The American Merchant Marine received deliberate peacetime support because the United States depended on maritime movement and access to the seas. Academies and the Jones Act formed part of an effort to preserve professional capability before the emergency arrived. Wartime growth accelerated that development and widened opportunities, including the graduation of Joseph Banks Williams as the first African American graduate of the academy in 1944. The rapid shipbuilding program still required qualified people to operate a much larger fleet, so professional expansion had to accompany industrial expansion. Competency and accumulated maritime knowledge remained as important as shipbuilding.
Chapter · 1:04:38-1:06:24
How wartime expansion changed the United States Merchant Marine
The United States entered the war with academies and the Jones Act, then expanded its Merchant Marine into a much larger and more professional organization.