A CURIOUS HYBRID emerged from the years of World War II. The merchant marine, virtually a creature of strife, had, by and large, lost its true identity, character, and purpose in a vast maze of trusts, international cartels, and a sea of bureaucratic ineptness. Ward of the government and of the all-encompassing empires of petroleum, ore, and agriculture, it now is, in reality, an adjunct industry rather than a true trading operation—stating its services and terms and successfully earning its way or failing.
Built upon a national philosophy predicated on the abysmal waste of natural assets, the merchant marine no longer performs the sorely needed, truly worthwhile coastwise functions. Its deep sea efforts, with a few notable exceptions, appear largely devoted to the disposing of artificially generated cargoes and the bulging surpluses of runaway technocracy. Public apathy contributes greatly to the serious, chaotic situation of today.
FURTHER EVOLUTION
The merchant marine tree [see page 98, August 1963 Proceedings] indicates that the Grace Lines, United Fruit Company, United States Lines Company, Moore-McCormack Lines, Isthmian Steamship Company, Mat- son Navigation Company, Oceanic Steamship Company, and the American President Lines, Ltd., have continued into the post-World War II era. The coastwise trunk services are seen as non-existent, and two unusual limbs (stemming from World Wars I and II) provide growth not readily identified. The older firms mentioned above continue unchanged with the exception of the Isthmian Steamship Company, which experienced a transfer of ownership in the mid-1950s. Additional, important, dry-cargo passenger carriers, today, are the Lykes Bros. Steamship Company, Inc., Mississippi Shipping Company (Delta Line), Farrell Lines, American Ex- rt, Lines-Isbrandtsen, American ail Line (division of the American President Lines), Pacific Far East Line, States Steamship Company, Gulf and South American Steamship Company (Grace & Lykes), Alcoa Steamship Company (Aluminum Corporation of America), States Marine Lines-Isthmian Agency, Sea-Land Service-Waterman Steamship Company (McLean Trucking), and Sea- train Lines.
The unique Alaska Steamship Company, dating from the Klondike era, is classified as coastwise. Pope & Talbot, stemming from lumber interests of the same name, presently operates a few vessels in tramp service. Calmar Steamship Corporation (division of Bethlehem Steel) and Veyerhaeuser Steamship Company (division of Weyerhaeuser Lumber) engage in intercoastal traffic concerned primarily with their products, however, common carrier service is available. The Bloomfield Steamship Company operates a few C-2-typc ships between Gulf and European ports, and the Prudential Lines operate five Victory-type freighters in the Mediterranean trade.
With the following exceptions— Matson Navigation Company, Alaska Steamship Company, Pope and Talbot, Sea-Land-Waterman, Seatrain, Weyerhaeuser, United Fruit, Calmar, and Alcoa—all the lines previously mentioned receive construction and operational subsidies provided by public funds. States Marine Lines- Isthmian Lines, also non-subsidized, has, as of August 1963, filed renewed applications with the U. S. Maritime Administration for such subsidies.
To this list of dry-cargo passenger operations may be added the non-subsidized activities of the tramp services, charter companies, coastwise collier services. And a recently inaugurated roll-on/roll-off coastwise system, yet to hit its stride, utilizing two new vessels employing stern- loading, should also be included. In this miscellaneous category are a hundred ship owners, owning one or two ships each, and smaller companies with a few vessels depending generally on company judgment of market conditions for success or failure. All in all, some 600 vessels, each 1,000 gross tons or more, comprise this time-honored facet of shipping—general cargo.
Of special import and interest in the industry arc the American-owned, bulk carrier firms dealing primarily in oil/ore and, in most instances, having nearly their total tonnage registered under foreign flags—thereby realizing substantial cost and tax advantages. Hence we have the oft- referred-to term, “flags of convenience.” In the postwar period, 53 major U. S. organizations have also had 769 vessels built or converted abroad. Some 409 foreign flag vessels are registered in Panama, Honduras, and Liberia—with tankers totaling 264 in number—according to figures recently made public by the Senate- House Joint Economic Committee. The number is further increased by many vessels registered under European flags. Important in this category are the fleets of Standard Oil Company and affiliates, Caltex group, Texaco, Naess Shipping Company, Universe Tankships (National Bulk Carriers), and a large nebulous entity often thought of as “the Greek phenomenon.” Increasing, too, is a trend toward the chartering of foreign fleets for domestic needs.
Apart from river barge traffic and the specialized Great Lakes industrial bulk movements (now taking on a deep-sea character with the advent of the St. Lawrence Seaway) the U. S. shipping scene is completed by two, unique. West Coast offshore-coastwise services surviving in the traditional merchant shipping manner— the Matson Navigation Company and the Alaska Steamship Company- Confronted with all the problems facing lines engaged in foreign voyages, these two companies lack the benefits of subsidy (forbidden by law for coastwise and inland services) enjoyed by other firms. And they lack a neutral climate, which might provide them with an equal opportunity to demonstrate the merits of coastwise steamship transportation as compared to the airlines, railroads and trucking.