Will America Really Let Its Merchant Marine Disintegrate? A Plethora of Media Story Ideas 12/20/2019
Good Question? There is no doubt that the Jones Act fleet is surviving, however, America’s deep-water Ocean Fleet is in serious trouble. What can be done? As outlined in gCaptain’s prophetic article by John Conrad, “Top 10 Reasons Why The US Merchant Marine Is Failing”, “The public’s understanding of the Merchant Marine and allied Merchant Navies, has dwindled to historically low figures while current world events (e.g. Gulf Wars, China’s restrictions on freedom of navigation, Russia’s growing icebreaker fleet and even inland wars like Afghanistan) have shown the growing importance of US sealift capability to global defense.” The dwindling of our Merchant Marine has been obvious for decades. In 1979, in an effort to document the history of the merchant marine and preserve the living history of the men who sailed these ships, Harry Dring, Curator of the San Francisco National Maritime Historical Park provided, Producer Robert Ferrand, a ticket aboard the Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah Obrien, when the ship sailed out of the National Defense Reserve Fleet, under her own power. (This is a story in itself) From this footage, began a film production called “Last of the Liberties”. This rather innocent film focused on the Liberty Ship effort during World War II and the restoration of the last surviving Liberty Ship in original condition. However, while interviewing the Officers and Engineers, for the first film, the producer kept hearing, “Keep your eye on the ball, it is the Russians. The Russians are destroying our Merchant Fleet by shipping cargo below our operating costs”. At the time, the U.S. Ocean Fleet had 350 ships, today, there are less than 100 deep-water ships. So, the Producer, wrote another script, called “The Last Liberty” is an effort to bring this issue of the dwindling Merchant Marine to National Attention. However, in the 1980’s, documentary film distribution was controlled by PBS. While the BBC and the History Channel and other production companies used some of the footage, finding a mass market distribution channel for this film was challenging at best. Despite a handsome donation of $8,000 from Thomas B Crowley Jr., himself (a story in itself) who was Chairman of the National Liberty Ship Memorial, at the time, and letters of support from 3 Maritime Administrators as well as from Kings Point and a letter from the Reagan White House, the film had no cost effective mass distribution channel. Thus, for over four decades, over 5 hours of 16mm film and 50 hours of audio recording of the men who not only sailed these merchant ships, but the ones who actually saved the SS Jeremiah Obrien, herself, languished in a vault. Channeling the Wisdom of Ancestors.
However, recent actions by President Vladimir Putin and current events made the original narration track shockingly prophetic. Over the past year, the producer, saw the opportunity to write, a third script, to bring this Merchant Marine story to a modern audience, “Lessons of the Last Liberty”. While this film was originally edited with 8 plate mechanical film editing machines and cut with razor blades and assembled with Scotch tape, this new film has employed the most advanced video editing software available, Da Vinci Resolve. More importantly, in the 1980’s, the vast video resources of YouTube were not available. However, by coupling a portion of the original film with stunning contemporary footage available on YouTube, permitted placing the Merchant Marine in historical context with events that have occurred just a few months ago. This convergence permitted a fast pace tale for a modern audience. “Lessons of the Last Liberty” has been consciously written to be nonpartisan, so that all Americans can agree that our Merchant Marine needs immediate support, without actually having to say that, in so many words. However, among other points, these significant points are made in the film. “Lessons of the Last Liberty”stars President Franklin Roosevelt, President Vladimir Putin with a cameo appearance from Humphrey Bogart, from Action in the North Atlantic, saying, “There is no job bigger than this. Let me tell you something. No matter how many planes, and tanks and guns, you pile up, no matter, how many men you got, It does not mean a thing unless the men get the stuff when they need it that is your job, and my job to see that they get it.” President Vladimir Putin says: “We will also work on developing shipbuilding. We are going to build a shipbuilding plant in Vladivostok. You know that the first steps have already been taken. Those were major steps. We are going to build the biggest Ships in Russia, there. And such large ships have not yet been built in the Soviet times.” Congressman Garamendi says “This is why we were here, to Rebuild our U.S. Flag Fleet. For the sake of our economy and for our national security. For too long, we have outsourced the Security and Control over the supply chain that undergirds our entire economy.” Senator Wicker says, “And, of course, John mentioned, what this means to National Security. And it just means so much. Well, because when the flag goes up and a crisis occurs, we need American Ships to depend on.” Admiral Christopher W. Grady – Commander, United States Fleet Forces says, “Simply put, the days of competition at sea and challenges to our Maritime Security and Superiority have returned”
This is a serious film that addresses some of the issues raised in “Top 10 Reasons Why The US Merchant Marine Is Failing” . One of the significant points made in this article was, “Nearly every study of politics in the past few years lists the media as a primary influence on voters and Donald Trump himself has made it a daily crusade to eliminate #FakeNews. He does this because he fully understands the role media has influencing votes and gaining the political will to fund projects. Yet, MARAD (US Maritime Administration), the US government entity charged with advocating for the US Merchant Marine, has turned it’s back on the media.” In MARAD’s defense: where do you find the film scripts, that a modern audience will actually watch? One of the most serious issues for the Merchant Marine is being able to use the Media. The Merchant Marine is a challenging subject to maintain the attention of a modern audience. The vast majority of films about the Merchant Marine are historic in nature or made for the maritime industry. Boring. The challenge is always in the writing, as you well know. By careful writing, “Lessons of the Last Liberty” presents an opportunity to bring the Maritime Industry together. Here is a link to one possible Loose Lips – Save Ships – Tell a Friend Marketing Strategy. The editorial challenge is to link historical events, from 1776 to 2019, to a modern context, in under 30 minutes, and still maintain the audience attention. “Lessons of the Last Liberty” has done that. Because of the astounding statements that are made by the various luminaries in this film, opens an opportunity for the print and internet media to run with the ball and take the story about “Lessons of the Last Liberty” any number of directions. First, the film, itself, has an historic story. However, there are also numerous back stories that can be woven into different articles. Take your pick, there are quite a few different angles with this film that are not even mentioned here. Equally important, our Merchant Mariners’ spirits are broken, understandably. To save the United States Merchant Marine we need to lift our Merchant Mariner’s spirits, so they want to come together to save the United States Merchant Marine, while also educating all Americans that this maritime service is relevant today. “Lessons of the Last Liberty” has done that. With the assistance of print and internet media telling the story about this film, a lot more can be done. Talk is cheap. http://www.thelastliberty.com/ Robert Ferrand Producer 650-576-3334