Shipping Board, U.S.

views updated

SHIPPING BOARD, U.S.

SHIPPING BOARD, U.S. The Shipping Board, created by the Shipping Act of 1916, was the first body specifically charged with the supervision of the merchant marine. It controlled the Emergency Fleet Corporation, later the Merchant Fleet Corporation, established in 1917, and carried out World War I and postwar merchant marine policy, particularly an ambitious building policy to set up new yards. The largest of these was Hog Island, near Philadelphia. The board was superseded in 1933 by the U.S. Shipping Board Bureau of the Department of Commerce, which in 1936 gave way to the U.S. Maritime Commission.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lawrence, Samuel H. United States Merchant Shipping, Policies and Politics. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1966.

Frank A.SouthardJr./f. b.

See alsoMaritime Commission, Federal .