National Maritime Day More Important Than Ever

National Maritime Day is observed on May 22, to mark the date that the American steamship Savannah sailed from the United States to England. This was the first successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean using steam propulsion. Congress declared May 22 as National Maritime Day on May 20, 1933.

 During World War II, more than 250,000 members of the American Merchant Marine served their country, with more than 6,700 giving their lives, hundreds being detained as prisoners of war and more than 800 ships sunk or damaged.

 Not to be left out are the thousands of U.S. workers in the “brown water navy,” including workers in inland shipyards who built Higgins landing craft and other naval support vessels and the crews who delivered them downriver to New Orleans, Mobile and other deepwater ports. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in World War II, even said about the man who designed the landing craft, “Andrew Higgins is the man who won the war for us.”

 For too long those contributions were unsung. In 2006, the Maritime Administration joined forces with the American Association of Port Authorities, the Corps of Engineers, Waterways Council Inc., the U.S. Coast Guard and other entities involved in the maritime industry to raise the awareness of National Maritime Day and the maritime industry.

 We are on the threshold of unprecedented changes in U.S. maritime policy that promise to be sustained beyond Congressional funding cycles, as has not always been the case in recent decades. It’s a great time to honor our mariners, to remember how entwined with U.S. history the maritime sector—both blue and brown—has been and to look forward to an expanded future.