Ah, well then Colin. If (if) it was an F10 sort of storm then I must agree. But people in general do tend to overstate such conditions. No...I didn't forget the "United States" (or the "Savannah"....forgive my spelling)...but how long did they remain in service? The American Mercantile Marine has, throughout my life as a mariner, never ever been a competitive collection of companies. Ruthlessly controlled and regulated by the central government. This "control" (I believe) was the "prime-mover" in the rise of Flags of Convenience. No matter that George W Bush thinks that the word "entrepeneur" is an American word, the USA has plenty of them. And shipowners (particularly the "private" oil carriers) rapidly departed those shores/regulations. Mainly to Panama and Liberia. That still exists. So US shipowners do still have a global presence, just not under obvious US control. It was true until recently that US Law decreed that all US coastal cargo traffic had to be transported in US registered ships. Free trade?
Your point about US ships being built so strongly that they would last for 50 years is a load of hogwash. Most of them only lasted 50 years because they didn't go anywhere. I defy anyone, anywhere, to tell me of any ships that were built stronger/tougher than the ships built by Alfred Holt. And that was because they insured their own ships. Which brings me back to standardisation. Standardisation stultifies innovation. The US commercial shipbuilding just kept on making the same old, same old with tweaks. BY.