Yep. The accurate version of that statement would say that fewer than 100 ocean-going Jones Act vessels are in operation today. The others are much more numerous -- but also much less relevant to the military rationale behind the Jones Act.
Is even that true? Do you mean vessels that can go beyond coastal waters? Do you mean only cargo ships? There are more than 100 Jones Act vessels operating between ports in Florida alone.
> The Jones Act applies to any type of commercial vessel. Recent controversies have concerned the oceangoing ship and offshore supply vessel sectors. The law also covers ships on the Great Lakes, river barges, harbor tugs, dredging vessels, and various kinds of passenger vessels. The Jones Act oceangoing ship fleet, in particular, has certain shortcomings compared to the merchant fleet desired by the drafters of the 1920 act as they described it in the aforementioned statement of U.S. maritime policy.
> As of March 2018, there were 99 oceangoing ships in the Jones Act-compliant fleet, employing about 3,380 mariners. The largest category of oceangoing Jones Act ships is tankers. Of the 57 tankers in the fleet, 11 carry Alaskan crude oil to refineries on the West Coast, 44 are medium- sized product tankers that mostly carry refined products along the Atlantic Coast, and 2 are chemical or asphalt tankers. The dry cargo fleet includes 24 small to medium-sized container ships, 7 ships that have ramps for carrying vehicles (known as roll on/roll off vessels), and 2 dry bulk vessels designed to carry such commodities as grain and coal in bulk form. The fleet also includes 9 relatively small general-cargo vessels supplying subsistence harbors along Alaska’s coast.
> Oceangoing, Self‐Propelled Vessels of 1,000 Gross Tons and Above that Carry Cargo from Port to Port
Okay, yeah, I believe there are that few vessels of that type and size. There are many more types of vessels. I operate a tugboat company. We have 4 Jones Act tugboats that move barges of cargo 500-2,000 tons at time (other tugs move much bigger barges). There are many more of these kinds of vessels. Claiming that there are only 100 is misleading.
More to the point of the article, lots of petroleum is moved on barges, not on self-propelled cargo vessels.
The full sentence goes "Fewer than 100 Jones Act ships are in operation today, not including barges and tugboats."
Not sure if there was an edit to the article in the meantime or you quoted only part of the sentence.
Seems like that statement is correct, judging by the sister comment, if maybe still somewhat misleading.
This is a ridiculously incorrect statement.