West Coast Sailors

December 2011

The Italian-flag cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground on the island of Giglio in the Tyrrenian Sea on Friday, January 13, nine miles off Italy?s Tuscan coast ? capsizing and beginning to sink.

November 2011

On December 1, Alexander & Baldwin, the Hawai?i-based land company with interests in real estate development, commercial real estate and agriculture, announced it will spin-off its wholly owned subsidiary?Matson Navigation Company.

October 2011

Tasked by Congress over a year ago to produce a report identifying ways to boost American-flag shipping, the Maritime Administration has issued a report, written by Price Waterhouse Coopers, that does the opposite.

September 2011

Legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives on October 14, that would require MarAd to publish the availability of U.S.-flag, U.S.-built, U.S-crewed (Jones Act) vessels when another federal agency asks to use non-U.S.-flag vessels.

August 2011

Notwithstanding the availability of U.S.-flag, Jones Act-qualified tonnage, the Maritime Administration recently issued a series of non-availability rulings that have resulted in more than 45 waivers of the Jones Act.

July 2011

Matson Navigation Company pulled the plug on August 8, on its five ship foreign-flag liner fleet after hemorrhaging millions of dollars.

June 2011

Congressman Farenthold (R-Texas)
and Presidential Assistant Congressman Paul (R-Texas) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that would allow foreign-flag passenger vessels to embark passengers in one U.S. port and disembark them in another U.S. port.

May 2011

Members of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation said the Jones Act is critical to the national, economic, and homeland security needs of our country.

April 2011

Piracy is the current scourge of the waters off Somalia, but the longstanding bane on the industry has been the existence of the rotten flag-of-convenience system that exploits mariners worldwide.

March 2011

An ill-conceived proposal floated by the Defense Department to transfer ownership and operational control of the Maritime Administration?s Ready Reserve Fleet to the U.S. Navy?s Military Sealift Command, prompted a response in opposition to Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

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