Ironically enough, we do actually have a law to stop something like this, the Jones act, which requires that ships transporting cargo between two parts of the US must be built in the US, fly our flag, and be owned and crewed by americans. All this actually does though is make shipping just a bit more expensive, because US shipbuilding is more expensive than the global average, so almost nobody builds cargo ships here, which means that ships that comply with the law are rare specialty constructs and thus even more expensive, so very few exist and trips that could be more efficiently done by ship from one US port to another are instead taken by things like trucks.
Is this why our cruise ship in hawaii (sailing only between hawaiian islands) was american flagged and crewed by americans?
I was surprised because i always heard stories about how cruise ships are often crewed by exploited internationals and flagged in questionable jurisdictions so that workers can be abused.
That’s exactly why. It’s also why Alaska cruises make a stop in Canada along the way. If they sailed straight between Alaska and Seattle, they’d need to be US-flagged.
Ironically enough, we do actually have a law to stop something like this, the Jones act, which requires that ships transporting cargo between two parts of the US must be built in the US, fly our flag, and be owned and crewed by americans. All this actually does though is make shipping just a bit more expensive, because US shipbuilding is more expensive than the global average, so almost nobody builds cargo ships here, which means that ships that comply with the law are rare specialty constructs and thus even more expensive, so very few exist and trips that could be more efficiently done by ship from one US port to another are instead taken by things like trucks.
Is this why our cruise ship in hawaii (sailing only between hawaiian islands) was american flagged and crewed by americans?
I was surprised because i always heard stories about how cruise ships are often crewed by exploited internationals and flagged in questionable jurisdictions so that workers can be abused.
That’s exactly why. It’s also why Alaska cruises make a stop in Canada along the way. If they sailed straight between Alaska and Seattle, they’d need to be US-flagged.
Possibly? Im unaware if it applies to things like cruise ships, or if it’s just cargo shipping