American Magazine Gets it Right About Bygone Luxury Liners

American Magazine’s editor, Christopher Winner, recently authored his “Boyhood Empire” reminiscence of passenger ocean liner shipping.

This will surely resonate with San Franciscans who can recall our glory days of transpacific passage.

Back in the 1970s, Matson’s storied luxury fleet was beginning to fade as airlines began to leverage the “mass tourism” trend.

Throughout most of that decade, Matson liners sailed principally to Honolulu, but also paid calls to Sydney, Australia, and Aukland, New Zealand.

Among the company’s “white ships” was the Lurline, Mariposa, and Monterey.

While the romance of that era gave way to the pressure of globalized supply chains, commercial cargo shipping remained a key part of Matson’s culture.

Indeed, one can argue that this U.S. West Coast legend helped to preserve a sacred national safeguard: The Jones Act.

The Jones Act prevents foreign-flagged ships from carrying cargo between the contiguous U.S. and certain noncontiguous parts of the U.S., such as Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

Foreign ships inbound with goods cannot stop at any of these four locations, offload goods, load contiguous-bound goods, and continue to U.S. contiguous ports, although ships can offload cargo and proceed to the contiguous U.S. without picking up any additional cargo intended for delivery to another U.S. location.

The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 also ensures that “flags of convenience” are banned from the cabotage trade lanes, thereby ensuring that at least three-fourths of the crew members are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.