United States Shipping Board
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The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War I efforts. The program ended on March 2, 1934.[1]
Initiation
The
- "An Act to establish a United States Shipping Board for the purpose of encouraging, developing, and creating a naval auxiliary and naval reserve and a Merchant Marine to meet the requirements of the commerce of the United States with its territories and possessions and with foreign countries; to regulate carriers by water engaged in the foreign and interstate commerce of the United States for other purposes."[1]
A board of five commissioners was to be appointed by the
US President Woodrow Wilson made public his nominations for the board on December 22, 1916, with some dissatisfaction in the shipping industry about particular nominees and the board's power to set ocean freight rates raising particular concern and skepticism.[2] The initial nominees were William Denman (chairman), who was instrumental in drafting the legislation for the establishment of the board for a term of six years, Bernard N. Baker for five years, John A. Donald for four years, James B. White for three years, and Theodore Brent for a term of two years.[2][3] The members of the board gathered in Washington in the first week of January 1917 to plan and organize while they awaited confirmation, which came in late January. The board's formal organization was on January 30.[4]
US vessels had suffered a disadvantage, and the laws passed by Congress had in some cases had the effect of giving advantage to
The US entered the war just over two months after the board had begun its work, which completely changed its focus from generally strengthening the nation's maritime position to a massive wartime program. Though it was sometimes referred to as the War Shipping Board, the official title remained the United States Shipping Board.
The board was to address the shortage of shipping through acquisition of existing hulls and, with the declaration of war by the United States on
The division of authority between the USSB and the EFC and the construction program's direction led to conflict between USSB Chairman Denman and EFC General Manager Major-General George Washington Goethals. That resulted in the resignation of both men and the reconstitution of the board and the corporation.[5]
The new USSB composition, which remained throughout the war was Edward N. Hurley as chairman, with Raymond B. Stevens replacing James B. White as vice-chairman and John Donald, Bainbridge Colby and Charles R. Page as members.[3][5] Rear Admiral Washington L. Capps, formerly Constructor of the Navy and Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Construction, became the General Manager of the EFC.[5]
World War I
Shipbuilding before America entered the war had been expanded to some extent, with domestic shipping companies replacing ships withdrawn from trade by belligerents and both the United Kingdom and neutral countries contracting for ships in US yards.[6] The UK had contracted for ships through private British companies for security and for US neutrality needs.[6] In March 1917, just before the US entered the war and the USSB shifted to full wartime operations, there were about 700,000 tons of new construction underway for the private US owners, and all 234 building ways in the US were occupied by either those or by ships for neutral and domestic shipping lines.[7] There was no possibility for a quick expansion of capacity to incorporate the USSB/EFC shipbuilding program.[8]
Providing hulls
Interned enemy ships
The most readily available hulls were 91 German vessels of 594,696
On 15 November 1917, the USSB authorized negotiations with foreign countries that had seized German or Austrian ships with actual discussions that continued until January 1918.[12] The result was the charter or the outright purchase of a number of ships interned from South America to China.[5][12]
Commandeering existing construction
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/USS_West_Bridge_%28ID-2888%29.jpg/220px-USS_West_Bridge_%28ID-2888%29.jpg)
The USSB's first action regarding new construction was commandeering every contract, hull, and even steel in the US yards for ships over 2,500
Out of 431 such ships, totaling 3,068,431
Construction program
The Board's construction program, most notably the Hog Islander ships, was executed through the Emergency Fleet Corporation, which it established on 16 April 1917.[1]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/SS_Western_World_on_delivery_in_1922.png/250px-SS_Western_World_on_delivery_in_1922.png)
The shipbuilding program was concluded with the 9 May 1922 delivery of the ship completed and delivered as
Ship management
When ships were delivered from the builder to the USSB, they came under the management of the Division of Operations, which allocated them to the
For more control of traffic required by the war effort, methods applied by the British were employed in which rates were adjusted and control was exercised through the division's Chartering Committee, whose approval was necessary to obtain license to refuel in US ports.
A Maritime Intelligence Department in the division and a separate Division of Planning and Statistics collected and analyzed shipping data to help determine what level of shipping was necessary for commerce and how much could be shifted to the war effort.[18]
Ship manning
As of 1 June 1917, the USSB established a recruiting service with headquarters in Boston, with the first of an eventual 43 training centers, in recognition that traditional methods were too slow for the rapid wartime expansion for deck officers, at Cambridge, Massachusetts on 4 June.[19] A second set of schools was created for engineering officers with those engineers destined for turbine powered ships being sent to the builders of turbines for training.[20] The early result, between 1 June 1917 and 1 October 1918 was 11,618 licensed officers.[21] The officer training was expanded to training for crew, deck sailors, firemen, wipers, cooks, and stewards by December 1917 and was open to all male citizens of the ages 18 to 20 or 32 to 35 with a goal expanded from an estimated 85,000 to 200,000 because of the revised estimates of ships by the end of the war.[22]
To ensure that labor problems did not disrupt necessary war shipping, the USSB employed special labor consultants and entered agreements with labor and other government agencies to resolve labor disputes directly and also to standardize wages across the industry.[23] One of the USSB organizations that as specifically concerned with the issue was the Marine and Dock Industrial Relations Division, which was to coordinate all labor related matters, and by late 1918, industry and labor had begun referring disputes to the board and thus avoided any stoppages.[24]
National Adjustment Commission
The National Adjustment Commission was established in 1917 as an adjunct to the USSB for the adjustment and control of wages, hours, and conditions of labor in the loading and the unloading of vessels. In 1918, the initial operation and policies of the commission was agreed to between the USSB and the following parties:
- US Secretary of War
- US Secretary of Labor
- American Federation of Labor
- International Longshoremen's Association
- Major shipping companies on the Atlantic and the Gulf Coasts.
Subsequently, additional shipping companies and labor organizations entered the agreement with modifications.[25][26]: 543 William Z. Ripley was chairman of the commission from 1919 to 1920.
In July 1920, the USSB withdrew from the commission agreement and decided to deal with shipping workers directly.[27] The commission ceased operations on October 1, 1920.[28][26]: 568
Postwar and abolishment
The USSB operated a shipping business with its surplus ships until 1920, when the overseas freight market collapsed, and it began to lay up its vessels. In 1925,
The USSB was abolished effective March 2, 1934.[30]
Its successor agencies have been the US Shipping Board Bureau of the
U.S. Shipping Commissioners
- 1920–1921 Joseph Nathan Teal[31]
- 1921 - 1923 Albert Lasker[32]
- 1923 - Edward P. Farley
From 1924 to 1933, the board was instead chaired by
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Hurley 1927, p. Chapter III.
- ^ a b Pacific Marine Review February 1917, p. 72–73.
- ^ a b United States Shipping Board 1918, p. 7.
- ^ United States Senate, 65th Congress, Committee on Commerce 1918, p. 1064.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hurley 1927, p. Chapter IV.
- ^ a b McKellar: Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917–1921, Introduction, p. 270.
- ^ McKellar: Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917–1921, Introduction, pp. 270–271.
- ^ a b c McKellar: Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917–1921, Introduction, p. 271.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1917, p. 19.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1918, p. 23.
- ^ United States Navy and World War I: 1914–1922 by Frank A. Blazich Jr., PhD
- ^ a b United States Shipping Board 1918, p. 45.
- ^ a b McKellar: Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917–1921, Requisitioned Steel Ships.
- ^ Pacific American Steamship Association; Shipowners Association of the Pacific Coast (1922). "The Last U.S.S.B. Vessel". Pacific Marine Review. 19 (August). San Francisco: J.S. Hines: 469. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d e Hurley 1927, p. Chapter X.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1918, p. 55.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1918, pp. 78–79.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1918, pp. 61, 74.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1918, pp. 79–80.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1918, p. 80.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1918, p. 81.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1918, p. 81–82.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1918, p. 83.
- ^ United States Shipping Board 1918, p. 84.
- ^ Chairman's Report for the period ending December 31, 1918 (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: National Adjustment Commission. 1919. pp. 1–4.
- ^ S2CID 154659867.
- ^ "Ship Board to Deal Directly With Labor". The New York Times. 1920-07-31.
- ^ Carr, Elma (May 1925). The Use of Cost-of-Living Figures in Wage Adjustments (Report). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. p. 60. Bulletin No. 369.
- ^ Ford, Henry (1930). Moving Forward. p. 220.
- ^ "Shipping Board Bureau (1933-1936)". Scholarsphere.psu.edu. 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
- ^ "Archives West: Joseph Nathan Teal papers, 1900–1926". orbiscascade.org.
- ^ Cruikshank & Shultz (2010), The Man Who Sold America, pp. 199–204
- ISBN 9780810856349.
Bibliography
- Hurley, Edward N. (1927). The Bridge to France. Philadelphia & London: J. B. Lippincott Company. LCCN 27011802. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- McKellar, Norman L. "Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917-1921, Introduction" (PDF). Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917–1921. ShipScribe. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- McKellar, Norman L. "Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917–1921, Introduction". Steel Shipbuilding under the U. S. Shipping Board, 1917–1921, Requisitioned Steel Ships, Part I & Requisitioned Steel Ships, Part II. ShipScribe. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- National Archives: Records of the United States Shipping Board
- Pacific American Steamship Association; Shipowners Association of the Pacific Coast (1917). "The Shipping Board". Pacific Marine Review. 14 (February). San Francisco: J.S. Hines: 7273. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - United States Senate, 65th Congress, Committee on Commerce (1918). Hearings before the Committee on Commerce. Vol. 1. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - United States Shipping Board (3 December 1917). First Annual Report of the United States Shipping Board. United States Shipping Board, Annual Reports. Vol. 1. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
- United States Shipping Board (1 December 1918). Second Annual Report of the United States Shipping Board. United States Shipping Board, Annual Reports. Vol. 2. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
External links
- United States Government Ships (1923 Munson Line brochure reproduced at Maritime Timetable Images)
- Business Digest and Investment Weekly July 11, 1917 note of seizure of German ships and listing