United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation - Implementation

Implementation

The Shipping Act was a peacetime act not fully anticipating wartime conditions. On 11 July 1917 the President by Executive Order delegated to the EFC all his wartime power and authority to acquire existing vessels and to construct and operate all vessels acquired or to be acquired by the United States. The EFC operated largely under these powers rather than the basic peacetime act for the duration of the war. While the Act had envisioned the corporations with the United States as simply the majority stockholder the wartime reality was that it was the sole stockholder. Legally the EFC could not actually operate the ships unless no private companies could be found to do so. In reality wartime conditions made tighter government control imperative. As a corporation, even with total government ownership, the EFC did not have the powers of the Board, thus the Shipping Board usually assumed and then transferred ships and facilities to the EFC which was subject to federal and state laws governing corporations.