FULL STEAM AHEAD: Marine Museum is a curator of nautical history

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Published on Tuesday, 04 February 2014 01:37
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  • The Marine Museum, with its emphasis on merchant marine, complements the naval museum of the Massachusetts Memorial Committee, placing Battleship Cove in a unique position as a curator of nautical history.

 

By Phil Hudner
The Herald News, Fall River, MA
By Phil Hudner
Posted Nov. 2, 2013 @ 12:01 am Updated Nov 2, 2013 at 2:18 AM

 

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By Phil Hudner Posted Nov. 2, 2013 @ 12:01 am Nov 2, 2013 at 2:18 AM
The Marine Museum, with its emphasis on merchant marine, complements the naval museum of the Massachusetts Memorial Committee, placing Battleship Cove in a unique position as a curator of nautical history.
  • Merchant marine vessels transport cargo or passengers. The Fall River Line was a notable example, transporting people between Fall River and New York. The Steamship DAVID ATWATER was another example, a Fall River ship transporting iron ore to our shores when sunk by a German submarine in the early months of World War II. The incident received world wide attention after German sailors machine gunned innocent survivors in the water and clinging to life boats. The history of merchant ships is vast, and the Marine Museum contains many artifacts which preserve this history and its role in America’s success.
    There are approximately 50 categories of merchant ships such as tankers, fire boats, container ships, and cruise ships. One category is a Heavy Lift ship, designed to move very large loads that cannot be handled by normally equipped ships. One type of heavy lift ship is semi-submerging, capable of lifting another ship out of the water and transporting it. One picture I found interesting was a merchant ship carrying a navy ship. After the Oct. 12, 2000 bombing of the USS COLE in Yemen, the MV BLUE MARLIN transported the COLE from Aden, Yemen to Pascagoula, Mississippi. The BLUE MARLIN, whose home port is in the Netherlands, was built in Taiwan.
    The United States has its own Merchant Marine, a fleet of U.S. and civilian-owned merchant vessels, operated by either the government or the private sector, that engage in the transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States.
    The first wartime role of the United States Merchant Marine took place on June 12, 1775, near Machias, Maine. Hearing the news of Concord and Lexington, a group of citizens captured the British schooner HMS MARGARETTA. The Continental Congress and the various colonies issued Letters of Marque to privateers. A Letter of Marque was a government license authorizing a person (known as a privateer) to attack and capture enemy vessels and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale. Cruising for prizes with a Letter of Marque was considered an honorable calling combining patriotism and profit, in contrast to unlicensed piracy, which was universally reviled. The privateers interrupted the British supply chain all along the eastern seaboard of the United States and across the Atlantic Ocean. These actions predate both the United States Coast Guard and the United States Navy.
    The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, often called The “Jones Act” after it’s sponsor, Senator Wesley Livsey Jones, required vessels with U.S. flags to be built in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and operate under the laws of the United States. It also required that all officers and 75% of the crew be U.S. citizens.

-  http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20131102/NEWS/311029895/1994#sthash.4VCrqIIJ.dpuf