RISING labor costs over the past two decades have virtually driven American shipping from the seas. Because American crews are the best paid in the world—$444 a month for the average able-bodied seaman, for instance —even the most efficient U.S. cargo ships cannot match the lower costs of foreign operators. To recapture a share of seagoing trade, the Government and the domestic shipping industry have placed a $400 million bet on a technological innovation: huge ships that carry fully loaded barges—known as lighters—across the oceans.
This week the first U.S.-built LASH (for "lighter aboard ship") vessel is scheduled to dock near Philadelphia,...
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