In 1813, Niagara and Lawrence were built quickly in Erie in a matter of months out of green wood. When referencing the quality of construction of Niagara and Lawrence, shipwright Noah Brown stated: “They are only required for one battle; if we win, that is all that will be required of them. If the enemy are victorious, the work is good enough to be captured.” One thing was clear from Perry’s Don’t Give Up The Ship battle flag, to the quality of the construction. Perry would not leave the Canadian sailors of the Provincial Marine with anything salvageable or usable had history turned out differently and he lost the Battle of Lake Erie. Niagara has continued throughout its history as a symbol of that victory and Don’t Give Up The Ship still remains a prominent rallying cry in Erie and the US Navy. Niagara serves as Pennsylvania’s flagship and sailing ambassador. She is supposed to be a symbol of what Pennsylvania has to offer. However, now a full 211 years after the Battle of Lake Erie, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum CommissionThe 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... (PHMC) has handed Niagara over to a Canadian prize crew, seemingly without a fight.
Yes, you heard that right. After PHMC finally took Niagara to shipyard in Cleveland after delaying the repair work to replace the missing prop and scope out a longer shipyard period for an entire year, they did so by outsourcing the crew to the Canadian company. More specifically, Ironbound Rigging that operates out of Nova Scotia. Don’t believe me? Take it straight from official Facebook account of 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, ....
Legality of a Canadian Company Providing Niagara Crew
The American maritime industry has a number of legal requirements to protect the rights of American sailors and generally speaking only US Citizens and Permanent Citizens are allowed to crew American vessels (non-citizen permanent residents may only fill up to 25% of the unlicensed crew). From 46 U.S.C. § 8103:
Federal law is pretty clear that American vessels can only be crewed by American citizens and permanent residents.
We also know that PHMC had Canadian nationals onboard for the transit as we have viewed copies of both the station bill and log book used for the transit. We have redacted the sailors’ names to respect their privacy, as they were simply serving as professional consultants. Based on our observations, they acted professionally, conducted themselves admirably, and fulfilled their roles responsibly. Our concerns lie solely with PHMC, which bypassed transparent bidding and hiring processes, and likely violated federal regulations. The responsibility for these actions rests entirely with PHMC as an employer and state agency.
At least two individuals that were onboard that were almost certainly Canadian nationals. One of which, has a YouTube video from their time on another Canadian vessel that indicates they are from Hawkesbury, Ontario and at the time lived just outside of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
We believe PHMC likely violated federal regulations. Even if they did not, they definitely violated the spirit of the law. The goal of the provisions are to protect the American maritime industry from foreign competition. Contracting with a Canadian company and Canadian sailors is the exact opposite of that intent.
Protect Brig Niagara reached out to PHMC for comment on several occasions regarding the crew who was onboard for the transit, if they were all American nationals, and if not what exception PHMC was operating under. We have not received a reply and will update this article if they provide a statement.
Editor’s Note: When this article was initially published, we were not certain who was onboard so we provided a few ways that PHMC could have avoided the federal regulations. We removed those on January 14, after viewing the station bill and log book.
Other Niagara Crew Options
The most obvious option is to contract with professional sailors who have Erie connections. Given Erie’s size we have a disproportionately large population of tall ships sailors- ranging from the current Bosun on Pride of Baltimore II, at least two captains of schooners, the current crew of LettieThe 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... G. Howard who have all sailed as Niagara crew at one point or another, and other current or former staff members of the Flagship Niagara League (FNL). Given PHMC’s status as a state agency, they have an obligation to try and keep tax payer dollars local wherever possible. Instead of using taxpayer dollars to bring in foreign competition to compete against the local tall ships community, why aren’t they trying to grow and support our local sailors right here in Erie?
When PHMC took over operational control of Niagara they publicly stated numerous times that the former crew would be welcome to apply to their old positions, for instance now former PHMC Director of External Affairs Howard Pollman told YourErie: “We welcome FNL employees to apply for positions within PHMC as they post.” However, the need to hire transit crew was never publicly available, and according to former Niagara crew members that I contacted, PHMC never reached out to them about whether they were interested in helping with the transit. One former crew member even called PHMC’s actions to make hiring opportunities conspicuously unavailable and directly outsourcing the work “an insult and a slap in the face”. Why isn’t PHMC even doing the bare minimum to try and use local sailors who have experience sailing Niagara to meet their crew requirements?
Even if PHMC had sourced the crew locally, they likely would have needed to augment the crew with sailors from elsewhere in the tall ships industry depending on who was available, who was willing to make the trip, etc. That is nothing new- FNL would often augment the crew they used to take Niagara to shipyard with other sailors. Many of the minimum required licenses could be filled with full time FNL staff, but not all. For instance, in November 2023, FNL needed to contract with two Able Seaman (AB) to meet minimum crew requirements. So even if PHMC had attempted to hire from within the Erie community, there was likely the need to look elsewhere within the American tall ships industry. Does PHMC not have the necessary connections in the tall ships industry to be able to source the crew themselves? Why did PHMC ignore the local sailors, the entire American tall ships industry, and go straight to a Canadian Company?
Cronyism Continues?
Prior to PHMC announcing Niagara‘s new Captain, we published concerns with how PHMC was conducting the hiring process and whether or not they were committing cronyism. Well, this might be another case supporting those concerns. The Founder/Owner of Ironbound Rigging that was contracted to provide the crew is Mike Moreland. Mike and Greg Bailey are contemporaries and, according to Greg himself, both friends from their time sailing together on the barque Picton Castle out of Nova Scotia. If PHMC decided to contract with Ironbound Rigging due to that friendship, that would definitely explain why PHMC decided to outsource the crew instead of hiring one themselves.
This becomes the second instance we have of PHMC foregoing a fair and open process to instead hire their friends through a closed door process. First, they employed a closed hiring process for the Niagara’s Captain, restricting the opportunity for consideration to a select few of their own choosing. Now, they have gone a step further by outsourcing the crew to a foreign company – conveniently founded by personal friends. Has this become the future of PHMC’s care of Niagara? A future where they funnel taxpayer dollars to their friends behind closed doors instead of going through open and public processes that their status as a public institution requires?
How Can You Help?
Niagara is Pennsylvania’s flagship. She is meant to show others what Pennsylvania represents as her sailing ambassador. How embarrassing is it that our state’s flagship is being crewed by the employees of a foreign company? What kind of message is Pennsylvania sending when the crew of its flagship and ambassador is outsourced? Shouldn’t Pennsylvania be using our taxpayer dollars to showcase and advertise the strengths of its own citizens instead of employees of a foreign company?
I personally think the current situation with Niagara‘s crew is unacceptable. What makes this even more appalling is that many of the people driving these decisions aren’t connected to the local community at all. They are policymakers sitting in Harrisburg, far removed from the impact their mandates have on those who hold the Niagara dear. This decision doesn’t just ignore the quality of our local talent—it dismisses an entire community’s connection to this iconic ship. A state-owned institution should not be funneling taxpayer dollars overseas to support a foreign company and an imported crew while qualified locals are left sidelined. This is more than just a misuse of public funds; it’s an outright insult to our community and a profound abuse of power. And perhaps the worst part? They don’t even seem to think anything is wrong with their actions, as they publicly flaunt how they outsourced Niagara‘s crew to a foreign company on their social media accounts.
If you, too, are alarmed by PHMC’s decisions, please consider taking action:
- Sign our petition calling for PHMC to hold a public forum to speak to the public about their future plans for Niagara
- Reach out to the Governor’s Office, your State Senator/Representative, and Local Officials about your concerns about PHMC spending taxpayer dollars to bring in foreign competition from a company owned by their friend to compete again the local sailors who are already in Erie.
Let’s hope that this was just a one off situation and not the new norm of PHMC’s stewardship of Niagara and that when PHMC takes Niagara to the second, extended shipyard period that they hold and open and transparent process to allow local sailors to apply as they hire their transit crew. Perry was willing to do whatever it took to keep Niagara out of Canadian hands in the War of 1812. Let’s hope that moving forward PHMC is willing to work with the same determination and commitment to keep Niagara crewed by American sailors as federal law requires instead of giving up the ship to a Canadian company.
Don’t Give Up The Ship!
0 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks