On Sept. 11, 2001, the bridges were closed, the tunnels were closed, and the subways dead. The call from Coast Guard Lieutenant Michael Day came over the radio: “All available boats. This is the United States Coast Guard. Anyone wanting to help with the evacuation of Lower Manhattan, report to Governors Island.”
Ferry captains, tugboat crews, dinner-cruise operators, schooner owners — the entire working harbor dropped what it was doing and turned toward the smoke. It is reported that in under nine hours, roughly 800 American mariners on about 150 vessels moved nearly 500,000 people off an island that had, for the first time in over a century, no way out except by water. It remains the largest waterborne evacuation in history — 50% more people than Dunkirk, safely evacuated in a fraction of the time.
Nobody dispatched that fleet. There was no federal contract, no bidding process, no time to check paperwork. What showed up was a trained, American-crewed, American-flagged workforce that already knew these waters, already knew how to move people and cargo safely, and already understood that when the harbor, the city, the country is in trouble, you go. That’s not a coincidence. It is at the very core of the U.S.-flag Merchant Marine.
The Jones Act exists so that America always has a domestic fleet and a domestic mariner workforce ready — not contracted, not dependent on the strength or weakness of a geopolitical relationship on a given day, just ready — because our economic security and our national security both fundamentally depend upon our ability to rise to any challenge that may emerge. September 11, 2001, showed what that readiness looks like in the worst hour imaginable. It’s the same readiness that moves fuel, food, and freight up and down our coasts and inland waterways every single day, and the same readiness the Coast Guard, the Navy, and the Sealift Command count on when the country needs it most.
IRAN’S SHADOW WAR IS ALREADY ON US SOIL — AND THE FBI CAN’T WAIT FOR ANOTHER 9/11
Twenty-five years later, we owe those 800 mariners more than a moment of remembrance. We owe the proud industry that produced those heroes the respect and support that they so clearly earned. We need to continue the commitment to keep American boats, crewed by American mariners, on American waters.
Never forget — and never stop building the fleet that showed up.
Bick Brooks is the co-founder and CEO of Maritime Partners, LLC