I love that you are lining up to support the us flag establishment now. Welcome aboard Capt! I will just assume this means you ready now to double KP’s budget and give federal money to the unions to support unlicensed training!
You missed 46 USC 12106(a) -
A documented vessel may not be titled by a State or required to display numbers under chapter 123 of this title, and any certificate of title issued by a State for a documented vessel shall be surrendered as provided by regulations prescribed by the Secretary.
Lets say for a second the USVI just decided to start doing this without any changes to the law. Any certificates issued by them or on their behalf would likely not be recognized by anyone, no IACS class societies would likely be interested in working with the USVI, no owners with any interest in trading internationally would likely even attempt to sign up with them.
None of the definitive statements made in this entire thread amount to anything since there has not yet been any proposed legislation yet published. What percentage of the crew if any would be required to be americans? No one knows because no one has got beyond should we do it yet except the keyboard warriors here. I don’t see why the unions would be so adamantly against it when no one knows what it will look like. If you support the idea theoretically with huuuuge caveats and engage in the process you can affect the outcome and maybe even increase the numbers of jobs for US mariners.
One big thing they missed though in their presentation … everybody knows all you have to do to revitalize the US Maritime industry back to its hey day is close Kings Point.
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NEGATIVE! I am not for the establishment but rather I am against this assclown Dawicki and this obvious scam he foolishly has concocked.
So while you are here, were you there are their little show yesterday?
A short history / primer on open / second registries.
I favor doubling the budget at a totally revamped and revitalized commercial shipping and workboat focused KP - with NO regiment. Also, must offer courses to professional mariners.
But the present KP toy soldier academy for privileged kids who couldn’t get into West Point, no I favor shutting that down.
Don’t the unions get any federal training money? A private company owned by billionaire family Chouest gets free federal money to help run their in-house only school. The for-profit-scam-artist maritime training schools get federal money.
Union schools should get federal educational grant and VA money, provided that they are open to any American without regard to union membership.
I did miss that part, that’s what I was looking for.
I’m interested hearing the actual details and plan before condemning or supporting. Unfortunately that White Paper was rather devoid of actual details on substance and method, and if any where presented at the Press Club event I haven’t seem them publicly available yet.
It would have made sense to present something to attempt to keep Unions onboard with the plan, for while they may not be that influential these days, a pile of thorns in your side politically could be all it takes to dead-end something these days.
Don’t know if same/similar will apply to USVI registered vessels:
For OSVs working outside US the requirement is one. the Master has to be US citizen:
PS>In Australia the Union (MUA) requires even the Master to be an Aussie, which cause complications for vessels under flags that require Master to be their citizens.
Sometime “overcome” by having both a foreign and Aussie Master on the same ship at the same time. (Not sure how this will work legally, in case of an accident)
the first sentence of yesterday’s article on this from the gCaptain page:
A new U.S. Virgin Islands open ship registry was officially launched Tuesday during an event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C
John,
I am going to respectfully request that any future articles or reports on this little scam no longer regurgitate that this is a done deal. What on earth makes yesterday “official” when authority over the USVI still resides with the US Congress? Nothing was “launched” but this was only “proposed”. You are either knowingly going along with this deception or are obtuse but either way gCaptain is presenting false news and misinformation which I am asking you to cease and desist in furthering.
and please tell us if you were or were not at the National Press Club for this charade yesterday? I hope you will answer…
You would have to lay out some very strict differences between the US closed registry and the USVI open registry.
If you keep the status quo jones act requirements for the US I wouldn’t think any owners would try and switch US to USVI and you wouldn’t lose any jobs. Are there any US vessels not limited to JA trading any more?
For the USVI you make some concessions on manning, say 50% of officers and 50% of unlicensed have to be US just to pick a number and allow foreign built vessels, some of the US owners flying foreign flags would conceivably come back. Some foreign owners who trade regularly in the US could also conceivably find a USVI flag attractive even with the requirement for partial US crews.
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I am going to ask everyone here to stop using the term USVI flag…the US Virgin Islands is not a nation but a territory of the USA and has no right under both US and international law to register ships. Somehow, people are believing that the USVI is equal to the Marshall Islands which may be protected by the USA but still is an independent and sovereign nation state with a seat in the United Nations General Assembly (something the US Virgin Islands does not have and cannot have as long as it is territory of the USA)
I think people, myself included, are using the term USVI Flag because that is what the proposal/white paper calls it.
Whether it’s allowed, possible, probable, legal is a main discussion point, but it’s still what they are calling it and it’s what started this discussion.
From the paper:
The USVI Flag offers a unique opportunity to create a new model for open international registries that will drive new behaviors, standards, and sustainable shipping practices.
Well you are also regurgitating the misinformation you are being fed so please stop it now
I think everyone needs to look at the whole plan. I believe the transhipment port/logistics is the key item in the plan. The registry or attempt may or may not happen, but being able to alleviate some stress on our ports, and to have a place to oversee international import/exports, away from mainland USA, may be advantageous. I am by no means a logistics expert, but I can see some advantages. Plus that alone would create numerous jobs for Americans, and American companies.
Whenever I hear someone say their plan will create US jobs I have two questions. How and when. Until those questions are answered I consider their plan BS. There have been too many scams foisted on the citizens of the US and other countries claiming to provide “jobs” when at the end of the day jobs were lost not created. Most of the time the perpetrators of these scams are the only ones that see any benefit. Also, why does the USA need an “open registry”? Does Australia, Norway, Canada etc have such a thing?
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John went. He was on the panel after the signing stuff.
Exactly what is that supposed to mean? Sounds like some political hyperbole.
Unique opportunity? For who? Drive new behaviors, standards and sustainable shipping practices? Geez…
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I have no idea, everything in there is vague. And find me a carribean locale that is “hurricane-proof”. BS!
(I only posted that excerpt to show reference to the term USVI Flag)
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Precisely! This guy Dawicki is a nothing more than a snake oil huckster peddling another useless patent medicine with claims it cures every disease from the impotence suffered by the US Merchant Marine to the cancer of spreading through global trade.
Beware of the words of the charletans…they are never worth more than their weight in DOGSHIT!
And what did he say? I really would like to know
Perhaps the guy wants to be the next Elizabeth Holmes. 
I personally don’t think this proposal is worth worrying about. It will not happen, for many reasons.