Letter To The Editor: The Government Pirate

The strangulation of the American shipping is being systematically accomplished by literally regulating American ships out of the greatest combination of sea ports! That is a crazy statement but very true. We’ve allowed ourselves to be regulated right out of the game we invented.

Now they are moving to regulate the towing companies by the same laws to get us out of the game as well. The Jones Act is in desperate need of revamping and the owner-operator is a thing of the past. The legendary steamboats and river captains are gone, the ones who wrote the navigation laws. Towboating is now being taken over by the ridiculous Subchapter M.

These are laws that have nothing to do with safety of men and machine or product. When it was forced on us to have inspected towing vessels, I warned of this. And the so-called roundtable discussions were just about worthless. Now, as a result, we’re forced by law to dismantle and dispose of our own vessels and companies. The rules of even our new and bold President Trump’s laws of deregulation are immune to this grocery list of nonsense we’re agreeing to.

Hell, yes, I’m angry; they’re being crazy with our money. We’ve got to pay for this. That’s right, all upgrades or disposal are at our cost! That, my friends, is being told what to do with your money or else! So I ask you to please protect yourself, vessels and crew, against the legalization of the government pirate. It’s their boat at your cost.

John Gantt
Cedar Bayou Towing
Baytown, Texas