The Scandinavian America Line (Skandinavien-Amerika-Linien) was founded in 1898, when Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskap (DFDS) took over the steamship company Thingvalla Line. The passenger and freight service between Scandinavia and New York City was operated under the name Scandinavian America Line until 1935.
DFDS is a Danish international shipping and logistics company. The company's name is an abbreviation of Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab. DFDS was founded in 1866, when C.F. Tietgen merged the three biggest Danish steamship companies of that day.
SSNorge was a transatlantic ocean liner that was launched in 1881 in Scotland, and lost in 1904 off Rockall with great loss of life. Her final voyage was from Copenhagen, Kristiania and Kristiansand, bound for New York, carrying passengers many of whom were emigrants. It was the biggest civilian maritime disaster in the Atlantic Ocean until the sinking of Titanic eight years later, and is still the largest loss of life from a Danish merchant ship.
SS Albert M. Boe is a Liberty ship laid down on 11 July 1945 at the East Yard of New England Shipbuilding Corporation in Portland, Maine, as a boxed aircraft transport. The ship is notable as the final liberty ship built.
SS Clara Barton was a standard Liberty ship, Type EC2-S-C1, built by the California Shipbuilding Corporation, Terminal Island, for the United States Maritime Commission and delivered to the War Shipping Administration (WSA) for operation as allocated by WSA during World War II. She was named after Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross. The ship survived the war only to suffer the same fate as nearly all other Liberty ships that survived did; she was scrapped in 1970.
SS Russell A. Alger,, was a Liberty ship named after Russell A. Alger, a Michigan Senator, Governor and U.S. Secretary of War.
DFDS Seaways is a Danish shipping company that operates passenger and freight services across northern Europe. Following the acquisition of Norfolkline in 2010, DFDS restructured its other shipping divisions into the previously passenger-only operation of DFDS Seaways.
Harry L. Glucksman was a 7,198 GRT Liberty ship built by the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation of Savannah, Georgia, launched on 29 April 1944, delivered to the War Shipping Administration 20 May 1944, and sailing in convoy from New York to the United Kingdom on 10 June. The ship was laid up 29 May 1948 with two withdrawals from reserve 20 November 1951 – 9 June 1952 and 29 November 1956 – 31 March 1958, the second withdrawal for transporting coal to Europe. The ship remained in reserve until transferred permanently to the United States Navy which completely gutted the ship in a conversion to become a "device," designated Minesweeper, Special, MSS-1, for the Atlantic Fleet Mine Force research and development project intended to develop an unsinkable hull equipped with magnetic coils to increase its magnetic signature for the detonation of magnetic mines and using its hull pressure to detonate pressure mines. MSS-1 was placed out of service 15 March 1973 and returned to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) for disposal on 2 September 1975.
USS Pontiac (AF-20) was the Danish refrigerated cargo ship Australian Reefer that sought refuge in the neutral United States when Germany occupied Denmark in April 1940. In 1941 the United States seized 40 Danish ships idle in its ports with Australian Reefer being among those ships.
USS Mizar (AF-12) was the United Fruit Company fruit, mail and passenger liner Quirigua that served as a United States Navy Mizar-class stores ship in World War II.
USS Uranus (AF-14) was a Uranus-class stores ship bareboat chartered to the U.S. Navy by the War Shipping Administration for use in World War II. The ship was one of the Danish vessels idled in U.S. ports seized by the United States after the occupation of Denmark by German forces. The ship was the Danish J. Lauritzen A/S line vessel Maria, ex Caravelle, ex Helga until chartered to the Navy and commissioned on 11 August 1941 under the name Uranus.
USS Roamer (AF-19) was the Danish refrigerated motorship African Reefer, completed 1935, of the J. Lauritzen shipping company which had put in at Madeira after Germany occupied Denmark. The ship later sailed to a U.S. port on assurances it would be treated equally with U.S. vessels chartered for war purposes. Instead it was seized by the United States Maritime Commission and placed in service under War Shipping Administration (WSA) allotment to commercial, Army transport and finally Navy use at half the rate paid for U.S. ships. The agreed to rate was not restored until 1958 after a Supreme Court judgement and Congressional action.
The Type C4-class ship were the largest cargo ships built by the United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) during World War II. The design was originally developed for the American-Hawaiian Lines in 1941, but in late 1941 the plans were taken over by the MARCOM.
Pompeji was a 2,917 GRT cargo ship which was built in 1939 by Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, Flensburg, Germany. She was seized as a war prize in 1945 and renamed Empire Blackwater. Ownership passed to the British Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and then the United States Maritime Commission (USMC). In 1949 she was sold to a Danish company and renamed Krusaa. She was sold in 1960 to a Finnish company and renamed Krucia and later Helvi. In 1969 she was sold to a Panamanian company and renamed Eastern Faith. She was scrapped in 1975.
USAT Cuba was the passenger ship Cuba of the Peninsular & Occidental Steamship Company built by William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company, Philadelphia in 1920 and placed into operation in 1921 for scheduled passenger and freight service between Tampa, Key West and Havana.
The SS Harry Luckenbach, built as a cargo ship ordered by the Luckenbach Steamship Company and built at Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1919. The as yet unnamed ship was requisitioned by the United States Shipping Board (USSB) before completion and converted to a troop transport. The USSB allocated the ship, which had been fitted out with temporary troop accommodation in its cargo spaces, to the Navy which commissioned the ship on 7 July 1919 as USS Sol Navis with the Identification number 4031A. The ship was decommissioned October 1919 after two trips to France.
SS Algarve was a Danish cargo steamship that was built in 1921 for DFDS. After Germany invaded Denmark in April 1940 Algarve was transferred to the UK Ministry of War Transport. In 1941 an E-boat sank her with all hands in the North Sea.
SS Lake Elsmere was an Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) Design 1074 cargo ship built for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) during the massive shipbuilding effort of World War I.
USAT Sicilien was the Danish motor vessel MS Sicilien built in 1938. After Germany occupied Denmark 9 April 1940 Danish ships were considered enemy ships by Britain and France and subject to seizure. Sicilien was one of forty that sought refuge in the neutral United States. On 30 March 1941 those ships were seized by the United States and requisitioned on 23 July 1941. The ship was then turned over to the United States Army for operation as a United States Army Transport.
MS Torrens was a Norwegian cargo motor ship built in 1939 by Kockums Mek.Verksted AB., Malmö, Sweden, for Wilhelm Wilhelmsen, Tønsberg, Norway. In 1940, after the German invasion of Norway, the ship operated for the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission (Nortraship) in London. Voyages in early 1940 involved U.S. Atlantic ports and the Philippines, China and Japan. By mid 1940 the operations tended to be out of U.S. Pacific coast ports, with occasional visits to the Atlantic, to the same destinations. The same pattern repeated in 1941.
