US shipping looks ahead with 50-year-old containershipsUS shipping looks ahead with 50-year-old containerships

Looking back on 2024, there has been an increased awareness that the US maritime industry has fallen behind on many fronts. Not only is the US international trading fleet—an essential part of the nation’s reserve logistics support for defense and military requirements—smaller than that of potential adversaries, awareness of the maritime industry among the population in the States has dwindled outside of disruptions that impact consumers.

These developments are not lost on lawmakers in Washington, D.C. as shown by the Maritime Strategy proposed by a bi-partisan group of lawmakers in April 2024.

Within the industry itself, a group of forward-looking maritime professionals hopes to reverse the outgoing tide of maritime awareness with an effort called SL7expo. Its promoters, a diverse group of industry veterans, pitch SL7expo as “a group of maritime professionals with the goal of creating a maritime expo centre with, at its core, a retired SL7/TAKR ro-ro container vessel.”

The group is creating plans to convert a retired SL7 Fast Sealift Ship “into a floating clubhouse with features that include destination entertainment, cultural education, museum displays, military recruiting offices, and interactive cargo exhibits.”

The high speed SL7s, built in European yards by SeaLand in the early 1970s, are now serving as Algol Class fast supply vessels for the US Navy. The ships were acquired by the US military sealift command in the early 1980s and had ro-ro capacity added through conversions in US yards. Built prior to the 1970s oil price rises and powered by steam turbines, the ships are capable of speeds up to 33 knots.

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Speaking at his firm’s mid- December 2024 annual Holiday gathering at the New York Yacht Club, Rik van Hemmen, the president of surveyor/ engineers Martin Ottaway and an important proponent of the project, also mentioned the labour aspects presently stifling the operations of the deepsea US maritime industry, including the military’s Ready Reserve Fleet. 

In remarks to the several hundred lunch-time attendees at the firm’s event, an annual tradition in the New York maritime arena, he suggested that SL7epxo could play an important role in attracting mariners to the US flag fleet, which is currently suffering from a shortage of qualified mariners. 

In a September 2024 proposal to the Society of Naval Architects (SNAME), van Hemmen focused on mariner shortages noting that “people engaged in maritime fulfil a national security function…” and that “public awareness of maritime is minimal and deeply misunderstood.”

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In his presentation, van Hemmen distinguished the promotional aspect, which he and his colleagues believe is critical, from the “museum” concept, pointing out that: “it is an educational institute and a clearing house of maritime knowledge and advancement.” 

“The main mission is to expand public understanding of maritime and to expand interest in maritime (intermodal) careers,” he says. A big component of the project’s bottom line would be attracting younger maritime professionals to onboard roles; he says: “The public needs to understand intermodalism for the industry to be able to attract the next generation.”