(SS Savanah underway on Steam Power, 1819).
If you were expecting some news about the Brood X Cicada outbreak you will have to wait. It is May 22 today, and one to honor one of those things on our National Calendar. You may still be celebrating National NASCAR and Pizza Party Day, which of course was yesterday, but still a vital part of our national obsession with commemorating stuff that might seem like a good idea after breakfast, but not necessarily after lunch.
Today is a bigger day and one that would naturally lead into a discussion of the Jones Act, a piece of legislation that is 101 years old this year, and still provides the guidelines for how we transport the material that makes our nation great.
The Department of Transportation supports the one devoted to the Merchant Marine, the vital commercial end of our vast maritime infrastructure. They shorten it in one of the typical Washington abbreviations, or MARAD. We celebrate National Maritime Day in honor of the brave sailors who served on the merchant ships that went to war, carrying vital material to our Russian allies in World War II, or what some of our new academic mentors read as “World War Eleven.”
It is worth a toast to those who served on those chill waters against the German U-Boats, since that gray shimmering ocean could and did kill thousands of courageous Americans. Those of us who served at sea remember them, and it is worth a thought today for those civilian sailors who sacrificed so much. During that conflict, more than a quarter million members of the American Merchant Marine suffered 6,700 sailors killed in action. Hundreds more were captured and imprisoned as POWs. More than 800 U.S. merchant ships were sunk or damaged.
Imagine the spectacle of all those lost ships steaming in formation. That would naturally lead into a discussion of the Jones Act, a subject that our departed pal Boats spent much of his professional life as a Coast Guardsman enforcing. I personally have found detailed discussions of ancient legislation to be a little ponderous for Saturday morning. So, with a tip of a nautical dixie cup hat to the people who were instrumental in keeping the Allies ready to fight. Huzzah!
The DoT also reminds us that the Merchant Marine has been a pillar in this country’s foundation of prosperity and security. That force “has powered the world’s largest economy and strengthened our ties with trading partners around the world. In times of conflict, they ship our troops and supplies wherever they need to go.”
That was later, of course. The year of 1933 and the depths of Depression called out for some inspiration. Congress did one of those periodic things it used to do. In those days, it helped that it cost our legislative body a minimal amount of taxpayer dollars. It decided to commemorate the American steamship SS Savannah’s voyage from the United States to England. It was the first successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean under steam propulsion, the moonshot of the time.
It is a cool story, and one worth honoring. Socotra House’s famed author Marlow is working on a book about the unique history of the great American port city honored by the steamship. She was built in 1818 in New York as a sailing packet, but converted to a steam power (under sail) after a Savannah shipping firm committed to buy her what they planned to be regular transatlantic service. She was equipped with a steam engine, paddle wheel and sails. She was, for the time, the equivalent of a Saturn V launch rocket. She was so innovative that President James Monroe took a ride on her when he visited the city in 1819.
Tides being right, she got underway at 0500 on May 24th to cross the Atlantic. That would have been the appropriate day to honor the voyage, but times and values have made a crowded calendar. This Monday, the actual date she cast off, is crowded with honorifics including National Yucatan Shrimp Day, Brother’s Day, Scavenger Hunt Day, Wyoming Day and one honoring the unheroic but vital Escargot Industry.
Savannah carried no cargo or passengers on her historic voyage, but successfully reached Liverpool after 29 days. There are some asterisks, of course, since only 90 hours of it were actually conducted on steam power, and it would be three decades before the economics and technology of steam made practical sense. But her voyage made history. Sorry about the pronouns, but the gender police have not reached the maritime trade as of this morning. The warships on which we deployed will always be ladies, and the police can just lump it.
Given the state of social change this particular year, the theme for this year’s MARAD celebration is styled for “America’s Maritime Workforce: Connecting the Nation and the World.” The Secretary of DoT wants to express the Government’s respect for the U.S. maritime industry’s unwavering support in the face of the dread COVID pandemic. It is not a U-Boat threat, but we can and should honor our nation’s maritime heritage today. The Department would like us to “commit ourselves to an even stronger future for America’s maritime industry.”
We are certainly willing to do that. But as the Editorial Review Board pointed out in caustic terms, that would require a discussion of the Jones Act, and why all those container ships from China are not American. That sidelight would require starting with a Bloody Mary.
Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com