American Merchant Marine Timeline, 1789 - 2005

1789	United States Custom Service established; its responsibilities include seamen and lighthouses
1790	Congress enacts legislation pertaining to seamen and rules regulating desertion
	Revenue Service established; nation’s first maritime-law enforcement agency
1796	Federal law specifying the issuance of Seaman’s protection Certificates
1835	Physical punishment aboard ship forbidden “without justifiable cause.”
1838	Steamship Inspection Act sets operational standards for passenger-carrying steam vessels
	Lighthouse Service assigned to the Treasury Department
1850	Collins Line’s subsidized Atlantic begins mail-passenger service between New York and Liverpool
	Flogging abolished on American merchant ships
1852	Steamboat Inspection Service established
	Lighthouse Board established; initiates annual publication of Light List and Notices to Mariners.
1854	Collin’s Arctic lost after collision in fog
	Western river engineers form fraternal organization, predecessor of Marine Engineers’ beneficial Association
1855	2000 thousand pilots and 2500 engineers licensed.
1856	Declaration of Paris outlaws privateering
	Collin’s Pacific lost with all hands.
1861	America’s merchant marine emerges as world’s largest
1872	Shipping Commissioner’s Act reinforces desertion laws.
1873	Mandatory licensing examinations for captains and mates.
1874	New York starts first merchant marine officers’ school at King’s Point
1875	Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association formalized as labor union.
1876	British Plimsoll mark required on American vessels to curtail overloading required for Lloyd’s classification
1887	Congress creates a Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee
1891	Pacific coast unions combine as Sailors’ Union of the Pacific
	Massachusetts opens a Nautical Training School to train licensed engineers
	Ocean Mail Act passed by Congress to subsidize overseas mail carriers
1892	National Seamen’s Union of America formed; affiliates with the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
1895	Maguire Act abolishes imprisonment for desertion from coastwise vessels.
1897	White Act abolishes imprisonment of US citizens for desertion in American or nearby waters and ends corporal punishment
1908	Matson starts Hawaiian service; Moore-McCormick starts Scandanavian service
1915	President Wilson signs La Follette Seamen’s Act, defining seamen’s rights
1915	US Coast Guard created through merger of Revenue and Lifesaving Services
1916	Shipping Act creates Shipping Board; ended up the owner of bulk of post WW I merchant marine fleet
1920	Merchant Marine (Jones) Act increases Shipping Board’s control and reaffirms cabotage (the limiting of coastal commerce to US-registered vessels)
1921	Shipping Board establishes a union lockout on all government ships.
1924	Federal subsidies stimulate sever new shipping lines
1928	Merchant Marine Act extends mail contract subsidies
1929	California Maritime Academy founded
1932	Bureau of Marine Inspection supercedes Steamboat Inspection Service and Bureau of Navigation
1934	Striking maritime unionists shut down San Francisco
1935	Wagner Act establishes National Labor Relations Board, with jurisdiction over the maritime trades
1836	Merchant Marine Act abolishes Shipping Board and establishes Maritime Commission.
1937	Joseph P. Kennedy appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as the first head of the Maritime Commission
1938	Maritime Commission authorizes large merchant fleet
1940	Maritime Commission agrees to build 60 ocean-class merchant ships
1941	American merchant vessels begin traveling in convoys to elude German U-boat attacks.
1942	Coast Guard takes over Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigationi
1942	Federal merchant Marine Academy opens at King’s Point, Long Island, NY
	Maine Merchant Marine Academy opens in Castene, Maine
1947	Labor leader Joe Curran withdraws the National Maritime Union from Communist-controlled Committee for Maritime Unity
1950	Functions of Maritime Commission transferred to Department of Commerce
1954	Cargo Preference Act provides subsidies for ships carrying government cargoes
1962	Texas A & M establishes Texas Maritime Academy
1965	Supertankers of 200,000 tons are introduced
1967	Tanker Torrey Canyon wrecks off Britain; wreaks great environmental destruction; owned by Union Oil of California and registered in Liberia.
1968	The American Export Line’s two flagships, the Independence and the Constitution, are taken out of passenger service.
1969	Great Lakes Maritime Academy opens
1970	Merchant Marine Act authorizes subsidized shipbuilding program
1976	Women admitted to U.S. Merchant Marine Academy; state maritime academies follow.
1978	Amoco Cadiz responsible for record oil spill when grounded off the French coast
1988	Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association and National Maritime Union join forces.
1989	Single-hulled supertanker Exxon Valdez , under command of Joseph Hazelwood, grounds off Alaska, resulting in a $2 billion cleanup.
1990	Oil Pollution Act mandates double-hulls for all new oil tankers.
1994	House Merchant Marine Committee dissolved.

Principal Source: John A. Butler, Sailing on Friday: The Perilous Voyage of America’s Merchant Marine (Washington: Brassy’s, 1997)