As of April 23, 2024, the USCG database of active vessels now considers U.S. Brig Niagara to be inactive. Without getting too far into the regulations here, it does not change much in how Niagara is certified with the Coast Guard, what inspections are required, etc. However, the impacts are significant in the short term, where PHMCThe Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the state agency that stewards the U.S. Brig Niagara and Erie Maritime Museum. The PHMC is responsible for the collect... confirmed that Niagara will no longer be open for deck tours or allow the public onboard for the foreseeable future.

Full Statement from PHMC is below which was reported by YourErie:

Last week, PHMC hosted U.S. Coast Guard representatives from Buffalo, NY at the Erie Maritime MuseumThe Erie Maritime Museum (EMM) is a cultural institution located in Erie, Pennsylvania, dedicated to preserving and showcasing the region's maritime heritage. Established in 1997, ... for a comprehensive review of planning related to U.S. Brig Niagara operations.

The discussion included plans for the Brig’s impending trip to shipyard as well as plans for long-term maintenance and future Niagara sailing programs. As a result of that meeting, the USCG has placed Niagara in ‘layup/inactive’ status in preparation for shipyard as has been common practice in previous years.

Niagara’s current Certificate of Inspection as a sailing school vessel
"Subchapter R" refers to the legal and operating requirements of Sailing School Vessels within the Code of Federal Regulations(CFRs). The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is a... remains valid and once repair work is completed and approved by the USCG, Niagara will return to ‘active’ status.

While in ‘layup/inactive’ status, Niagara is not permitted under Coast Guard rules to host tours as a dockside attraction. PHMC fully anticipates the return of ship tours upon Niagara’s return from shipyard. PHMC looks forward to working closely with the USCG to address necessary maintenance and repairs, allowing Niagara to sail for decades to come.

I don’t think the impact Niagara being unavailable to the public can be overstated where Niagara is a huge driver of tourism to and ambassador for Erie. But we wanted to take a deeper look at what PHMC is claiming and compare it to what was contained in their internal communications that we received as part of a Right to KnowA Right to Know (RTK) request is a request for information from a state or local government body in Pennsylvania. You are allowed to request any kind of information, and aside from... request. The main concern we had over the veracity of statement was over whether or not Niagara being considered inactive or in layup was a common occurrence.

How Common is a Layup/Inactive Status?

As you can see, the Erie Maritime Museum is playing off Niagara‘s inactive status as a good thing, but surprisingly they are directing visitors to ask their staff/volunteers what “laid up” means. We figured we would answer that for them and you all as well. Colloquially speaking being “laid up” is when a vessel is taken out of active service. And according to a one visitor of the Erie Maritime Museum, they were told by someone at the museum that it is an old navy term for preparing a vessel for dry dock. Assuming we go with the museum’s definition, that is a gross mischaracterization of the current situation. We’ll get to the Coast Guard’s difference between inactive and laid upAccording to official USCG guidelines outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and the guidance in CVC-WI-018(1), for commercial vessels, being "laid up" is a legal status... in a second, but if they are saying Niagara is laid up, since they are just preparing her for shipyard- are they actually preparing her for shipyard? That would require a captain, crew, and likely volunteers to be actively doing work to prepare Niagara for shipyard. And Niagara currently does not have a captain or crew, and they have not allowed volunteers to help out with ship maintenance. It seems like PHMC is trying to blur the lines between being declared inactive with a normal process of preparing a vessel for shipyard, when they don’t even have anyone to do the necessary prep work.

Now let’s get into how the Coast Guard defines laid up and inactive (See here for official USCG guidance from September 2020 and revised in October 2022). There are some significant differences between the two. A vessel that is inactive, still keeps its certificate of inspection (COI)The Certificate of Inspection(COI) is a legal document issued by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) confirming that a vessel meets specified safety and operational standards. It ... and still needs to go through normal USCG inspections. The main benefit they get by being inactive is that they can reduce crew requirements, and forgo certain activities, like man overboard drills. When a vessel is laid up, they must surrender their COI and they can postpone key inspections. If Niagara were to have its COI surrendered, that would be significant (see here for an email about the concerns previous Niagara Captain William SabatiniFleet Captain William "Billy" Sabatini is the executive director and fleet captain of the Flagship Niagara League. Sabatini grew up in southeastern Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and ... had if Niagara were to lose its COI). If Niagara is in fact laid up, she would need to go through a lengthy process to be made active again and receive her COI. She may no longer have the exemptions to certain regulations she was granted by Sector Buffalo in 2005 to allow her to more closely resemble historical architecture and might no longer be grandfathered in to certain regulations potentially requiring a long and costly reconstruction to meet current Coast Guard regulations. This is similar to how certain historic sites do not need to be altered to meet ADA standards, but new buildings do. Based on the description from the press release and her status in the USCG’s PSIX database (you will need to search by Niagara’s vessel primary vessel number which is 978478) we can assume that Niagara is inactive and not laid up. I hope that based on the sign on the display in the museum today that they were just using the colloquial definition of a vessel laid up and not the official Coast Guard definition, because Niagara losing her COI would be much more significant.

This is not common for Niagara

The last time Niagara was in either status was in 2020 which lasted until winter of 2021. Also, note that as far as we can tell it is the only recent time Niagara was in either status in the last 10-15 years, which further brings into question the statement made by PHMC that this is “common”. During that time period she was not declared inactive or laid up to prepare her for shipyard. It is common for commercial vessels who are looking to reduce crew requirements when they are facing financial difficulties until market conditions improve. But historically Niagara has not been made inactive since her mission is to share her history with visitors and not to turn a profit for her owners.

Niagara was granted a laid up status in June of 2020 due to challenges brought on from the COVID pandemic. In early 2020, the USCG Office for Sector Buffalo had some separate guidance to help as everyone was trying to navigate how to handle challenges from the COVID pandemic (see here for the letter granting Niagara that status, and the Sector Buffalo Guidelines it was issued under). If you read through the details you will notice that it is a bit different from the current distinction between inactive and laid up, mainly she was able to keep her COI despite being considered laid up. Why is that? Well the answer is simple really, the rules have changed since Niagara was last laid up and the current guidance was released on September 1, 2020 which was two and a half months after Niagara was laid up on June 18, 2020. This timing can be confirmed in this conversation between Captain Sabatini and PHMC regarding taking Niagara to shipyard in October 2023 where he stated that the same process would not be available in the future and that by the time the Flagship Niagara League took Lettie G. HowardThe Lettie G. Howard is a historic schooner currently operated by the Flagship Niagara League(FNL) in Erie and owned by the South Street Seaport Museum(SSSM) in New York City. Buil... through it back in 2020, the rules had changed and it was no longer available as an option.

In summary, what all this means is that calling the current situation “common” is a stretch. The last time Niagara was laid up/inactive was due to restrictions from the COVID pandemic and not related to preparing the vessel for shipyard. And on top of that, the current guidelines weren’t even around last time Niagara went through the process.

What is missing from the statement?

When PHMC first announced they were assuming operational control of Niagara and ending their relationship with the Flagship Niagara League, we were concerned over their ability to operate Niagara without anyone with professional maritime experience on staff and their ability to execute their promises. A petition was started calling for a public forum so that PHMC could share the details of their plans for Niagara and the public could voice any questions or concerns they may have. Here we are over four months later, and we still have the same concerns. PHMC still does not have anyone on staff with professional maritime experience, and we still have concerns over PHMC’s ability to keep their commitments.

PHMC initially claimed that Niagara will be going to shipyard in the spring (aka right now). So instead of Niagara getting ready for shipyard she is still sitting under her winter cover without a captain or crew to get her ready for long overdue repair work. PHMC has still not released any plans or timelines for taking Niagara to shipyard. Which brings us back to their recent statement. One of the key things missing from it is any sort of timeline. It never mentions when Niagara will go to shipyard. Do they still plan on taking her in the spring? Or have those plans changed? Any delays in shipyard for maintenance will have a domino effect for Niagara’s future and when she can sail again.

We are also concerned, that PHMC did not make any of these changes public until we broke the news on the Protect Brig Niagara Facebook page and PHMC was forced to respond. If their plan all along was to put Niagara in an inactive status and prevent the public from being able to tour her, why was it never made public in advance, or even after the fact until the media started asking questions? In previous years Niagara was not made inactive before going to shipyard, so will PHMC share why this time is so different? Did they leap before they looked and realize that they aren’t able to operate Niagara as they planned? Do they even have a plan for Niagara? PHMC assumed full control over four months ago, and have yet to release any specific details regarding their plans for Niagara‘s future. If they had a plan, that is something the public deserves to know- not only because the citizens on Pennsylvania own Niagara, but also so that PHMC can be held accountable for their promises. Is PHMC afraid of the public trying to hold them accountable for once? These are just some of the questions we have for PHMC and are why we have been from the start pushing for a public forum.

If you haven’t already, please join us in signing the petition.

Don’t Give Up The Ship!

Steven