USNS Victoria (T-AK-281) was a Norwalk-class fleet ballistic missile cargo ship, which was launched as a World War II commercial Victory cargo ship SS Ethiopia Victory under the Emergency Shipbuilding program. The Ethiopia Victory was acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1963.
Marine Transport Line (MTL) of New York, New York was a commercial steamship service started to support the needs of support charter shipping for the Maritime Commission and War Shipping Administration during World War 2. During wartime the Marine Transport Line operated Victory ships, and also a few other ships. After the war it moved to operating mostly tanker ships. Marine Transport Line Inc. made headline news with the sinking of the SS Marine Electric in 1983, an enlarged World War 2 tanker.
Mississippi Shipping Company of New Orleans, Louisiana was a passenger and cargo steamship company founded in 1919. In 1961 officially changed its name to the Delta Line. The Mississippi Shipping Co. serviced port from the Gulf of Mexico and east coast of South America. The Mississippi Shipping Co. was formed to support coffee merchants and Brazilian produce to New Orleans and up the Mississippi River. competing with the New York City trade. Delta Line failed to upgrade to container ships and modernize as other shipping lines did in the 1970s. In 1982 Delta Line, now owned by the Holiday Inn Corporation sold the line to Crowley Maritime. Crowley was the largest US barge and tugboat operator at the time. Crowley started to modernize the ships on the route, but sold the shipping line to the United States Lines in 1985. United States Lines brought some of the ships into its routes but went bankrupt in 1986. At its peak in 1949, the Mississippi-Delta line owned 14 ships at a total of 98,000 grt. Delta Line also moved into passenger cruise with to ship. During World War II the Mississippi Shipping Company was active with charter shipping with the Maritime Commission and War Shipping Administration. During wartime, the Mississippi Shipping Company operated Victory ships, Liberty shipss, and a few Empire ships.
Pacific Far East Line, also called PFEL in short, was a passenger and cargo shipping line founded in 1943 by Thomas E. Cuffe, in San Francisco, California. At the beginning he started by chartering foreign ships to run the lines in tramp trade. Later scheduled cargo services were added to the line. During World War II the South Atlantic steamship line was active with charter shipping with the Maritime Commission and War Shipping Administration.
Interocean Shipping Company, Interocean Steamship Company of San Francisco was a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Steel Company founded in the late 1930s and closed in 1986.
Wessel, Duval & Co. was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1825 Augustus Hemenway (1805-1876) as Hemenway & Co.. Augustus Hemenway started the shipping company to move his timber products to markets. Augustus Hemenway had timberland in Maine and started his schooner shipping company to take timber to Eastcoast ports. Later he opened a sugar plant in Cuba, his ships would take lumber to Cuba and bring back sugar. Next, he expanded his timber products to Argentina and other Western South American ports. By 1828 the company expanded to Valparaiso, Chile. Augustus Hemenway married into a Boston merchant family, marrying Mary Tileston (1820-1894) in 1840. In 1865 Héctor Beéche (?-1914) became a partner in the firm and a subsidiary company, Wessel, Duval y Cía, was founded in Chile by Charles P. Hemenway, Augustus's brother. Charles had acted on Augustus' behalf in other matters as needed and became a partner in 1870. T. Quincy Browne became a partner in 1870 also and for a few years the firm was called Hemenway & Browne. In 1875 William Muller joined as a partner, the name returned to Hemenway & Co. Augustus Hemenway died in Cuba in 1876. The partnership continued as Hemenway & Co. till 1885. In 1885 Muller retired and Carlos Wolff joined the partnership, the company name was changed to Hemenway, Beeche and Co.. In 1888 Peter "Perdo" M. Wessel (1851-1821) joined the partnership and the company name was changed to Browne, Beeche and Co.. In 1891 a New York City office was opened on 68 Brad Street, and most key workers moved to New York. The next year the Boston office was closed. In 1896 Wolff retired and in 1897 George L. Duval (1855-1931), W. L. Parker, and q became partners. With the new partners, the company name was changed to Beeche and Co.. In 1905 T. F. Budge and Robert Jaffray became partners. In 1907 the company name was changed to Wessel, Duval & Co. In the 1900s the company moved from sailing ships to steamships and opened a new West Coast Line at 47 Cedar Street, later moved to 1 Broadway. The West Coast Line started regular service from New York City to Valparaiso and Callao, Peru. West Coast Line main cargo was railroad and mining equipment to the expanding business in Chile and Peru, along with general cargo. The Chile rail firm, Ferrocarril del Llano de Maipo in Santiago used Wessel, Duval & Co. to import their railroad equipment in 1890. The return cargo from Chile was nitrate of soda. The West Coast Line chartered steamship as needed and was the US manager and agent for other shipping lines. West Coast Line also shipped UK and US coal for coal ships and to nations. For the West coast of South America both the steamer and sail ships used the starits of Magellan, this changed on August 15, 1914, with the opening of the Panama Canal, some routes began to use the Panama Canal cutting about 10,000 miles off the trip. The outbreak of World War I changed service, some charted ships were requisition by their home country, and the United States Shipping Board, gave some ships to the Line to operate for the War effort. Normal operations did not return till 1924, all post-war work have been completed. In from 1920 to 1932, West Coast Line was the US agent for Compania Sud Americana de Vapores, the South America Steamship Company of Chile. South America Steamship Company had luxury passenger service to and from Chile and New York City, on a fleet of luxury steamers: SS Renaico, SS Aconcagua and SS Teno. During World War II Wessel Duval & Company operated ships to support the war in the Pacific War and European theatre. Wessel, Duval & Co. operated some ships in the support of Korean war in the early 1950s. As ships aged and were retired Wessel, Duval & Co. has moved into media, advertising and marketing.
Sudden & Christenson Company was a shipping and lumber company founded in 1899. Edwin A. Christenson and Charles Sudden of San Francisco, California started the company and shipping line to supply northwest lumber to cities on the east coast, west coast and far east. The ships would return with goods and passengers from the remote ports. Some of the ships also had passenger service on the upper decks. Sudden & Christenson Company and Los Angeles Steamship Company-United American Line started a joint venture called the Arrow Line in 1926. Arrow Line operated from Northwest Pacific Coast Ports and Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Sudden & Christenson's San Francisco Headquarters was at 110 Market Street with docks at Pier 15. Sudden & Christenson Company was incorporated in California in 1903. The Sudden & Christenson company dissolved in 1944 and Sudden & Christenson, Inc was founded to pay of the liability of franchise taxes, and operated till dissolved in 1965. Charles Sudden died in 1913 and Edwin Christenson became president with D. Walter Rasor as vice president. The company started with schooners and added steamships. During World War I Sudden & Christenson operated Merchant navy ships for the United States Shipping Board. During World War II Sudden & Christenson was active with charter shipping with the Maritime Commission and War Shipping Administration. Sudden & Christenson had docks in San Francisco, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Astoria, Los Angeles and Yokohama, Kobe, Shanghai, Dalian and Tsingtao. Far East ports were a joint venture with the North China Line. In late 1950s came the more cost-effective loading and unloading system, container shipping. The Sudden & Christenson fleet, now aged and on an obsolete system, put the company in decline, closing in 1965.
Keystone Shipping Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a major shipping and transportation company. Keystone Shipping Company operates a fleet of ships for both dry bulk cargo and tankers. Since World War I, the Keystone Shipping Company has been active in the worldwide support of the United States Armed Forces. Keystone Shipping Company is part of the Ready Reserve Fleet program. Keystone Shipping Company was founded by Charles Kurz. Before Keystone Shipping Company, Charles Kurz was a shipping agent, commodities trader, and ship owner. Keystone Shipping Company headquarters is in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
Blidberg Rothchild Company was a shipping company founded by Allan Blidberg and Sylvester Rothschild in New York City, United States. The shipping company has is start with a previous company Blidberg and Sagen Company founded by Tryggve Sagen and Allan Blidberg. Tryggve Sagen owned a ship in Oslo, Norway before coming to the United States in 1919. Sylvester Rothschild was born in 1896 in Sweden, he was a finance officer in Gothenburg. Rothschild came to America in 1919 and started the shipping company with Sagen. Blidberg and Sagen Company had shipping routes from New York to Scandinavian and Baltic ports. Sagen was president, Blidberg vice president and Sylvester Rothschild was the Secretary for the shipping company. Sylvester Rothschild was from Gothenburg Sweden, where he was the Vice-consul. In the 1930s Tryggve Sagen departed the company and the firm was renamed Blidberg Rothchild Company. The company had offices in Gothenburg and Norway. Blidberg Rothchild Company worked with an affiliated company Eastport Steamship Co of New York. Blidberg Rothchild Company also worked with an affiliated company Bridgeport Steamship Line of New York, a New Haven Railroad company.
Norton Lilly International, was founded as Norton Lilly & Company in 1841 in New York City by John Norton Jr., In 1834, John Norton, Jr. moved to New York in 1834, he was born in Eastport, Maine in 1816. John Norton, Jr. John Norton, Jr. shipping experience started in 1840 when he became a partner in Russell & Norton, a shipping agency for with routes from Florida to the West India. The ship operated out of Apalachicola, Florida and in 1851 added an Australia route to the line. In 1854 John Norton Jr., and his son, Edward N. Norton, opened his own shipping agency, Norton & Company and became the manager of the sailing ship Sea Flower , which operated out of Pensacola, Florida. Norton and son expanded and added a South America route with packet sailing ships. John Norton Jr. second son Augustus Norton joined the firm in 1878. Augustus Norton died on October 17, 1889, and a year later John Norton Jr. died on October 30, 1890. Edward N. Norton continued to run Russell & Norton, but in 1907, add a partner Joseph Thomas Lilly. With the new partnership, the firm was renamed Norton Lilly & Company.
Oliver J. Olson & Company was a shipping company founded by Oliver John Olson in 1930 in San Francisco, California. Oliver John Olson started in the lumber trade. Oliver John Olson entered into a lumber partnership with Andrew F. Mahony in San Francisco in 1908. Oliver John Olson was president of the Olson-Mahony Lumber Company. Oliver John Olson was born in San Francisco on January 20, 1872.
United States Navigation Company was founded by Edward Carl Wilhelm Oelsner (1888-1973) in New York City in 1917. Oelsner was a Prussian-born German, who came to America in 1908. In 1915 became a manager of the Hamburg America Line's New York office. In 1917 he became a steamship broker, he then founded his own steamship brokerage firm, United States Navigation Company. United States Navigation Company's first clients were the Hamburg-American Line and North German Lloyd Line. Next Oelsner entered into a joint venture with Biehl & Company chartering ships that serviced the Gulf of Mexico ports. United States Navigation Company when went from just a shipbroker to a ship owner, with the purchase of 1885 SS City of Salisbury, a 397-ton cargo ship. On March 7, 1973, Oelsner died, he and his wife, Eva, were on vacation in Torremolinos, Spain. United States Navigation Company continued doing business. In 1979 the United States Navigation Company was sold and in 1981 closed. The United States Navigation Company supported the World War II effort with its ship and as an operator of United States owned ships.
Olympic Steamship Company was founded in Seattle, Washington, on August 22, 1925, by John Ambler, Charles A. Wallace, and William W. Shorthill. The Olympic Steamship Company had routes that served the Pacific Northwest. The Olympic Steamship Company had a fleet of about 4 ships. The Olympic Steamship Company was named after The Olympic Mountains in the state of Washington. John Ambler was an attorney, and Charles A. Wallace previously worked at Fisher Flouring Mills Company. William W. Shorthill was a clerk at The Pacific Steamship Company. After the start of the company, Joseph L. Carman, Jr., became vice president. Carman was previously president of Alaska Washington Airways. Olympic Steamship Company's first ship was an acquired 5,335-tonne tanker named the SS Dayton. Olympic Steamship Company renamed the Dayton the SS Olympic. The SS Olympic was built in 1907 as the Harport in South Shields, England. In 1936, Olympic Steamship Company entered into a joint venture with James Griffiths & Sons, Inc., as the Consolidated Olympic Company. The Consolidated Olympic Company offered a Long Beach, California, Seattle, and Tacoma, Washington, route on the Consolidated Olympic Line. The Consolidated Olympic Line was later renamed the Olympic-Griffiths Line. The Olympic-Griffiths Line acquired the 7,216-tonne cargo ship SS Olympic Pioneer, which was used on Pacific Northwest lumber and newsprint routes. The SS Olympic Pioneer also made two long voyages on the world trade route. The SS Olympic Pioneer then moved to a route from Puget Sound to Japan, moving US Army supplies. Olympic-Griffiths Line chartered ships for the other routes on the line. Ernest Clayton became president of the firm in 1940. Ernest Clayton previously worked for the McCormick Steamship Company. The Olympic Steamship Company was active in supporting the World War II effort.
American Foreign Steamship Corporation was founded in Brooklyn, New York City, in 1932 by Ira L. Rosenson, Sophia Pruss and Elias Katz. Rosenson was an attorney and the major shareholder in the firm. American Foreign Steamship Corporation purchased a 5,570-ton cargo ship SS Eastern Glen from the American South African Line in 1933. American Foreign Steamship Corporation named the ship the SS American Oriole. The ship was built by Kabushiki Kaisha Uchida Zosengo company of Yokohama, Japan, in 1920. The ship was a United States Shipping Board ship. The next two ships purchased was the SS Liberty Glo and SS Wildwood, these were Hog Islanders type ships. The two ships were purchased from the South Atlantic Steamship Company. In 1938 another Hog Islanders ship was purchased the, SS Magmeric, renamed the SS American Robin. The American Oriole was sold to England in 1940 to help with the World War II efforts. She was renamed the SS Barberrys, but on November 26, 1942, she was sunk by a torpedoed from German submarine U-663 off of St. John's, Newfoundland.
Pocahontas Fuel Company operated mines in the state of Virginia in Boissevain and Amonate, and in West Virginia at Jenkinjones, Bishop, and Itmann. Pocahontas Fuel Company founded the Pocahontas Consolidated Collieries Company in 1907. In 1956 Pocahontas was acquired by the Consolidation Coal Company. Consolidation Coal Company became Consol Energy in 1991. Consol Energy mines coal at Amonate. Pocahontas Fuel Company used the Norfolk & Western Railway bring the coal to ports for shipment.
Prudential Steamship Corporation was a shipping company founded in 1933 in New York City by Stephan Stephanidis. Prudential Steamship Corporation operated the Prudential Lines. Prudential Lines main routes was from the United States to Mediterranean ports. The Prudential Lines was never successful and was always near bankruptcy. Prudential Lines was active in supporting the World War II efforts. At its peak in the 1960s Prudential Lines owned and operated two tankers, and five cargo ships. In 1960 the Prudential Steamship Corporation was sold to Spyros Skouras and his family. In 1969 the Prudential Lines merged with Grace Lines, which continued to operate the fleet as the Prudential Grace Line.
Sword Line Inc. was a steamship company founded by Charilaos "Charles" G. Poulacos and Abbott Abercrombie in New York City in 1933. Sword Line Inc. had shipping routes from Atlantic ports to and Gulf of Mexico ports. Charilaos "Charles" G. Poulacos and Abbott Abercrombie purchased the ship Eastern Sword in 1932. The Eastern Sword was a 3,785-ton cargo ship built in 1920 at the Uraga Dry Dock Co. Ltd, at Uraga, Japan. The ship sank after being hit by a torpedo from German submarine U-162 on May 4, 1942 twelve miles (19 km) off the coast of Georgetown, Guyana. The Eastern Sword had a crew of 38 and only 13 survived the attack. Sword Line Inc. was active in supporting the World War II effort.
Bernuth-Lembcke Company was a tanker ship transportation company founded in 1918 in New York City by Oscar Max von Bernuth and Carlos Eduardo Lembcke. Earlier Oscar Max von Bernuth founded his own company, Bernuth Corporation, on December 20, 1907, in at Suffolk, New York. Carlos Eduardo Lembcke. Earlier founded his own company, C. Lembeke & Company, in 1889. Bernuth-Lembcke Company were active in supporting the World War II effort, shipping fuel oil.
T. J. Stevenson & Company, Inc. was a shipping firm founded in New York City by Thomas J. Stevenson on December 2, 1935. In 1920 Thomas J. Stevenson started working as a ship broker in New York City. Thomas J. Stevenson's father Henery Stevenson worked as a clerk at a shipping firm in New York City starting in 1910. T. J. Stevenson & Company supported the World War II effort by operating United States owned ships. After the war T. J. Stevenson & Company purchased surplus war cargo ships. Thomas J. Stevenson was born in 1892 and died on January 28, 1968.
R. A. Nicol & Company was a shipping and ship broker company founded in New York City by Robert Alexander Nicol in 1923. Robert Alexander Nicol was born in England in 1880. Robert Alexander Nicol came to the United States in 1906 at the age of 26, from Liverpool, England. In 1290 Robert Alexander Nicol became a naturalized United States citizen. He started in the shipping business by working for the Oriental Navigation Company in New York City in 1916. R. A. Nicol & Company's office was at 17 Battery Place, New York City. R. A. Nicol & Company supported the World War II effort by operating United States owned ships.
