Let me also state that the merchant shipbuilding programs implemented by the US Maritime Commission in 1936 were to build ships to be commercial carriers in peacetime and only to be used by the military during war. These included pretty much every C and T type ships. The ones only intended for use only during the war were the EC (Liberty ships) which ironically were also extremely successful after the war for both US and foreign operators. The VC (Victory) ships were intended to become commercial carriers postwar and some did, however a great many ended up being held in the NDRF where more than a few ended up being broken out and used for the sealifts for the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.
After the war ended, the US sold a vast number of vessels to both US and foreign operators who used these many thousands of vessels well up into the 70’s and in some cases through the 80’s. I sailed on a good number of them in the early days of my career and found them all to be fine, well built ships.
So for our Norwegian antagonist to say that the ships built during WWII didn’t make the USA the maritime powerhouse it was is ludicrous nonsense. As far as I can tell, Norway had a large merchant fleet but not too much of a shipbuilding industry either before or after the War.
So what is your point? You want insecurity in the world, so that USA is forced to build a fuckload of vessels it don’t need to fight a non existent enemy? Russia is not Germany.
The 2nd registry can be thought of as along a spectrum of choices.
At one end the U.S. could expand the U.S. flag fleet by providing financial inducements to the Marshall Islands ships to flag but with no other restrictions wrt crew etc. Or with a higher subsidiary the U.S. could demand that the senior officers be U.S. Or keep the current system with the highest costs and with top to bottom U.S. crews.
Fleet size and degree of control are inversely related. The issue is not that people don’t understand that.
So what if it does? I am not some Republican thug who thinks that word is evil sent by the Devil himself. I say tax corporations and the rich till blood comes from their anusses and spend on all that which provides social benefit (including wise and useful defense spending which itself includes more merchant ships)
Sounds like a government funding something because it’s in the best interest of the country not necessarilly what’s in the best interests of business…You know, like what it’s supposed to do
I’m surprised that some keyboards have gone the distance in the discussion of this thread but it has been interesting. The fact is every OEDC country has lost its Merchant fleet to FOC’s and the one percenters on this planet continue to make truckloads of money.
If you banned FOC shipping from American ports Washington would be swamped with lobbyists of the American owners of these same ships.
If you want military materiel taken to any corner of the globe FOC ships will do it for a price. War risks insurance extra crew costs etc. My last container ship before I went back to the offshore oil industry had three passengers suites which could have been used by military coordinators.
We have large numbers of foreign mariners in the US. Anyone with a green card can get a MMC to sail unlicensed. Any foreign Mariner who becomes a US citizen can get a MMC as an officer. No one cares.
As long as they speak reasonable English, and are not openly anti-American, I certainly don’t care. I’ve had mostly good experiences with foreign mariners.
