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For a century and a half New York, seen on the preceding pages, has been the greatest of American harbors. Large tankers from the Gulf Coast, roll-on, roll-off ships from Puerto Rico, and container ships from both domestic and foreign ports berth mainly at Staten Island or New Jersey, beyond the picture to the left. Other ships and tugs with tows steam up the Hudson (center) as far as Albany and up the East River (right) to Long Island Sound and Southern New England. The piers visible on the Manhattan and New Jersey sides of the Hudson are now largely abandoned. Governors Island (lower right), long an Army post, now is a major Coast Guard base.
c
/uriously, despite its vast importance to U. S. transportation and the fact that each year its vessels transport 400 million more tons than all of the vessels engaged in our foreign trade, the domestic shipping industry appears remote from any connection with real shipping and the sea—an idea enhanced by its tug and barge approach, which still seems to those familiar with deep sea trading purely a "sand and gravel” operation.
However, the appearance is deceptive, for the domestic fleet transports more than a quarter of the ton miles of freight in the United States and, because of the highly developed nature of our waterways, is well fitted to meet the transportation crisis facing this nation. It was in this fleet that containerization got its start; it is in this fleet that most U. S.-flag tankers are employed; and it is in this fleet that the new super tug and barge system is making a comeback for maritime trade. The vessels in this fleet employ 70,000 more American seamen than those in their sister fleet engaged in our foreign commerce.
Our Growing Transportation Burden
No doubt of it, a transportation crisis will soon be upon us. Projections by economists forecast an increase in the total transportation needs of the United States of from 50 to 100 per cent in this decade. The dramatic growth of intercity freight movements in recent years and the decline in the percentage of these movements by water has contributed to the burden borne by the overland transportation network. Soon to burst upon a largely unsuspecting general public is a crisis in rail and motor freight. The country’s rail and motor capac
ity has been overburdened and as a result problem*, such as road congestion and freight car shortages, motf and more plague the carriers.
Railroads are carrying cargoes which can more economically be transported by water; however, rathe* than establish joint rail and water rates or allow wattf competition, the traffic is carried in trains at marginal or money-losing rates. For example, bulk shipments by rail contribute greatly to the national freight car shortage which has caused strains on capital, dislocation of markets, higher costs, and disruption of service. Shortages have been investigated by the ICC since 1887, but nothing ever seems to happen. The shortages continue Recent hearings have resulted in various bills introduced as an attempt to alleviate the chronic car shortage problem. Now before Congress is the Surface Transportation Act of 1973, of which the key provision i* $5 billion in Federal loan guarantees for the railroads (the prime beneficiaries), truck lines, and water carriers.
Much of the money is intended for the purchase of new freight cars, even though a recent Senate Commerce Committee study found that the average freight car is carrying a load only five per cent of the time
More use of water transport could relieve much ol the load from the bogged-down railroads and would result in substantive savings to the nation. Much of the traffic that once went by water could again be carried that way, and more economically than by land j routes.
The vast American waterway system which comprise* some 25,000 miles of navigable channels is for the mo*1 part underused. In 1939 the waterways carried 43 pet cent of the total ton-miles (a ton mile is a ton moved one mile) of intercity freight, but in 1970 they carried only 29.6 per cent.
The expanded use of our waterborne carrying caps*’ ity to meet future demands has the advantage of n°! requiring oftentimes undesirable highway, truck, °l pipeline construction. Per ton-mile, shipping uses k5* energy than any other form of transportation. In con trast to shipping’s 500 BTUs expended per ton-mik railroads expend 750, pipelines 1,850, trucks 2,400, an aircraft 63,000. When compared on a basis of ton-mik per gallon of fuel consumed, ships produce 33 percC(,! less air pollutants than diesel trains and 37 per less than diesel trucks.
There is no doubt about transportation’s importa*1' place in the American economy. Approximately 20 |k cent of our total annual expenditures for goods a*1' services, or GNP, is made for transportation of one ki*1 or another. The dramatic rate of growth of domes*11 freight tonnage is best described in the dollars spel> for freight transportation. In I960 the nation’s freigb- transportation bill for all modes amounted to $4
Domestic Shipping and American Maritime Policy 165
billion. By 1970 the freight bill had increased to $91.2 billion and it is still rising. Intercity ton-miles increased from 786 billion in 1939 to 2,293 billion in 1970. On a per capita basis, this means that every person in the United States required an average movement of 20 tons of goods to maintain his standard of living. This growth has not been shared by all modes. In terms of ton-miles, trains carry the largest percentage of
freight of any one mode in intercity service, with ships, boats, and barges second.
The following data provide some of the salient characteristics of the domestic shipping industry and compare them to our U. S. fleet in the foreign trade.
Table 2 shows a comparison of cargo carried in the domestic and foreign trades during the last 30-odd years. Between the ten-year points there were, of course, war-generated peaks in the early forties and during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, which are not shown separately on this table or any of the subsequent ones.
This table also demonstrates the high rate of growth in the foreign trade of the United States. But although almost 631 million tons were moved in 1972, only about 30 million tons went in U. S.-flag ships. In contrast, the domestic trades carried more than 987 million tons, all carried under the U. S.-flag. In summary, of the total tonnage moved under the U. S. flag, almost 97 per cent went in vessels protected by the cabotage laws* in the domestic trades.
Generally we tend to think of the domestic shipping industry as made up in large part by self-propelled vessels. But if we examine these vessels, we find that
““tee: Transportation Association of America—Facts and Trends—July 1973,
"1972 National Transportation Report—July 1972
Table 1
Intercity Freight Handled by Mode (Billions of Ton-Miles)
Year | Rail Amt | % | Domestic Deep-Sea Amt | % | Great Lakes Amt | % | Rivers and Canals Amt | % | Truck Amt | % | Oil Pipeline Amt | % | Air Amt | % | TOTAL |
1939 | 339 | 43.1 | 242 | 30.8 | 76 | 9.7 | 20 | 2.5 | 53 | 6.8 | 56 | 7.1 | .01 | 0.00 | 786 |
1949 | 535 | 47.0 | 221 | 19.4 | 98 | 8.6 | 42 | 3.7 | 127 | 11.2 | 115 | 10.1 | .20 | 0.02 | 1,138 |
1959 | 582 | 37.6 | 264 | 17.0 | 80 | 5.2 | 117 | 7.6 | 279 | 18.0 | 227 | 14.6 | .80 | 0.05 | 1,550 |
1969 | 774 | 35.3 | 301 | 13.7 | 115 | 5.2 | 188 | 8.6 | 404 | 18.4 | 411 | 18.7 | 3.20 | 0.14 | 2,196 |
1970 | 771 | 33.6 | 360 | 15.7 | 114 | 5.0 | 205 | 8.9 | 412 | 18.0 | 431 | 18.8 | 3.40 | 0.15 | 2,296 |
1971 | 746 | 30.5 | 360 | 15.7 | 105 | 4.6 | 210 | 9.1 | 430 | 18.7 | 444 | 19.3 | .3.50 | 0.15 | 2,298 |
1972 | 785 | 32.6 | 352 | 14.6 | 109 | 4.5 | 230 | 9.6 | 470 | 19.5 | 457 | 19.0 | 3.80 | 0.17 | 2,407 |
1980 | 967 | 33.0 | ALL WATER | SEGMENTS | 801 | 27.3 | 537 | 18.3 | 614 | 20.9 | 14.0 | 0.5 | 2,933 | ||
1990 | 1,223 | 31.3 | COMBINED |
|
| 1,042 | 26.7 | 759 | 19.4 | 852 | 21.8 | 33.3 | 0.8 | 3,909 |
NOTES:
1 The Domestic Deep-sea figures for 1939, 1949 and 1959 do not include figures for noncontiguous traffic.
2' 1970 the average length in statute mile of Freight haul in Domestic Commerce was as follows:
Domestic Deep-sea 1,509, Truck (Class I Commerce Carrier) 264, Rail 490, Oil Pipeline—Crude 300, Product 357, Dreat Lakes 506, Rivers and Canals 330, Air (scheduled) 1,014.
Includes all segments of domestic shipping.
■"Cabotage, the policy of excluding foreign vessels from the domestic trades of the United States, dates to this country’s beginning as an independent nation. Since that time Congress has reserved the domestic trades to American-built and American-flag vessels. The laws have withstood various suspensions, amendments, and minor exceptions which have had practically no effect on the original restriction.
76 per cent of the self-propelled ones are tankers. The dry cargo vessels, both salt water and fresh, are in large part obsolete. The Great Lakes fleet has an average age of 45 years.
What isn’t sufficiently taken into account in most comparisons is the American towboat industry, the majority of whose craft are employed on the inland waterways. These towboats have an aggregate capacity of almost 25 million deadweight tons.
One should not be misled. That 25 million deadweight tons is not composed wholly or even mainly of wooden sand and gravel barges. There are more than 1.2 million deadweight tons of barges with capacities of over 10,000 tons each, and more than 600,000 tons of barges of over 5,000 deadweight tons each. This shift in emphasis is a result of expanding economic opportunity for towed vessels of all types. Further, increases in crew costs will continue to create interest in the substitution of oceangoing barges for ships.
In summary, in 1970 total domestic DWT carrying capacity exceeded our ocean fleet in the foreign trade by some 28 million tons. In terms of employment, and especially evident in the domestic area, though true in the foreign as well, while the cargo carried has risen dramatically (as well as the cargo-carrying capacity), the number of jobs has declined.
Still some 80,000 seamen are employed aboard the inland towboat fleet, about 7,000 more are in the domestic offshore trades, and another 6,000 are on the Great Lakes.
Thus, compared with the foreign trade, the domestic shipping industry represents 70,000 more jobs for American seamen.
In brief, domestic shipping provides 78 per cent of U. S. seagoing jobs, its vessels comprise 86 per cent of the total U. S. fleets’ deadweight carrying capacity, and they transport 97 per cent of the cargo which moves under the U. S. flag. Ships, boats, and barges carry almost 29 per cent of the total intercity ton-miles of freight in the United States.
Table 2
Cargo Carried (millions of short tons)
Domestic vs Foreign Trade of the United States
Year | Domestic | Foreign |
1939 | 621.4 | 105.2 |
1949 | 575.4 | 165.4 |
1959 | 726.7 | 325.7 |
1969 | 927.4 | 521.3 |
1970 | 950.7 | 580.9 |
1971 | 946.6 | 565.9 |
1972 | 983.0 | 631.0 |
Source: | Maritime Administration |
|
Table 3
Deadweight Carrying Capacity (DWT in millions) Domestic Fleet vs U. S. Fleet in Foreign Trade
Year | Foreign Trade | Self-propelled Domestic Trade | Non-self-propelled Domestic Trade | Great Lake Ships |
1949 | 8.4 | 6.2 | 10.1 | — |
1959 | 5.8 | 6.5 | 15.6 | 3.7 |
1969 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 24.0 | 2.7 |
1970 | 5.4 | 6.2 | 24.6 | 2.7 |
1971 | 4.7 | 5.7 | 27.2 | 2.7 |
1972 | 5.1 | 5.5 | NA | 2.6 |
Source: Maritime Administration
From the beginning, America has been tied to it5 waterways for the movement of great quantities of commerce. With vast estuaries and rivers at its disposal j and in a free and competitive environment that nurtured achievement, domestic shipping flourished.
The domestic merchant marine falls into three major segments—the ocean trades (coastal, intercoastal, and the "noncontiguous” trade to Puerto Rico, Hawaii. Alaska, and Guam); the Great Lakes; and the inland waterways. Each operates within its own economic and competitive climate and despite the fact that all three face some of the same basic problems, each habitually has acted independently of the other.
Domestic Ocean Trade
One must distinguish between domestic ocean con1' merce and the inland waterways and Great Lakes se$' ments of the domestic shipping industry. As we l>a'c noted, domestic ocean shipping is itself divided int'’ three separate services—the coastwise, intercoastal, noncontiguous trades.
American coastwise traffic began with the first setde' ments three and a half centuries ago. For a long tit°e it flourished, but by the 1930s it was in decline. ^ the outset of World War II, every domestic deepW®tef vessel was taken over by the government. A grt'j number of these ships were lost during the war, afterwards many owners, daunted by high replacerne1’1 and operating costs, elected not to resume operatic111'.
The coastal trade now is comprised primarily 0 1 tankers and towed barges carrying petroleum and odlt>f bulk cargoes. The bulk carriers, both liquid and dO' are efficient in their loading and discharge procedure j are largely under proprietary industrial ownership 0< charter, and are accordingly able to operate profit®^ The war-built ships in general proved comped11' against overland movement. Many tankers were jum^1
Domestic Shipping and American Maritime Policy 167
The 81,000 ton SS Joseph D. Potts, completed in 1970 for Mathiasen’s Tanker Industries, off the Alaskan Coast. She is intended to carry oil from Cook Inlet, Alaska, to West Coast ports. Her speed is 17.5 knots, her length 818 feet, her draft at full load 44 feet.
ized to increase their capacity, and new ships have improved shipping’s competitiveness against pipelines.
However, the breakbulk ships placed into service after wartime use had great trouble in recovering their owners’ prewar traffic. As a result, their operators— those who dared return to the field—have been in a considerably worse economic situation than those who °wn bulk carriers. It is here that the fierce rail and truck competition and the high cost of labor, both afloat and ashore, have been most damaging.
Coastwise Trade
Traffic growth in the coastal trades has been mainly 'odustrial. In particular, oil, ore, and coal are likely to ^w in an increasing quantity, with the greater portion °f trade handled by tug and barge systems.
Before the passage of the Merchant Marine Act of '^70, which, for the first time, made tankers and dry fl*ulk carriers eligible for ship construction and operating-
differential subsidies, practically all American-flag tankers were built for the coastwise domestic trade. Since enactment of the new law, quite a number of large tankers and other bulkers have been ordered for the foreign trades. Three of the tankers will be of
265,0 deadweight tons each and another three will be in the 225,000-ton size range. The remaining tank ships range from 35,000 to 87,000 tons. These are the first new American-flag tank ships built specifically for foreign trade service since the mid-fifties.
Table 4
Summary of U. S. Towing Vessels and Barges
1971
Tugs & Towboats | 1950 | I960 | 1970 | 1971 | Atlantic Gulf & Pac. Coast | Miss R. System & Gulf Intracstl. Waterway | Great Lakes System |
^umber of Vsls. horsepower ^9 Cargo Barges Scows | 3,938 | 4,278 | 4,248 | 4,230 | 1,748 | 2,344 | 138 |
1,654,266 | 2,537,406 | 3,858,563 | 3,955,001 | 1,541,640 | 2,305,305 | 108,056 | |
dumber of Vsls. | 11,016 | 13,989 | 15,890 | 16,439 | 3,000 | 13,318 | 121 |
<’ lr8° Capacity (Short Tons) C'pdd Cargo Barges ^uttiber of Vsls. | 7,659,806 | 12,010,417 | 17,695,275 | 18,272,014 | 3,296,521 | 14,863,812 | 111,681 |
2,024 | 2,369 | 3,281 | 3,185 | 581 | 2,581 | 23 | |
ar8° Capacity |Short Tons) rce- U. S. Army Corps | 2,403,103 of Engineers | 3,588,499 | 6,332,749 | 6,330,298 | 1,521,222 | 4,753,480 | 55,596 |
As of 31 December 1971, the U. S.-flag tanker fleet was comprised of 258 ships of 7.7 million deadweight tons. Of these ships, 178 of 5 million deadweight tons were employed in the U. S. domestic ocean trades. The remainder primarily sought charters from the Military Sealift Command and foreign hauls of Public Law 480 grain, with foreign petroleum as an occasional backhaul cargo. At that time the American tanker fleet had an average size of only 29,693 DWT. However, this average
Inland 297,694,832 362,555,910 395,250,101
Coastwise1 182,543,761 195,717,548 290,196,823
Lakewise 169,880,810 184,808,588 155,109,237
1 Includes noncontiguous trade and intercoastal Source: U. S. Army Corps of Engineers
472,480,483
201,508,107
153,695,242
553,598,222
238,440,385
157,058,807
555,736,663
241,465,257
149,396,186
size is rising, because since 1965 the average size of new tankers delivered is more than 53,200 DWT. For East Coast shipping the top size appears to have been reached, for Texas ports, averaging 40 foot depths, limit future coastal tankers to 50,000 DWT.
In the domestic tanker trades, the Gulf to Atlantic route (outbound, full) is the most significant. There has been a marked increase, however, in the demand for tankers for the noncontiguous trades, beginning in 1962. This provides some work for ships which lost business after the opening in 1964 of the huge Colonial Pipeline from East Texas to New Jersey. The further development of Alaska is expected to increase the employment of tankers significantly. It is estimated that at least 30 such ships in the 125,000 deadweight ton size will be required to move Alaskan oil from southern Alaska to West Coast refineries when the Alaskan pipeline is completed.
Intercoastal Trade
Intercoastal shipping in its present form dates from the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, which reduced the water distance between New York and San Francisco by nearly 8,000 miles. Deep-sea coastal and intercoastal water transportation services between the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coast ports were important competitive and complementary services to railroads until World War II. But as we have observed, it did not revive with the coming of peace.
Area 1950 1955 I960 1965 1970 1971
Table 5
Total of all principle commodities transported on the domestic waterways of the U. S. (in net tons of 2,000 pounds)
The U. S. intercoastal trade route is the only major route using the Panama Canal which has declined.
In 1950 the U. S. intercoastal trade*, comprised of
8,315,0 tons, was the single most important Panama Canal route and represented almost 30 per cent of all traffic passing through the canal. In 1970, 3,706,000 tons moved on the U. S. intercoastal trade route, representing only three per cent of all traffic passing through
•Statistics from the Report of the Study Group on Intcroceanic and Intercoastal Shipping, April 1970, include the non-contiguous trade between Alaska and Hawaii. In 1970 the Alaskan and Hawaiian intercoastal trade amounted to about 538,000 tons.
the Panama Canal.
An analysis of the last ten years demonstrates i dramatic decline in the seaborne flow of goods fro® the West to the East Coast. In I960 more than 4.7 million tons moved west to east through the canal, but in 1970, this trade had plummeted to less than 1 million tons. The major losers were petroleum an6 its products, which lost more than 2.2 million tons- Lumber and lumber products also declined heavily, by more than 1.1 million tons, because of the industry's shift to Canadian northwest lumber. This import lu®- ber was classed as foreign trade, and could be carried to the U. S. East Coast in foreign ships. Canned food products moving from west to east fell from 317 thousand tons in I960 to only 2 thousand tons in 1970- This was because of the departure of Sea-Land Servitf from the intercoastal service in favor of shipping 10 Vietnam which, in turn, caused the railroads to captu® the canned goods trade. In any event, for whatever reason, nearly every major commodity group in the west to east trade showed a decline.
From the East Coast through the canal, tonnage fo5 been nearly static, showing only a slight rise for the sixties. Iron and steel remained the major commodity moving east to west, but it showed a slight decline Petroleum and its products declined 200 thousand to® A change of similar magnitude, but one of growth rather than decline, marked the movement of ores ^
Table 6
Tanker Employment in Domestic Trade
12/31/51
12/31/61
| No. | DWT (000) | No. | DWT (000) | No. |
Pacific | 39 | 549 | 30 | 446 | 14 |
Intercoastal | 3 | 44 | 7 | 147 | 8 |
Alaska | 1 | 1 | 2 | 34 | 17 |
Hawaii | 2 | 29 | 4 | 58 | 6 |
Puerto Rico | NA | NA | 5 | 70 | 14 |
Atlantic-Gulf | 250 | 3,843 | 210 | 4,691 | 119 |
Active Vsls. | 295 | 4,467 | 258 | 5,446 | 178 |
Source: Maritime Administration |
|
|
|
Table 7
Panama Canal Commercial Ocean Traffic Selected Fiscal Years 1950-1970 (000 long tons of cargo)
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970
Intercoastal 8,315 6,833 7,364 5,823 3,706
All Routes 28,872 40,646 59,258 76,573 114,258
The largest and newest American "ore boat” on the Great Lakes, the MV Stewart J. Cort (above) and an elderly intercoastal freighter, the SS Marymar (left). Built in 1944 as the transport LJSS General J. R. Brooke (AP 132), the 15,000 ton Marymar was converted to a general cargo ship about eight years ago. Her speed is 17 knots. The 58,300 DWT Stewart J. Cort carries iron ore pellets from Taconite Harbor, Minnesota, to Burns Harbor, Michigan. Her top speed is 16 miles per hour (that is the way speed is measured on the Lakes).
Table 8
Domestic Oceanborne and Great Lakes Commerce of the United SM11 BETWEEN COASTAL AREAS—CALENDAR YEAR 1971 (In tons of 2,000 lbs.)
In All Types of Vessels
Coastal area of1'
Calendar Year 1971 Coastal Area Lading | lot at Tons (short) | North Atlantic | South Atlantic | Gulf | California | Pacific Northwest | 0 I | H, \ |
Grand Total....... | 382,208,380 | 138,530,605 | 17,914,475 | 28,627,091 | 32,489,532 | 9,608,567 | ill | 6; |
(all types ships) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
North Atlantic.... | 45,955,670 | 40,484,724 | 1,491,032 | 1,238,316 | 591,874 | 72,244 |
|
|
South Atlantic.... | 1,614,762 | 370,321 | 199,427 | 254,069 | 109,957 |
|
|
|
Gulf................... | 121,829,097 | 79,701,914 | 14,493,794 | 25,054,464 | 1,084,085 | 373,593 |
|
|
California............ | 28,734,721 | 197,871 | 8,602 | 160,600 | 17,012,117 | 6,938.824 |
| k |
Pacific Northwest . . . . | 5,840,174 | 336,363 | 15,165 | 15,690 | 2,357,891 | 1,513,034 |
| 1 i |
Great Lakes....... | 141,060,225 | 19,699 | 400 | 132,958 | 500 |
|
|
|
Hawaiian Islands | 4,471,660 | 58,450 | — | 321,367 | 1,532,055 | 95,566 |
| 2,4 |
Alaska................ | 11,729,311 | — | — | 53,743 | 9,604,229 | 504,256 |
| 1 |
Puerto Rico & Vir. Isl.. | 20,848,973 | 17,361,263 | 1,706,055 | 1,395,884 | 189,143 | 111,050 |
|
|
Other Pacific Islands . . | 123,787 | — | — | — | 7,681 | — |
|
|
Summary |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Type Vessel and Area |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
of Discharge |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grand Total....... | 382,208,380 | 138,530,605 | 17,914,475 | 28,627,091 | 32,489,532 | 9,608,567 | 1ft1 |
|
Self-Propelled..... | 324,831,519 | 110,545,651 | 15,070,744 | 14,246,643 | 30,118,771 | 7,995,210 | tJjj |
|
Dry Cargo Ships . . . | 143,890,276 | 2,026,905 | 457,651 | 1,218,309 | 1,926,158 | 583,112 | ijj; | >,9 |
Tank Ships................ | 180,941,243 | 108,518,746 | 14,613,093 | 13,028,334 | 28,192,613 | 7,412,098 |
| 2,5 |
Non-Sclf-Propelled. . . . | 57,376,861 | 27,984,954 | 2,843,731 | 14,380,448 | 2,370,761 | 1,613,357 | )' |
|
Dry Cargo Ships . . . | 24,710,628 | 7,334,791 | 343,846 | 10,301,268 | 647,362 | 1,147,286 |
|
|
Tank Ships................ | 32,666,233 | 20,650,163 | 2,499,885 | 4,079,180 | 1,723,399 | 466,071 | i |
|
chemicals and accounted for the slight rise in westbound movements through the canal.
The sag in general cargo movements in the intercoastal trade which resulted from high operating and labor costs, compounded by transcontinental rail competition, may be stemmed by faster waterborne container services. However, current traffic trends indicate that the continued decline in intercoastal waterborne traffic is due primarily to the decline in bulk petroleum traffic, because West Coast petroleum supplies come from new sources—foreign and Alaskan.
Future trade between the East and West coasts will continue to be dependent upon bulk chemicals, phosphate, ore, steel, lumber, and fertilizers. These should offer opportunities for specialized large oceangoing tug and barge systems.
Noncontiguous Trade. Trade in the noncontiguous segment of domestic ocean shipping began in 1867 when Alaska was purchased from Russia, but there was little traffic in this direction until gold was discovered
in the Klondike in 1896. Thereafter Seattle became major port link with Alaska. In 1898 during the wJf with Spain, the Hawaiian Islands were annexed, later by the terms of the Armistice, Spain was coW pelled to cede the Philippine Islands, Puerto Rico, ^ Guam to the United States.
With the exception of the Philippines, who wet* never included in the cabotage restriction and gained their independence in 1946, the aforementioned stat*5 and islands comprise the noncontiguous segment domestic ocean shipping.
There was neither expansion nor modernization 0 the domestic ocean fleet until October 1957; then 3 revolution was begun when Sea-Land’s Gateway W completed her maiden voyage between Port Newa^ and Miami as the world’s first full containership- j1 was the success of container operations in the domes111 routes between the East and West coasts and Puert0 Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska that focused attention on th*5 new way of handling and moving general cargo*-'1
Domestic Shipping and American Maritime Policy 171
, ,l23
l98,87l
85.548
95
.050
Alaska | Puerto Rico & Vir. Is/. | Other Pac. hi. |
3,286,260 | 3,647,667 | 185,329 |
125 | 1,898,324 |
|
— | 680,988 | — |
55,946 | 869,062 | — |
754,138 | 175,947 | 153,174 |
1,107,809 | 23,323 | — |
— | 23 | — |
— | — | 11,099 |
1,368,212 | — | — |
30 | — | — |
|
| 21,056 |
3,286,260 | 3,647,667 | 185,329 |
1,837,886 | 2,721,011 | 177,749 |
343,078 | 2,596,984 | 145,304 |
1,494,808 | 124,027 | 32,445 |
1,448,374 | 926,656 | 7,580 |
832,424 | 861,702 | — |
615,950 | 64,954 | 7,580 |
Likewise, roll-on, roll-off ships were introduced by unsubsidized domestic operators before their adoption in the foreign trades. More recently, beginning in the 1960s, innovations developed by domestic operators have resulted in the design,, construction, and operation of highly efficient deep-sea tug and barge units offering the advantage of push towing.
Domestic Ocean Towing
In the 1970s super-sized oceangoing tug and barge units have opened up new areas of competition for U. S. shipbuilders and operators. An insatiable demand in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, as well as in adjacent U. S. coastal and Caribbean islands, for cheap bulk transport has spurred this oceangoing tug and barge development. The ocean barge building and operating occur both on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast and on the Pacific Northwest. The latter serves Hawaii and Alaska, as well as the Pacific coastwise and intercoastal trades. The key to ocean barge efficiency is to get more use out of the propulsion unit by separating that section from the cargo-carrying section when they reach their destination, allowing the tug to go to sea with another barge-load of cargo, thus reducing port time for the tug and her crew.
The great interest shown by U. S. operators in ocean towing stems primarily from the need to reduce crew costs. A modern tanker or dry cargo vessel requires a crew of 30 to 40 men, while a tug and barge combination of the same capacity requires only 8 to 12 men, permitting great savings in wage (wage savings may amount to as much as $850,000 per year), subsistence, and insurance costs.
Moreover, because they are of much simpler construction, tug and barge combinations can be built for approximately 40 per cent less cost than a self-propelled vessel.
Offsetting these advantages, a tug and barge’s slower transit time reduces the number of voyages the combination can complete when compared with a self- propelled vessel. Speeds are increasing rapidly, however, through improvements in hydrodynamics and power systems on rigidly linked push towing units.
The energy crisis in the United States is expected to last into the 1980s. In consequence, it is likely that
Two barges laden with trucks, autos, and railroad cars proceed sender tow up the West Coast. Such passages are slow but cheap. Except when destined for out of the way places, such as Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, barges are most likely to carry bulk cargoes.
large quantities of crude oil will be imported into the East and Gulf coasts primarily from the Middle East and that substantial numbers of feeder vessels will be required to transport the crude from deep draft offshore terminals to the refineries. Ocean tug and barge combinations of approximately 40,000 deadweight tons compare favorably with foreign vessels in terms of construction and operating costs and are probably the types of feeder vessels that would run in this trade.
Currently, Ingram Ocean Systems operates the largest rigid-linked oceangoing tug and barge system in the world. Two identical units, each comprised of a 532 foot, 33,000 DWT tank barge pushed by a 140-foot tug of 11,250 BHP, are employed hauling clean petroleum products from production centers along the Gulf to markets along the Atlantic. The first vessel entered service in February 1971.
In 1973 the Litton Industries’ subsidiary, Wilson Marine Transit, began operating a 14,000 HP tug and
52,0 DWT self-unloading barge combination to haul iron ore on the Great Lakes. The unit, 1,000 feet in length overall, is too large to move through the St. Lawrence Seaway locks and will be captive on the
Great Lakes.
Table 11 is a listing of the existing tug and barge operations. There were 64 barges of 10,000 DWT or ! greater in the U. S. domestic trade on 1 January 1971- I They comprised 1,063,996 deadweight tons. The tonnage of such big barges is now estimated at almost 1.3 mil' lion, since a great number of new ocean tug systems have since gone into operation. It is also estimated that 1 there are in operation more than one-half million DWTs of barges from 5,000 to 10,000 DWTs each.
Great Lakes Shipping
Table 10
U. S. flag oceangoing vessels actively employed in the coastwise, intercoastal, and noncontiguous trades by number, deadweight tonnage, and general vessel type for selected years
Total Passengers and Freight Dry Cargo
Year | No. | DWT (000) | No. | DWT (000) | No. | DWT (000) | No. |
1939 | 772 | 6,499 | 53 | 235 | 415 | 2,921 | 304 |
1950 | 453 | 5,805 | 4 | 23 | 175 | 1,739 | 274 |
1960 | 363 | 6,241 | 2 | 22 | 115 | 1,260 | 246 |
1970 | 245 | 5,368 | 2 | 13 | 68 | 837 | 175 |
1972 | 201 | 4,881 | 1 | 6 | 57 | 751 | 143 |
Source: Maritime Administration
Table 9
U. S. flag oceangoing merchant ships actively employed in the foreign, coastwise, intercoastal and noncontiguous trades of the United States by selected years, shown by number and deadweight tonnage
Year | No. | Total (000) | No. | Foreign Trade (000) | No. | Coastwise & Intercoastal Trades (000) | No. | Noncontiguous Trades i (ioooy^ ' |
1939 | 1,091 | 9,303 | 319 | 2,803 | 675 | 5,833 | 97 | 663 |
1950 | 1,099 | 13,440 | 646 | 7,635 | 401 | 5,271 | 52 | 532 |
I960 | 937 | 12,922 | 574 | 6,681 | 300 | 5,482 | 63 | 759 |
1970 | 631 | 11,143 | 386 | 5,775 | 167 | 4,016 | 78 | 1,352 |
1972 | 436 | 9,565 | 262 | 4,683 | 133 | 3,583 | 68 | 1,299 |
Source: Maritime Administration
Tankers
The Great Lakes of North America and their connecting waterways support the world’s largest inland water transportation complex. The U. S.-flag Great Lakes fleet, consisting of 202 ships, carried about 162 million short tons in 1972, or 16 per cent of the total domestic waterborne commerce in the United States, across the fives lakes—Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario—primarily to supply iron ore, coal, limestone (used in the manufacturing of steel), and grain
Domestic Shipping and American Maritime Policy 173
to giant industrial lakeside cities. Foreign sources of ‘ton ore have caused tonnage moving on the Great fakes to remain essentially stable. It fluctuates by a few ®illion tons (less than 10 per cent) each year as the stoel industry demand fluctuates.
In appraising the Great Lakes as an inland waterway transportation network, careful account should be made *ts seasonal and dimensional limitations.
Seasonally, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence
Seaway are limited because of ice formations in the connecting channels and locks, and on the periphery of the lakes. A three-year program aimed at demonstrating the practicability of extending the navigation season on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway was authorized by Congress in 1970.
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In 1971 the Seaway closing date on 20 December was the latest since the Seaway was opened. On the Great Lakes, navigation continued until 31 January
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Two very different examples of domestic shipping, each serving a very different trade. Above, the SS Hawaiian Legislator, like the Marymar a World War II C-4 hull put to commercial use, carries containerized cargo between Hawaii and the West Coast. At left 36 barges are being pushed through the Mississippi by one of the many river ",towboats” which serve the enormous Western Rivers system.
Description of Domestic Tug-Barge Operations of the 10,000 Short Tons and Over Capacity
(As of 1 January 1972)
Operator’s Name | Number of Barges and Cargo Capacity (Short Tons) | Principal Commodities Carried | Points or Localities and Waterway Between which, or on which, Opentld |
Aiple Towing Co., Inc. | 1-10,000 | All bulk commodities | Inland waterways, Gulf of Mexico, & Caribbean Sea |
Alaska Hydro Train | 2-12,500 11-10,000 | Railroad cars | Seattle, Wash, to Whittier, Alaska |
Allied Towing Corp. | 1-21,000 | Petroleum products, liquid phosphates | James River, Norfolk, Chesapeake Bay, and Intercoastal Waterways |
Atlantic & Caribbean Barge Line | 1-15,094 | General cargo | Gulf area, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands |
Atlantic Cement Co. | 3-19,600 | Cement | New England to Florida, Ravena, NY to Boston |
Bouchard Transport Co. | 1-10,471 1-10,764 1-11,895 1-12,889 | Fuel oil, creosote, oil, tar products, and molasses | Port of NY, Atlantic Coast from Maine to Florida, and NY State Barge Canal to Great Lakes |
Bulk Food Carriers, Inc. | 1-17,800 | Phosphate, grain, lumber | Columbia River, Panama Canal, and Stockton and Sacramento, Calif. |
Caribe Hydro Trailer | 2-12,500 | General cargo | Miami, Fla. to San Juan, Puerto Rico |
Construction | 1-22,500 | Towing sand and gravel | Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio |
Aggregates Corp. | |||
Curtis Bay Towing Co. of Virginia | 1-23,000 Hopper barge | Towing bulk freight | Atlantic Gulf ports |
Dixie Carriers | 1-13,000 | Bulk, iron, steel, sulphur, chemicals, grain, salt and petroleum products | Tampa, Florida; Gulf of Mexico |
Gulfcoast Transit Co. | 4-19,200 1-17,800 1-23,000 | Bulk coal and phosphate rock | Mississippi River & points along the Gulf Coast |
Hilo Transportation & | 1-16,000 covered | Towing dry bulk, | Hawaiian Islands, Pacific |
Terminal Co. | Hopper barge | chemical fertilizers | Coast |
Ingram Ocean Systems, | 1-33,000 | Petroleum | Atlantic and Gulf ports |
Inc. | |||
Interstate Oil Transport Co. | 1-11,756 1-14,520 1-14,448 1-14,500 3-34,100 1-16,800 Tank Barge | Gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil petrochemicals, crude oils, and liquid wastes | Delaware River & tributaries, Chesapeake Bay & tributaries, NY Harbor, & coastwise |
N. Jersey Barging Corp. | 1-10,070 | Bulk oils | From Maine to Norfolk, Va- * all connecting inland waterways, Perth Amboy, NJ |
Pacific Island Navigation Co., Inc. | 1-12,500 | General cargo, lumber, petroleum and molasses | Tacoma, Wash; Columbia at^ Snake Rivers, Pacific Coast, Coos Bay and Crescent City |
Los Angeles and San Diego; Alaska and Pacific ports
^72; in earlier years it ended, like the Seaway, for the Period from about 15 December to 1 April.
the
environment; broadcasting daily ice and weather
Table 11 (Con’t.)
Operator's Name | Number of Barges and Cargo Capacity {Short Tons) | Principal Commodities Carried | Points or Localities and Waterways Between which, or on which, Operated |
Philips Petroleum Co. | 1-32,425 | Crude petroleum, diesel fuel, lube oil, gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil | Alaska, Hawaiian Islands, Pacific Coast, Seattle, and San Diego |
Picton, D.M. and Co., Inc. | 1-32,425 | Petroleum products and dry | Louisiana and Texas. Intra- |
| Tank Barge | cargo | coastal Waterway |
Puget Sound Tug & Barge Co. | 2-12,500 1-19,700 | Towing and general freight | Worldwide |
Ped Circle Transport Co. | 1- 20,300 2- 25,000 | General commodities | Tampa, Florida on the Gulf of Mexico route to lower Mississippi River points at or below Baton Rouge, La. |
Pcd Star Towing & Trans- | 1-12,000 | Towing, stone, coal and bulk | Atlantic Coast and all con- |
portation Co. | Steel Barge | freight | necting waterways |
Sheridan Transportation | 3-12,000 | Dry bulk freight | Bay of Fundy, Atlantic Coast, Gulf of Mexico, W. Indies, & NY Harbor—Long Island to New London |
Spentonbush Fuel Transport | 1-12,776 | Bulk molasses, vegetable oils | New York: Atlantic and Gulf |
Service |
| and chemicals | Coasts, Great Lakes and Inland Waterways |
Sun Transport Inc. | 1-15,792 | Towing gasoline, petroleum, dry cargo and furnace, lubricating, bulk and heating oils | Corpus, Christi; Delaware, Hudson, Connecticut, and James rivers; Gulf of Mexico; Mississippi River to Baton Rouge; and Atlantic Coastal and inland waters |
tidewater Barge Lines | 1-12,000 | Towing petro products, bulk | Various points on the Willa- |
United Transportation Co. | 1-15,500 | wheat, cement, anhydrous ammonia, chemicals & general cargo | mette, Columbia & Snake R., Pac. Coastal waters & Alaskan waterways |
2-24,975 1-11,521 Total: 64 1,063,996 | Bulk refined oil | Pacific Coast, Alaska, & Hawaii |
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°utcc: U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Transportation lines—1972
The Winter Navigation Board, composed of repre- Scntatives from eight Federal agencies (including the t°ast Guard) and two commissions, is chaired by the ■ S. Army Corps of Engineers. Their program includes atl analysis of any effects that winter voyages have on
c°nditions to vessels; experimentation on improved a'^s to navigation; and more icebreaking assistance to ShiPping.
''Then the St. Lawrence Seaway opened on 26 June
1959, it not only made the vast interior of North America accessible for the first time to deep draft, oceangoing vessels, but it also permitted the Great Lakes fleets of Canada and the United States to extend their range of operations to the ports of the lower St. Lawrence River. The Seaway’s locks accommodate vessels up to 730 feet in length, 75 feet in beam, and 25 and one-half feet in draft. Depth is the most restrictive dimension and limits loads to 27,000 tons by lakers and, because of their different shapes, to only 9,000 or 10,000 tons for ocean-going vessels.
The Seaway begins on the St. Lawrence River at
176 U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Naval Review 1974
Montreal, 1,000 miles from the sea. To ascend the 246 feet to Lake Ontario, a ship must transit seven Seaway locks. To rise the 572 additional feet necessary to reach Lake Erie requires eight more locks, at the Welland Canal. These can take any ship that can pass through the Seaway. And with one more lock at "the Soo,” a vessel reaches Lake Superior, 602 feet above sea level. The Poe Lock permits ships of 1,000 feet in length. 105 feet in beam, and 58,000 tons deadweight to pass through. Steaming from the Atlantic Ocean to Duluth, a ship travels 2,342 miles.
The New York State Barge Canal, the present descendant of the Erie Canal, connects Lake Erie at Buffalo with the Hudson River at Albany and the Atlantic Ocean. The Illinois waterway at Chicago, the only other shallow draft barge exit from the Great Lakes, provides a link to the Mississippi River system.
In 1882 the first vessel built of iron on the Lakes, the steamer Onoko, (with auxiliary sail) proved to be a prototype design for subsequent lake carriers. Her deck house and bridge located at the bow for better visibility and her engines well aft allowed almost the entire length of the vessel to be used by her cargo. It was an efficient arrangement for the bulk cargoes characteristic of the Lakes.
The average age of the U. S. Great Lakes fleet is about 45 years. The main explanations for this longevity are the absence of corrosive saltwater and a long off-season when ice conditions shut down operations (in former years some four months). Also, because trade in the Great Lakes has remained practically the same for twenty years, new U. S. vessels (but plenty of Canadian ships) have not been required. Hence, only three lakers in the U. S. fleet are under ten years old. One of these is a small tanker, the other two are bulk carriers, both going into service in 1972 as the largest ships ever to sail on the Great Lakes. One, the
Stewart J. Cort measures 1,000 feet by 105 feet and lS capable of carrying 58,300 long tons of iron ore pellets The self-unloading ship can discharge at a rate of 20,00^ tons per hour. The other, the Roger Blough, is an 858 foot, 45,000 DWT self-unloader and can discharge at the rate of 10,000 tons per hour.
Until the new Poe Lock opened at the Soo in 19$> the cargo-carrying capacity of lakers remained practi- cally unchanged for almost 25 years, constrained by canal and lock dimensions. The new Poe Lock g3'e U. S. operators a new challenge and opportunity t0 ! increase carrying capacity and productivity, thereby reducing costs substantially.
Inland Waterways
In terms of tonnage movements and deadweigb1 carrying capacity, the most important segment of d°' mestic shipping is the inland waterways, which is o°c of the fastest growing modes of transportation in tb'5 country. The basic reasons for the growth are its e*' j tremely efficient operation and the low cost of bafge transportation. Today, specialized tows, such as ufl|( tows for bulk liquid, typically cover the Pittsburg t0 New Orleans route in ten days. With the program ^ modernization of the lock and dam structures on Ohio River well underway, average river transit tim° will be further reduced. Advances in twoboat and bzr8e j design and the economics of scale achieved have stab* lized average costs, making them almost what they ^ fifty years ago. The demand for water transportati°r" mainly for bulk commodities, has spurred the struction of tugs and barges that far out-class th0^ of only twenty years ago.
Table 12
V. S. Great Lakes Fleet 1897-1973 as of June 30, 1973 Self-Propelled Vessels of 1,000 Gross Tons and Over
Type of Vessels
Year Total Bulk Carriers Tankers
Built | Age | all Vsls. | No. | DWT | No. | DWT |
1897-1922 | 50-75 | 85 | 78 | 823,299 | 5 | 21,222 |
1923-1942 | 30-50 | 55 | 43 | 598,952 | 4 | 16,853 |
1943-1952 | 20-30 | 41 | 37 | 640,264 | 1 | 4,088 |
1953-1962 | Under 20 | 18 | 16 | 363,417 | 1 | 3,640 |
1963-1972 | Under 10 | 3 | 2 | 92,000 | 1 | 4,520 |
Total |
| 202 | 176 | 2,517,932 | 12 | 50,323 |
'Railroad and automobile ferries
Source: Maritime Administration—Division of Great Lakes Shipping
l4
The growing tonnage of individual tows b3; brought the power of towboats into the range 0
Domestic Shipping and American Maritime Policy 177
oceangoing ships. Single tows of 50,000 tons are becoming common on the lower Mississippi, and tows of 36,000 tons have moved on the Ohio. It is not unusual to have a tow of more than 1,000 feet in length and more than 250 feet in breadth on the lower Mississippi. On the Ohio, tows are as long as those on the Mississippi, but only half as wide. In April 1972 a 26-barge tow pushing 31,223 tons of grain, steel ingots, and coke—the equivalent of four trains of 100 cars each—was the largest ever to traverse the Tennessee River.
Comparative cost figures show that a shipper’s dollar will move a ton of freight an average of 15.4 miles by truck and 66.6 miles by rail, but 333.3 miles by barge. Barge tows average 6 to 8 knots, which means they can serve as great floating warehouses, helping to balance production and sales.
Prices have stayed low because barge operators have kept their costs low, in contrast to the railroads, their Wain competitors. The wage increases that have occurred have had little impact on profits, because the industry is so capital-intensive—on the order of $80,000 of capital investment per employee compared with $50,000 for the railroads.
The waterway system has undergone many changes and improvements since the Corps of Engineers received its first Congressional grant in 1824 to clear snags in the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
In January 1971, completion of the Arkansas River navigation project gave the nation 25,543 miles of commercially navigable waterways. The Arkansas River and 50 miles of a tributary, the Verdigris, have been opened up to shallow draft (nine feet) navigation from Catoosa, Oklahoma, to the Mississippi River, a distance °f 439 miles across eastern Oklahoma and the entire state of Arkansas. The navigation project, the largest ever undertaken by the Corps of Engineers, cost $1.2 billion in Federal money.
More than half of the nation’s barge traffic is carried °n the vast network of the Mississippi River system which extends north from the U. S. Gulf Intercoastal Waterway to Chicago. The remaining barge traffic, as wc have seen, is on the Gulf and Atlantic intercoastal Waterways and in the Pacific Northwest.
the advent of barge-carrying ships, focuses attention on the growing intermodal movement of trade. The U. S. energy deficiency will increase the demand on domestic shipping. Large quantities of crude oil will be imported into the East and Gulf coasts. Substantial numbers of domestic feeder vessels will be required to move the crude oil from offshore terminals to U. S. refineries.
With these considerations in mind, the Maritime Administration established the Office of Domestic Shipping in October 1971 and charged it with the responsibility for promoting all segments of the domestic shipping industry—inland waterways, the Great Lakes, and the coastwise and noncontiguous trades. The aim is to bring together all factions of the domestic marine industry so they can contribute to the economic growth and development of the United States as a whole, and a balanced national transportation system in particular.
In essence, after a long period of neglect by the Maritime Administration, the domestic shipping industry is finally regarded as an essential part of the U. S. merchant marine and a vital element of the national transportation system.
domestic Maritime Policy
The expected doubling of demand for intercity transportation in this decade will offer new opportu- nifies for growth in domestic waterborne transmutation. Railroads and trucks are nearing the upper jttnits of their capacity. The increased use of containers lri the offshore and now the inland trades, as well as