Restoring Savannah
to National Maritime Day
This coming May 22,
President Obama will proclaim National Maritime Day, in recognition of the
American merchant mariners who have contributed so much to the prosperity of
the United States. Unfortunately, there very
likely will be a problem with the president’s 2014 proclamation: nowhere in it
will he describe why May 22 was selected for National Maritime Day.
The answer is a simple one:
on May 22, 1819, the steamship Savannah, under the command of Capt.
Moses Rogers, departed on her epochal voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The Savannah’s
successful crossing proved that artificially-powered vessels were not just a
provincial innovation, but the beginning of a global revolution that would
change the world forever.
President Franklin
Roosevelt recognized the importance of this achievement, and with the
authorization of Congress, proclaimed May 22, 1933, as the first National
Maritime Day. His proclamation clearly stated that it was the Savannah’s
“material contribution to the advancement of ocean transportation” that formed
the basis for selecting that particular date.
For the next 11 years,
President Roosevelt made the same proclamation for every National Maritime Day.
While the precise wording of each proclamation changed somewhat, mention was
always made of the Savannah’s achievement.
Presidential successors
Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson followed this tradition. So too did
President Nixon for his first National Maritime Day in office, which was 1969.
But then, in 1970, Nixon
(or more likely one of his aides) hiccupped: the text of the presidential
proclamation for National Maritime Day that year made no mention of the
steamship Savannah. This oversight was corrected in 1971, when the Savannah
was mentioned again, as it would be in each proclamation for the rest of
Nixon's presidency.
Presidents Ford, Carter and
Reagan also followed the tradition, mentioning the Savannah in each
annual National Maritime Day proclamation. At the end of his second term in
office, President Reagan—with eight such proclamations behind him—offered the
nation a farewell address that contained some wisdom for the ages:
If we forget what we did,
we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of that—of the American
memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.
With Reagan's thoughtful
advice, the Savannah's place in the National Maritime Day proclamation
may have seemed secure, as President George H.W. Bush mentioned her in each of
his four proclamations, as did newly-elected Bill Clinton in 1993.
However, in 1994, the
National Maritime Day proclamation signed by Clinton made no mention of the Savannah.
But unlike Nixon in 1970, the omission of 1994 continued through the rest of
the Clinton presidency. When George W. Bush became president in 2001, he
followed this new tradition: none of his eight proclamations for National
Maritime Day made mention of the steamship. President Obama maintained the
status quo for his first two proclamations, omitting any mention of the Savannah.
Obama’s third proclamation
would be different, however, thanks to the efforts of this author and some
unknown messenger. In April 2011, I wrote an opinion editorial pointing out
this ongoing historical amnesia, and sent it to five major news outlets in
turn, asking each to publish the editorial with sufficient lead time to allow
the president’s aides to alter that year’s proclamation accordingly.
None of the newspapers
agreed to print the editorial, but somehow my message got through. The
presidential proclamation for National Maritime Day in 2011 contained the
following line: "On May 22, 1819, the SS Savannah completed the
first successful voyage by a steam powered ship across the Atlantic,
shepherding in a new age of maritime travel and transport."
At first blush, it would
appear that the mission had been accomplished—but not entirely, for the Savannah
did not complete her historic voyage on that date, but rather began it. In all
likelihood, the source of the error was probably the same as the Nixon hiccup:
a presidential aide didn’t check their work closely enough.
For the 2012 proclamation,
this mistake was nowhere to be seen, but then again, neither was any mention of
the Savannah. For the third time in the history of National Maritime
Day, all mention of the reason for selecting May 22 had been dropped from the
proclamation. This renewed erasure of the Savannah continued with the
2013 proclamation as well.
But the presidential
proclamation for 2014 can be different. After bouts of historical amnesia
lasting one year (Nixon) and 17 years (Clinton-Bush-Obama), the president can
cure the current two-year affliction by clearly stating in his proclamation
that May 22 was chosen for National Maritime Day to commemorate the departure
of Capt. Rogers and the steamship Savannah on their epochal voyage
across the Atlantic.
In so doing, President
Obama will be renewing the meaning of National Maritime Day, as originally
envisioned by President Roosevelt. He also will be joining President Reagan in
his appeal to remember those who came before us.
John
Laurence Busch is an historian and author of "Steam Coffin: Captain Moses
Rogers and The Steamship Savannah Break the Barrier" (2010).
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