From the more than five thousand American merchant ships in World War II today the U.S. Merchant Fleet numbers fewer than two-hundred. From one ship launching every 24 hours America now launches but a handful each year.

Trucks and rail now compete for all goods carried while the benefits of short-sea shipping, once a mainstay of transport between coastal U.S. ports, has all but disappeared.

In 2003 the U.S. military deployed for war in Iraq but were forced to rely on the merchant ships of other nations for its material transport requirements. Today the world's most powerful nation no longer has a viable merchant fleet. We barely build American ships, nor do we have the American sailors to man them.

We have gone from the world's strongest merchant marine to a nation all but dependent on the cash and carry largess of ships and crews of other nations.

The Santa Maria Group will soon change all that. Santa Maria will build American ships like the one above -- American flagged freighters manned by American crews. Santa Maria will appoint the same modular Liberty Ship building technology perfected in WW II, currently practiced by other nations but until now all but forgotten in the U.S.

Video message from Arie Barrs, Naval Architect

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