U.S. Commercial Fleet Falls Far Behind

Bill aims to revitalize sector that China now dominates, imperiling national security

- DANIEL MICHAELS

Rising tensions with China are prompting Washington to revisit America’s roots as a trading nation of the seas.

Protecting merchant sailors and their cargo was what compelled Congress to commission the U.S. Navy’s first new warships. That was in 1794, targeting North African Barbary pirates. The young republic’s seaborne traders, a linchpin of economic growth, were vital to national security.

The Navy became a mighty global fighting force. America’s commercial cargo fleet has withered almost to nonexistence.

Now politicians are once again linking national security to a vibrant maritime sector— nonmilitary aspects of the seas—and the benefits it brings to everything from shipbuilding to logistics chains. Washington is seeking ways to reverse its collapse by tapping examples from other industries, encouraging links with shipbuilding allies and plumbing the writings of America’s greatest sea strategist.

No nation has ever successfully ranked as a world naval power without also being a global maritime power. Not long ago, America led the world in sea freight. At the end of World War II, the U.S. commercial marine fleet accounted for about half of the world’s cargoshipping capacity. An American entrepreneur in the 1950s pioneered the shipping container, which revolutionized international commerce.

The Navy today expends vast resources from the Red Sea to the South China Sea defending the freedom of navigation, but few ships being protected fly the American flag.

U.S. commercial ships today account for less than 1% of the world fleet. U.S. ports are wracked by strikes and battles over the type of automation that has supercharged expansion of container terminals across the globe. The Navy struggles to find commercial vessels to support its far-flung operations.

Globalization effect