. The European branch of X is in the korean system but the U.S. factory is not so only the Europeans can bid.

So, against the will of X, they are ordering the equipment from Europe and are shipping it across the Atlantic to Philly.

This is why I asked the Senate to open an investigation!

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39

Ok but this is what I wrote about in the censorship thread which pissed me off enough to film that video.

There is absolutely no shortage of talented smart and caring people who want to help. But someone has to organize this shit.

I can’t tell you how many trips I’ve taken to DC and nyc. How many hours I’ve spent on the phone with leaders throughout the industry.

And it always starts like this. Someone reads a post or article and says “I know who can help” go talk to Senator, Admiral, Judge, Adviser, Commissioner, CEO x. They care. They will be interested.”

Then after a dozen emails they call and after hours of calls they ask me to come down And after 2 days on a train and hotel rooms and meals and expenses and such (all paid by me) we meet. And they say something along the lines of “holy shit I didn’t know it was that bad” and “that’s a great idea, we could do that”.

And then nothing happens. We followup, we become friends, they introduce me to other people who care, they give me more work to do, they suggest other places I should visit (on my dime), they send me more inside info pointing to more problems that I should write about.

So I would love to call up Luria and I’m sure she would be interested in helping but I can guarantee she’s not going to hire me, or write me a check, or give me some of her staff to work on these problems.

The bottom line is until someone can get money and staff and some authority to work on these problems nothing will happen. And no one in Washington is going to give Jonny Konrad any of those things.

So what’s the point?

And I’m not asking that question to be a wise ass. I just can’t afford to keep putting my time and money into pursuing these leaders who “really do want to help”.

I am SURE she is great but is she great at writing checks to civilians? Because as John Glenn famously says in the movie right stuff “No bucks, no buck Rogers“

I cannot do this alone. I need help. I am literally crying for help. And the type of help I need specifically is not the name of someone else to call (my roledex is stuffed with wealthy and influential people). The type of help I need is not More suggestions on what I should and shouldn’t do. It’s money to hire people to go do it!

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40

Sorry, John. I do not know what else I can do aside from buying a t-shirt. I am literally a nobody.

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