The Retelling of the Evacuation of Manhattan Island 9/11/2001
Editor's Note: While Namazu continues his research into the English Speaking World's inventory of Coast Guards he asked that we rerun this post from last Spring as part of a general introduction to the definition of sea power. Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan ,USN defined "sea power" as much more than a nation's warship count on any given day, but as a totality of the resources a nation had relevant to carrying out naval missions. Certainly merchant marine assets count, but in the popular mind the "Merchant Marine" means only larger ocean going ships and the "sea lift" of vital military supplies. But neither commerce nor war supplies could move to tide water, nor oil be extracted off shore, or ships docked, or harbor equipment moved without fleets of tugs, towboats, barges, and other work boats at times including ferries , launches, water taxis, and excursion boats. The English speaking world has a vast fleet of these sturdy contributors to sea power. It is important to note during dangerous times that sometimes these merchant vessels and crews are drawn into the very heart of operations. Sometimes, as was the case with U.S. Army chartered tugs in Vietnam, it may be for a supporting role in the main theater of war. But on two occasions in the history of the English Speaking World disaster or salvation was squarely in the hands of the work boatmen. These two examples were the evacuation of Dunkirk in WW II, and the more recent and actually larger Evacuation of Manhattan Island after the attack of 9/11. We linked our readers to the retelling of the Manhattan Evacuation the last time Senator John McCain was lobbying for a bill to remove this element of our Merchant Marine fleet from Jones Act protected status allowing non American merchant mariners and their vessels to compete in the American work boat market. We invite you now to revisit that day and ask yourself, if you were caught on Manhattan Island that day, would you have wanted the harbor filled with Mexican, Panamanian ,and Liberian owned and manned work boats?
For comparative as well as historical purposes we also link to a video on the Evacuation of Dunkirk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt44LvKq61g
| I'm Namazu the Earth Shaker and I approved this message |
The Retelling of the Evacuation of Manhattan Island 9/11/2001
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| Will they be there for you? Not if John McCain has his way |
WHY WE ASK SENATOR JOHN McCAIN TO RETIRE:
MEET REAL JONES ACT MARINERS AND REAL JONES ACT PROTECTED AMERICAN FLAG WORK BOATS .
THESE ARE THE MEN AND BOATS WHO EVACUATED MANHATTAN ISLAND ON 9/11/2001, THE DAY AMERICA WAS ATTACKED
These men and boats who John McCain has called "laughable" performed the largest mass evacuation of people from harm's way in history, more than at Dunkirk, and in hours, not days. These are the Americans Senator McCain finds laughable, whose more than 126,000 jobs he is willing to give over to foreigners, whose role in national emergencies he does not value at all. This is the American Fleet whose official motto is "Action, Not Words"
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| The Morning of 9/11 Manhattan rediscovered that it was an island. |
We urge you, our readers to watch the videos linked to this page and meet the crewmen and boats of the hastily assembled, Coast Guard led armada that evacuated 500,000 people from Manhattan when the chips were down.
U.S.Department of Transportation: The Merchant Marine Response to 9/11- 5 min.
"BOAT LIFT" narrated by Tom Hanks 11 min.
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