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Studying merchant marine operations at the university level is a core component of MARAD's education strategy; particularly its essential responsibility to meet national security needs and maintain maritime defense readiness. The six maritime academies and USMMA meet that need by educating young men and women for service as officers in the United States Merchant Marine, U.S. Armed Forces, and Nation’s intermodal transportation system.
Educating the Maritime Workforce
As the Federal agency responsible for U.S waterbound interests, MARAD manages numerous operations around the world, all of which require a constant flow of skilled and readily-available mariners. This means MARAD is responsible for training and educating the next generation of mariners to carry out and improve the quality of U.S. maritime operations at sea and ashore, everything from shipbuilding, to port operations, to cybersecurity.
In the...
Thank you for visiting the Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) Maritime Administration web site. This page summarizes the policies and responsibilities for the Maritime Administration web site for external audiences.This public web site is a means to successfully convey information and services to the public and to conduct business electronically. The Maritime Administration works hard to ensure that the delivery of information is done in a secure manner while focusing on the quality and...
Photographs by John Vachon. Date Created/Published: 1942 July. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress). Hoffman Island, merchant marine training center off Staten Island, New York. Trainees cleaning out boilers aboard the training ship New York....
The Maritime Administration (MARAD) and its predecessor agencies, the U.S. Maritime Commission, the War Shipping Administration and the United States Shipping Board, built, owned, operated, or subsidized thousands of merchant vessels, predominantly during the two world wars. A large number of these vessels joined the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF). The agency also owned...
The South Atlantic Gateway region encompasses the southeastern United States and includes all or a portion of the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida (minus the panhandle), and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.This region includes 7 port authorities with 38 commercial deepwater and river ports and regional waterways, intermodal connections and corridors.The Gateway Director serves as an expert on all regional and local maritime issues to include cruise...
The Mid-Atlantic Gateway region of the United States encompasses six states, to include all or a portion of the states of Delaware, Maryland, lower New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.This region includes 6 port authorities, with 34 commercial deepwater and river ports and regional waterways, intermodal connections and corridors.The Gateway Director serves as an expert on all regional and local maritime issues, to include disaster response/...
The North Atlantic Gateway region encompasses the Northeastern United States and includes all or a portion of the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.This region includes over a dozen port authorities, with 19 commercial deep-water and river ports and all the waterways, intermodal connections and corridors in the region. The Gateway Director helps to develop projects in the region that promote overall economic growth,...
The Maritime Administration (MARAD) provides critical marine transportation outreach activities at our major U.S. gateway ports (see map below), driven by 10 of the largest ports on the West, East, and Gulf Coasts, the Great Lakes and the inland river system. Offices located in these critical areas work with headquarters staff, state and local authorities, congressional representatives at the local and district level, and a broad range of port, shipper, and carrier stakeholders to cooperate...
Established in 1950 under the auspices of President Harry S Truman’s Reorganization Plan No. 21, the Maritime Administration (MARAD) traces its origins to the Shipping Act of 1916, which established the U.S. Shipping Board, the first Federal agency tasked with promoting a U.S. merchant marine and regulating U.S. commercial shipping. Congress enacted the 1916 law in part because of the severe disruptions in shipping caused by World War I. Specifically, Congress established the Shipping Board...
