Merchant Fleet in Dark Seas

En route from Long Beach to Asia with a load of clothing, electronics and seafood, the Sea-Land Endurance sails in an ocean of uncertainty.

The 845-foot container ship is registered in the United States and has a crew of Americans--an increasing rarity in a global business dominated by foreign-owned vessels that are cheaper to operate.

At the end of 1946, 2,332 American cargo ships carried roughly 45% of all imports and exports involving the United States. By 1990, 360 vessels were in service. Last year, about 250 U.S.-flag vessels hauled only 3% of the country’s imports and exports despite the nation’s phenomenal growth in foreign trade.

“I’m dumbstruck,” says Michael A. Perry, 52, of Florida, an engineering officer aboard the Sea-Land Endurance. Perry is standing in the vessel’s control room next to a 30,000-horsepower diesel engine that is propelling the ship to Oakland.

“We have the most powerful Navy in the world and one of the smallest merchant fleets,” he says while glancing across a light green panel of gauges. “How can we be so shortsighted?”

Others in the maritime industry voice the same thoughts. Today, a growing number of military leaders, shipping line executives and seafarers believe the decline of the U.S. merchant marine has gone far enough.

The industry, operating through a variety of trade organizations, plans to go to Congress seeking tax breaks and financial incentives to add up to 146 new cargo ships and replenish the nation’s shrinking pool of civilian mariners.

The aim is to make U.S. ships more competitive with foreign vessels that have long enjoyed generous tax advantages, government support, less regulation and the ability to hire seafarers from developing countries at a fraction of U.S. wages.

“We are the greatest trading nation in the world, but our cycle of support and neglect of the U.S. merchant marine has got to end,” said A.J. Herberger, a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral who heads the National Defense Transportation Assn., one of the leading proponents of saving the commercial cargo fleet.

In particular, he says, the nation will need the ships in wartime. The armed forces had a hard time mustering enough U.S.-flag vessels for the Gulf War 10 years ago. Even fewer commercial cargo ships are available today.

Whether the salvage effort will be successful is unclear. Proponents say they are encouraged by support in the U.S. Senate and President Bush’s proclamation last week backing the U.S. merchant marine. But opponents range from liberals who see corporate welfare at work to conservatives who believe the market has already spoken.

“What the government should be doing is zero,” said Edward Hudgins, director of regulatory studies at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington. “Let the market operate or else billions of dollars will continue to be misspent for higher transportation costs.”

At the center of the debate are ships like the Sea-Land Endurance.

Every 42 days, the vessel travels the Pacific Rim laden with as many as 1,300 40-foot shipping containers bound for Alaska, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The journeys start and end in Long Beach, with a first stop in Oakland.

Launched in Korea 21 years ago, the vessel is several years older than the average foreign-flag cargo ship. Its 20 crew members are graying as well--more than half between the ages of 45 and 60.

They work seven days a week, eight to 12 hours a day--sometimes more--for contract periods ranging from six weeks to eight months.

Clout of Unions

“I don’t know if I’ll keep at it,” said seaman Walter Weaver, 57, of Long Beach, who has been shipping out for 35 years. “Every time I get off the ship, I say I won’t go back. I miss the old freighters with the rigging and gear, and I miss being young too.”

Weaver is a tall, slender man with spectacles and gray hair. He regularly wears a soft white hat known among U.S. mariners as a “Lundberg Stetson.” It is like a pleated beret but with a short brim. Harry Lundberg, who championed labor causes during the 1930s as president of the Sailors Union of the Pacific, popularized the style.

Because of union clout, able-bodied seamen like Weaver can make $1,000 to $2,000 a week with overtime, while the highest-ranking officers can earn up to $150,000 a year.

Industry critics say that decades of federal subsidies amounting to millions of dollars a year per ship have prompted maritime unions to seek ever higher wages. Consequently, they say, U.S. cargo ships have become less and less competitive in world markets.

Ten years ago, a U.S. Maritime Administration study found that monthly labor costs aboard a subsidized U.S. cargo ship were triple a European container ship, and 10 times higher than a Bahamian vessel.

Crew members acknowledge that their pay is good. But they say they are well-trained, the hours are long, and shipboard life can be dangerous. In heavy weather, it’s hard to sleep or even stand in place to work. There are months of separation from home and family.

“I now make a good living, but I work hard for it,” said Bryan Rush, of Maryland, a boyish 38-year-old who is second in command of the ship’s engineering department. He earns at least $120,000 for six months at sea and is responsible for fixing anything, from computers to toilets to the engine.

“On some voyages, you can be dead on your feet by the time you get home,” said Rush, who has a wife and three children.

As the Sea-Land Endurance prepares to get underway, Rush is in the engine room, checking equipment. The space is a cavern of machinery, catwalks, wiring and pipe. It is hard to hear over the whir of pumps, generators and oil purifiers.

On deck, other crew members are hauling in lines used to secure the ship to the dock. A Long Beach harbor pilot comes aboard and two tugs pull along the port side. By 6:20 p.m., the Sea-Land Endurance clears Queen’s Gate and heads unassisted into the state’s main shipping channels.

Meanwhile, Chief Mate Errol Pak, 38, of Portland, Ore., checks some of the 800 shipping containers the vessel carries. The “cans” on deck are held in place with heavy steel bars called lashings. Some are loose and Pak cranks down on their turnbuckles to tighten them.

He and his shipmates lament that the romance and raw adventure long associated with the U.S. merchant marine are gone. Most modern cargo ships carry containers, which means they can be loaded and unloaded in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks. This often leaves only a few hours for the crew to get ashore.

“Basically, a ship is like a prison with no bars,” said Chief Engineer Rod Loosley, 45, of Vacaville. “There is just no place to go.”

But seafaring has its pleasures. The ocean is smooth after departure. Up on the bridge, the sunset fills the windows with a panorama of purple and red sky. The pulse of the engine penetrates all the way up the cream-colored superstructure and into the soles of your feet. Water rushes by the light blue hull.

“Peaceful, isn’t it,” Capt. Bob Becker says.

Although the maritime industry has been in steady decline, Becker, 45, who lives outside of Pittsburgh, has managed to advance his career and help support his wife and three daughters. But Becker knows the situation.

If it weren’t for government contracts, cargo preference laws, and a $2.1-million annual federal subsidy, the Sea-Land Endurance probably would be re-registered in a foreign country--perhaps Panama or Liberia--and crewed by foreigners.

To help compete, the ship’s managers have tightened schedules, worked to improve customer service, and cut the ship’s crew from 34 to 20.

Its American-owned operating company, U.S. Ship Management in Charlotte, N.C., estimates that the Sea-Land Endurance--even with government help--still costs about $1 million to $2 million more a year to operate than an equivalent foreign-flagged ship.

“Manpower and pay issues are difficult challenges,” said Joseph P. Fazzari, vice president of labor relations for the company. “You need to hold down costs, but you need to maintain the quality of life or you are not going to get good people into the industry.”

The Sea-Land Endurance and the remaining 250 oceangoing cargo ships in the U.S. merchant marine are basically protected and subsidized by two laws, which put the vessels at the disposal of the military during wartime.

The Maritime Security Program provides about $2.1 million per ship per year in subsidies for 47 U.S.-flag vessels sailing international routes, including the Sea-Land Endurance.

The 1920 Jones Act protects the other 200 or so ships from foreign competition by requiring that all vessels sailing domestic trade routes between U.S. ports be built, owned and crewed by Americans.

The National Defense Transportation Assn. would like Congress to preserve both measures and pass a host of new tax breaks, such as ending income taxes for mariners and replacing the tax on corporate earnings with a flat tax based on the total weight of a firm’s ships.

Maritime experts say it is highly unlikely today that the armed forces could enlist the cargo ships necessary for a sea-lift the size of the one used in the 1990 Gulf War. A decade later, there are about 100 fewer cargo ships and half the civilian seafarers, declines that are expected to continue.

For example, of the 250 ships in service today, 106 are tankers. Because few new vessels are planned, studies suggest that the number of U.S.-flag tankers might shrink to 22 by 2015, leaving only a handful capable of carrying gasoline and aviation fuel for the military during wartime.

“This is a wake-up call,” said Capt. Warren Leback, a former U.S. maritime administrator who made the projections. “If we do nothing, our tanker fleet will become almost nonexistent.”

But Arthur Donovan, a history professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., questions whether the proposals can reverse the industry’s steep decline. A century of federal subsidies and protection, he notes, has never sustained a strong commercial fleet during peacetime.

In addition, Donovan says, the military might not need the U.S. merchant marine as much as it has in the past. The Cold War is over, and the Pentagon is now spending billions to construct at least 30 new military cargo ships.

Herberger of the industry association, however, says the new Pentagon-built ships are either replacements for aging Navy transports or vessels specifically designed to carry combat vehicles. The U.S. still needs its own civilian cargo ships in wartime, he says, because reliability is crucial.

Critics of the industry contend that the military could charter cheaper foreign vessels or hire more ships from foreign powers friendly to the United States in a national emergency. Indeed, government reports show that during the Gulf War many of the 100-plus foreign-flagged vessels assembled for the conflict performed adequately.

On the other hand, those studies also show that it was more costly to ship on foreign vessels than on American transports during the war. In addition, some nations friendly to the U.S. declined to contribute vessels, 13 foreign-flag ships refused or hesitated to enter the war zone, and 40% of the foreign shipping lines hired for the campaign had been blacklisted by the U.S. Coast Guard for safety reasons.

Because of this, the crew of the Sea-Land Endurance believes the latest proposals to rebuild and add ships to the nation’s merchant fleet are long overdue.

“Columbus would have never gotten to the New World without government subsidies,” quips Perry, the ship’s third engineer.

Cross Currents for Cargo Ship

As night starts to fall on the Sea-Land Endurance, Pak and Third Mate Jay Schreiber, 38, are on the bridge, determining the vessel’s position and plotting its course on the chart table behind the captain’s chair.

Pak soon retires to his cabin, leaving the third mate in charge for the evening watch. Schreiber, of San Juan Island, Wash., scans the dark sea for other ships. Two eventually pass to starboard. With the bridge lights turned off to improve night-time visibility, Schreiber works in almost total darkness.

The next day, the ship nears San Francisco at about 21 knots. Because of fog and haze, visibility is less than a mile, but the radar shows there are few vessels in the area.

Shortly after 2 p.m., an orange and white pilot boat pulls along the port side. Arthur J. Thomas, a captain and harbor pilot, climbs up a rope ladder and makes his way to the bridge.

Because of strong cross currents, the ship, now under Thomas’ direction, crab walks across the entrance to San Francisco Bay and passes under the Golden Gate Bridge--its bright red-orange paint muted by fog.

Before docking in the back reaches of the harbor, the Sea-Land Endurance passes San Francisco’s waterfront. Tied to one of the city piers is the Jeremiah O’Brien, a restored Liberty ship from World War II.

Crewed by American seafarers, mass-produced cargo vessels like the O’Brien contributed significantly to the Allied victory. The icon of the U.S. merchant marine is now a museum piece and a reminder that the glory days of the American cargo fleet are long gone.

By 4:30 p.m., Thomas manages to dock the Sea-Land Endurance in the Port of Oakland, where it will take on stores, additional cargo and replace some of the crew. From there, it will sail to the Aleutian Islands to load seafood bound for Asia.

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