United States Merchant Marine in the context of "Flogging"

Piracy in the Strait of Malacca has long been a threat to ship owners and the mariners who ply the 900 km-long (550 miles) sea lane. In recent years, coordinated patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore along with increased security on vessels have caused a sharp downturn in piracy.

The Strait of Malacca's geography makes the region very susceptible to piracy. It is an important passageway between China and India, and used heavily for commercial trade, with 60% of international maritime trade passing through annually. The strait is on the route between Europe, the Suez Canal, the oil-exporting countries of the Persian Gulf, and the busy ports of East Asia. It is narrow, contains thousands of islets, and is an outlet for many rivers, making it ideal for pirates to evade capture.

The United States Maritime Service (USMS) was established in 1938 under the provisions of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 as voluntary training organization to train individuals to become officers and crew members on merchant ships that form the United States Merchant Marine per 46 U.S.C. § 51701. Heavily utilized during World War II, the USMS was largely dissolved in 1954, and its resources were absorbed into other federal departments. However, while the service is no longer structurally organized, remnants of the service still exist today and the service still actively commission officers to fill the ranks of the U.S. Navy Strategic Sealift Officer corps and to function as administrators and instructors at the United States Merchant Marine Academy and the state maritime academies.

The United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation. MARAD administers financial programs to develop, promote, and operate the U.S. Maritime Service and the U.S. Merchant Marine. In addition, it conducts research and development activities in the maritime field; regulates the transfer of U.S. documented vessels to foreign registries; maintains equipment, shipyard facilities, and reserve fleets of Government-owned ships essential for national defense. MARAD also maintains the National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) as a ready source of ships for use during national emergencies and logistically supporting the military when needed.

Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (/ˈkɛru.æk/; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.

Of French-Canadian parentage, Kerouac was raised in a French-speaking home in Lowell, Massachusetts. He "learned English at age six and spoke with a marked accent into his late teens." During World War II, he served as a United States Merchant Mariner; he completed his first novel at the time, which was published more than 40 years after his death. His first published book was The Town and the City (1950), and he achieved widespread fame and notoriety with his second, On the Road, in 1957. It made him a beat icon, and he went on to publish 12 more novels and numerous poetry volumes.

The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United States Coast Guard, and other maritime concerns. At its peak during World War II, NYSB was the largest and most productive shipyard in the world. Its best-known vessels include the destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245), the cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35), the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), the nuclear-powered cargo ship NS Savannah, and a quartet of cargo-passenger liners nicknamed the 4 Aces.

This is a list of U.S. Marine Hospitals and Public Health Service Hospitals that operated during the system's existence from 1798 to 1981. The primary beneficiary of the hospitals were civilian mariners known as the Merchant Marine, although they had other beneficiaries at various times; the system was unrelated to the U.S. Marine Corps.

The Marine Hospital Fund was founded in 1798; it was reorganized into the Marine Hospital Service in 1871 and renamed the U.S. Public Health Service in 1912. The hospital system became part of the Public Health Service's Bureau of Medical Services when it was created in 1943. The number of major hospitals peaked at thirty in 1943, and declined to nine in 1970. The system was abolished in 1981. Many of the hospitals were transferred to other organizations and are still in use as a variety of purposes, including as hospitals, offices, apartments, and historical sites.