(b) "America's shipping fleet, 17% of the global total in 1960, accounts for just 0.4% today. Blame a 1920 law known as the Jones Act [officially: Merchant Marine Act of 1920; is named after Senator Wesley Jones, who introduced it], which decrees that trade between domestic ports be carried by American-flagged and -built ships, at least 75% owned and crewed by American citizens. * * * Inflated sea-freight rates push most cargo onto lorries, trains and aircraft, even though these are pricier * * * So whereas 40% of Europe's domestic freight goes by sea, just 2% does in America. Lacking overland routes, Alaska, Guam, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are hardest hit."
(c) "Between 2000 and 2016 the fleet of private-sector Jones-Act ships fell from 193 to 91. Britain binned its Jones-Act equivalent in 1849. Its fleet today has over three times the tonnage of America's."