EXPERTS REVERSED ON NUCLEAR SHIP

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP80M01009A000701110020-8
Release Decision: 
RIFPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
December 23, 2016
Document Release Date: 
April 30, 2013
Sequence Number: 
20
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
January 17, 1962
Content Type: 
OPEN SOURCE
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PDF icon CIA-RDP80M01009A000701110020-8.pdf73.69 KB
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V7 - Experts Reversed on Nuclear'Ship By Drew Pearson The biggest prize in the shipping world in the last tour years has been the operation of the first atomic merchant vessel ever built, the Sa- vannah. Every 'qualified ship- ping line in the`` ' United Statesf` has wanted to get it It ended up , through a mys. - terious set ofd circumstances, 111lllwwwwww~~~,~iiiiii in the hands Pearson of States Marine. which oper- ates a large number of for- eign-flag ships manned by for- eign crews, but which hap- pens to be in partnership with John A. McCone, who at the time the Savannah contract was let was chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. McCone is now up for con- firmation to be head of the all- important Central Intelligence 'Agency, and a long set of cir- cumstances put him in the po- sition of having favored close business associates, such as the Henry Kaiser interests, when he has been in Govern. ment. The inside facts in the award of the S& Savannah to the States Marine Line, which has a working partnership with McCone's personally owned Joshua Hendy Line, are hitherto unpublished. IIn the spring of 1958, as seven steamship lines applied to operate the Savannah, Clar- ence Morse, then Maritime Administrator, appointed a special selection board of maritime experts to recom- mend the most qualified. They recommended the American President Lines, with more than 30 years of American-flagship experience behind it, as the best qualified. The others, in order of their qualification, were: Isbrandt- sen, Farrell, Moore-McCor- mack, Pacific For East States Marine, and U. S. Lines. In other words, States Ma- rine, the line with which John McCone has a working part- nership. was next to last. Yet it ended up with the contract. What happened was that Maritime Commissioner Morse, answerable directly to Secre. tary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks, overrode his own board of experts. Morse explained lamely that the board had put too mu6h emphasis on pas- senger service. So the,board went back into session, eliminated passenger experience as a criterion, and, adding up all the remaining factors, still came up ? with American President Lines as the best qualified ship op- erator. However, States Marine, no longer handicapped by its lack of passenger experience, rated second. Higher ups in the Commerce Department then gave the contract to States Marine as if the board had never met When I asked Under Secre- tary Louis Rothschild, now re- tired, why he reversed the board of experts, he replied: "There had been too much lobbying." He did not elucidate. "But States Marine chiefly operates foreign-flag ships," I pointed out. "The Savannah is to be the pride of the U. S. Merchant Marine. Did Jnhn McCone talk to you about this?" "No," protested Rothschild calling the shots. He came be- fore our Committee and told us that States Marine was go- ing to get the Savannah. There must have been a terrific lot of influence used to give this to States Marine." Whatever influence may have been used probably took place before John McCone took of- fice as Atomic Energy chair- man. He was confirmed on July 9, 1958, and' the Savan- nah contract was awarded on emphatically. He added that'July 25. one of States Marine's sub- IA busy Senate paid little sidiaries operated under the attention to all this. Only American flag. "Besides," he said. "the House Merchant Marine Com- mittee completely approved our decision." Weeks Stepped In Congressman Herbert Bon- ner, North Carolina Democrat, chairman of the House Mer? chant Marine Committee, told a different story. He had in- troduced the bill authorizing an atomic merchant vessel. "We never approved their decision," said Rep. Bonner. "They came down here and told us what they were going to do and that was that. "Morse had talked about putting the Savannah in the hands of different companies -the United States Lines in the Atlantic, the American Export Lines in the' Mediter- ranean, Moore-McCormack in Latin America, and the Ameri- can President Lines in the Pacific. "But Sinclair Weeks, the Secretary of Commerce, was one Congressman, Bonner of North Carolina, "father" of the SS Savannah, challenged McCone's apparent conflict of interest. In a speech on the House Boor, Aug. 21, Bonner said: "I have no concern with the arrangements made by Mr. McCone to meet the technical requirements of the law in re- gard to the difficult problem of avoiding conflicts of inter. est faced by so many able and successful businessmen when called to public service. "However, the facts concern- ing the intimate business re- lationships which have existed between Mr. McCone and Mr. Mercer (head of the States Marnie Lines) raise certain ob- vious questions when we seek to find the answer to the appar- ently illogical assignment of the nuclear ship Savannah to States Marine Lines by the Department of Commerce and the Atomic Energy Commis- sion." Coprrleht. 1962. Bell avndlcste. The. Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/04/30: CIA-RDP80M01009A000701110020-8