In 1813, one of the biggest challenges that Oliver Hazard Perry faced was finding enough qualified sailors to crew his fleet that was being built in Erie. Isaac Chauncey commanded the American fleet on Lake Ontario and he frequently took the more qualified sailors that were sent to the frontier. This was a source of tension between Perry and Chauncey. In order to get around this shortage, Perry filled his ranks with soldiers and other landsmen at his disposal who had little to no sailing experience to crew his fleet, including for Niagara‘s crew. Perry was able to successfully use the resources available to him to defeat a British fleet that was largely crewed by Canadians.
Fast forward a little over 200 years, and the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission (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...) needed to take Niagara to shipyard. Just like Perry, they also needed to find a crew for Niagara. However, things had changed. Erie was no longer the rural frontier with almost no one with experience. Instead Erie, had become a hotbed for experienced tall ships sailors with sailing on Niagara and 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.... So did they fill the ranks of Niagara‘s crew with the local sailors, the ones they assured the public that would be able to apply for the chance to continue their craft? No, they off-shored the work to Canadian contractors to help fill their ranks and they broke the law in the process.
What’s Happening With Niagara‘s Crew?
Our PHMC Gives Up The Ship To… Canada? article contains the full background. If you haven’t read it already, I highly suggest checking it out. The summary is:
- PHMC never reached out to local sailors and never publicly advertised Niagara‘s crew positions despite promising anyone could apply.
- PHMC contracted with Ironbound Rigging who is based out of Nova Scotia, Canada.
- Niagara Captain Greg Bailey has admitted to being friends with the founder and owner of Ironbound Rigging.
- Federal regulations require American vessels to be crewed by American Citizens (up to 25% can be permanent residents).
- Based on our investigation at the time, we determined that PHMC almost certainly had Canadian citizens onboard, but we did not have definitive proof, or confirmation that they violated federal regulations at that time.
In other words, a public institution used public funding to outsource jobs to a foreign company owned by the personal friend of one of their staff, all while skirting federal regulations to directly compete against qualified local sailors. Up until now, we could not prove that PHMC violated the law, but that has changed now that we have received a copy of the US Coast Guard’s findings from an investigation into the matter.
As you can see, the US Coast Guard confirm that PHMC violated federal regulations requiring American vessels to be crewed by Americans. The Coast Guard decided to only give PHMC a warning this time, but that does not change the fact that they found PHMC to have violated federal regulations. This means that literally the first time that PHMC took Niagara off the dock since they seized command that they violated federal labor protections for American sailors.
When Were Concerns Initially Raised About Niagara‘s Crew?
On November 13, 2024, Protect Brig Niagara initially raised concerns that PHMC likely violated federal regulations when they took Niagara to shipyard from October 24 to November 10, 2024. We know that multiple members of PHMC leadership are loyal readers of Protect Brig Niagara, so if PHMC didn’t already know that they likely violated federal regulations, that is likely when they first became aware of the issue.
On December 4, 2024, I virtually attended PHMC’s Commission (board) meeting at noon. Yes, the time matters. Why you may ask? Well, on December 4, 2024, PHMC just so happened to self report the incident to the US Coast Guard at 9:24 am. Is it a coincidence that PHMC waited until hours before I was directly addressing their leadership about these concerns to self report the incident to the Coast Guard? And even more concerning, the response I got in the meeting from Commission Chair Hayley Haldeman was that they could not comment since the issue was still under investigation internally. If they had just self reported the violation, what was still under investigation internally?
Why Did Verification Take So Long?
On December 13, 2024 I was granted access, as part of a RTK request, to inspect the log book used during the transit to shipyard and confirm who was onboard during the trip. It later only took 15 minutes of investigation to confirm that at least two individuals were almost certainly Canadian nationals based on publicly available information. However, we can’t directly confirm anyone’s citizenship regardless of how things looked. We updated our initial article and spoke with several representatives of PHMC during that time.
PHMC still remained quiet and refused to comment on the situation since it was still “under investigation” even though they already self-reported it to the US Coast Guard. On February 10, 2025 the US Coast Guard sent the letter to PHMC notifying them that they had in fact confirmed that PHMC illegally hired Canadians. PHMC accepted their findings without contesting them. Protect Brig Niagara noticed that the Coast Guard database on Niagara was updated on March 28, 2025 to indicate that they were under investigation being “suspected to be in violation of law or reg.” We simultaneously submitted 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... (RTK) with PHMC and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the US Coast Guard.
Answers Finally Revealed
We did not receive a response to either until Monday, May 5, 2025, a full five months after PHMC self-reported the incident and a full five and a half months since Protect Brig Niagara initially broke the story. During that time, we repeatedly asked PHMC to confirm whether or not they had Canadians onboard, and if so how they were exempt from the relevant federal regulations. Does this look like government transparency to you? If it wasn’t for Protect Brig Niagara, would this information about PHMC’s illegal hiring practices for Niagara‘s crew have ever been made public or would they be continuing the practice for as long as they could get away with it?
PHMC as a taxpayer funded state institution owes it to the public to keep them informed on what is going in with Niagara. And even more concerning, they withheld these violations from the crew members that they are actively trying to hire for Niagara‘s upcoming trip to shipyard. It is a disservice to withhold this type of information from the very sailors who need to evaluate whether or not they trust PHMC enough to sail on Niagara to shipyard. If PHMC does not know basic regulations, like how American vessels need to be crewed by Americans, what else do they know? Any potential crew members deserve to have all of the relevant information available to them.
Unanswered Questions and Concerns
Now that we have confirmation that PHMC illegally hired foreign nationals, it only adds additional questions and concerns about PHMC’s ability to safely and effectively operate Niagara. From the start, Protect Brig Niagara has been concerned about PHMC’s qualifications to operate Niagara given their organization’s lack of recent experience with operating a tall ship, and who they empower to make decisions. PHMC still only have one permanent staff member with professional maritime experience, after a full 16 months of operating Niagara. And right before they hired that individual, they updated their job description for captain to remove their responsibility to interpret regulations.
Some additional questions and concerns we have include:
- Does PHMC not know the relevant regulations that govern Niagara‘s operation? Alternatively, if they were aware, did they intentionally violate them? And ask yourself, which is worse?
- When was PHMC first made aware they likely violated the law? Was Protect Brig Niagara’s reporting the first time they we informed of the issue?
- Why did PHMC think it was ok to hire offshore contractors instead of even trying to work with American sailors?
- Why was PHMC so unwilling to admit their mistake and why did they try so hard to keep the information away from the public?
- Would this have been made public if Protect Brig Niagara was not watching? Would PHMC have still self-reported it? Shouldn’t we be able to expect better from our state government institutions?
- Why did PHMC wait to self report this incident until Protect Brig Niagara asked PHMC in front of the Commission?
- What other laws has PHMC broken? And who is holding PHMC accountable for their illegal actions?
How to Help
One of the causes of the War of 1812 was to defend the rights of American sailors. British vessels would often stop American vessels and press American sailors into service in the British navy. The young US government saw those threats as an attack against their sovereignty. One of the goals of sailing Niagara is to help the public remember the War of 1812. Is illegally outsourcing her crew to foreign workers helping to preserve the memory of a war that was started to protect the rights of American sailors? If you are also alarmed by PHMC’s actions and how that, literally the first time they took Niagara underway, they violated federal labor protections, 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 illegally compete against the local sailors who are already in Erie.
- Contact the local media to help spread the word. These are the kinds of issues that impact who we, the public, vote for and informed voting is the only way that we can influence how our our government behaves.
Don’t Give Up the Ship!
I understood the war of 1812 was due to the US invasion of Canada. The facts relating to the stopping of US ships are as I can ascertain are that Royal Naval personnel who deserted their ship and joined the US ships were fair game for hunting down and arrest.
The US invaded after the war started.There were many reasons for the war including trade, territorial expansion and impressment. Catching deserters is the official line from the RN and the excuse they used to stop and board US ships. The impressing of US sailors had been going on for years prior to the war and the majority taken were Americans or British subjects who had become American citizens. Even in the HMS Leopard v Chesapeake affair three of the men were Americans and were ultimately returned.
I like how you conveniently left out the part about the former crew not being asked to deliver the ship to yard because of the toxic environment created by the league, and your role in it.
Not liking public criticism seems like a strange excuse for a public institution to break a well established law… the same one the league, just like everyone else had to follow in all their hiring practices…
Also take a look through what some of the volunteers have testified to regarding the state’s actions and I think you’ll see who was actually making it toxic…
The league has been quiet on the whole thing and focusing on rebuilding despite what they had to go through…