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.
General Steamship Company was founded in 1920 in Houston, Texas, as a Private Company, and now goes by Gensteam since 1996. General Steamship Company has a fleet of cargo ships that operate worldwide. Gensteam has a Gensteam Operations Desk website that tracks all shipping logistics. Gensteam headquarters is now in San Francisco, California. General Steamship Company was part owner of American Pacific Steamship Company in New York state and Los Angeles during and post World War II. American Pacific Steamship Company was founded in 1942 in New York City, and was previously called Los Angeles Tanker Operators Inc. which operated T2 tanker ships. During World War II the General Steamship Company and American Pacific Steamship Company were active with charter shipping with the Maritime Commission and War Shipping Administration.
A. H. Bull Steamship Company was a shipping company and passenger liner service founded in New York City in 1902 by Archibald H. Bull (1848-1920). Service started with shipping between New York and Florida. His fleet of ships then added service to other Eastcoast ports. The company is also often called the Bull Lines and the Bull Steamship Line or A. H. Bull & Company. While founded in New York, Bull soon move its headquarter to Peir 5 in Baltimore, Maryland. Bull Lines main Eastcoast ports were: Baltimore, Charleston, Philadelphia, Tampa and Norfolk, Virginia. Oversea ports: Porto Rico, Antwerp, Bordeaux, Hamburg, Bremen, Copenhagen, and West Africa. Bull Steamship Line supported the US war effort for both World War I and World War II, including the loss of ships.
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.
Mystic Steamship Company, also known a Boston Tow Boat Company was a Boston, Massachusetts shipping company. Named after the Mystic River. The company was founded in 1854 as the T-Wharf Towing Company. Boston Tow Boat Company was an operator of ship salvaging, icebreaker shipping, and a tugboat operator. The other major operation was transporting coal. Mystic Steamship Company operated collier ships and coal barges. Coal was load at Newport News, Virginia and delivery to New York Harbor, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Mystic Steamship Company was also a bulk grain transporter. Eastern Gas & Fuel Associates purchased and ran Mystic Steamship Company. Eastern Gas & Fuel Associates is now Eastern Enterprises. T-Wharf Towing Company merged into the Boston Gas Eastern Enterprises Incorporated, its parent company on June 30, 1917. Boston Gas Eastern Enterprises reformed the shipping lines as the Boston Towboat Company Incorporated. Boston Fuel Transportation Company purchased Boston Towboat Company in 1985. Boston Fuel renamed the company the Boston Towing and Transportation Companies. In 1940, the company became the Mystic Steamship, a Division of Eastern Gas and Fuel Associates.
Merchants and Miners Transportation Company, often called M&M and Queen of Sea, was a major cargo and passenger shipping company founded in 1852 in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1852 is started with routes from Baltimore and Boston two wooden side wheelers ships. In 1859 M&M added two iron hulled steamers to its fleet. In 1866, post Civil War, M&M added routes to Providence, Rhode Island, Norfolk and Savannah, Georgia. In 1876 M&M purchased the Baltimore & Savannah Steamship Company add routes to Savannah, Jacksonville and Charleston. In 1907 the Winsor Line of Philadelphia's J. S. Winslow & Company of Portland, Maine was purchased, with seven steamships. The Winsor Line was founded in 1884 by J. S. Winslow. The Winsor Line first route was from Norfolk, Virginia to New England ports, supplying West Virginia coal. The Winsor Line sailing ship Addie M. Lawrence took ammunition to Europe during World War I. By World War II M&M had a fleet of 18 ships and add routes to Miami. With the outbreak of World War II the War Shipping Administration requisitioned Merchants and Miners Transportation Company fleet of ships for the war effort.
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, were 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.
Polarus Steamship Company was founded in 1918, and again in 1923 in New York City by Tikhon Nicholas Agapeyeff (1891-1931). Tikhon N. Agapeyeff's 1918 frim, operated for only about two years. In March 1921, Agapeyeff sold the first Polarus Steamship Company to the C. M. Fetterolf Company for $250,000. The next incorporation in 1923 was a partnership of Agapeyeff, Marcel Levy, and Charles S. Dunaif. Marcel Levy was an attorney and Charles S. Dunaif was an exporter.
Pope & Talbot, Inc. was a lumber company and shipping company founded by Andrew Jackson Pope and Frederic Talbot in 1849 in San Francisco, California. Pope and Talbot came to California in 1849 from East Machias, Maine. Pope & Talbot lumber company was very successful, with the high demand of the 1849 Gold Rush.
Alaska Transportation Company was founded on April 5, 1898 in Seattle, Washington by Andrew F. Burleigh (1846-1907) and George W. Dickinson. Alaska Transportation Company was formed to cash in on the gold rush happening around Dawson City and Nome in Canada, known as the Klondike Gold Rush. Klondike Gold Rush peaked between 1896 and 1899 in Klondike, Yukon. Alaska Transportation Company sold shares in the company to raise funds to build a ship to travel up the Yukon River. The ship would depart from Puget Sound ports. Moran Brothers Company of Seattle got the contact to built the nine steamships to be used. Alaska Transportation Company headquarters was at Pier 58 in Seattle. Both Andrew F. Burleigh and George W. Dickinson had previously worked for the Northern Pacific Railway as attorneys. Andrew F. Burleigh had a short law partnership with James B. Metcalfe and Charles W. Turner. Captain James Griffiths worked at Alaska Transportation Company before starting his own firm James Griffiths & Sons, Inc. In 1896 Andrew F. Burleigh founded the Yukon Company to operate ships and barges on the Yukon River. Alaska Transportation Company did not purchase surplus World War II ships, with an aged fleet of ships and competition from the Alaska Highway opened in 1942, the company closed in 1948.
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.
W. R. Chamberlin & Company was a lumber and shipping company founded in 1915 by William Richmond Chamberlin in the Balboa Building in San Francisco, California. W. R. Chamberlin & Company main business was selling, brokering and shipping lumber and timber products from Portland, Oregon to the growing city of San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay area. By 1928 Chamberlin has four steamships to transport his lumber: the Barbara C, Phyllis, Stanwood, and W. R. Chamberlin, Jr. W. R. Chamberlin & Company was active in supporting the World War II efforts. W. R. Chamberlin & Company's ship the SS W.R. Chamberlin Jr put into service in the United States Navy and renamed USS Tackle (ARS-37). USS Tackle was damaged by an exploding mine on September 4, 1943 and too damaged to be repaired. Before founded W. P. Chamberlin & Company, Chamberlin Chamberlin was president of Byxbee & Clark Company, a lumber company in San Francisco.
Overlakes Freight Corporation was shipping agent company founded in New York City on April 21, 1932, by William M. Nicholson. Overlakes Freight Corporation operated Liberty Ships during and for post World War II efforts. Most of Overlakes Freight Corporation ships were purchased by the War Shipping Administration for the war. Nicholson also owned the Nicholson Universal Steamship Company, Nicholson, Erie, Dover, Ferry Line, Nicholson Terminal & Dock Company, Aqua Terminal & Dock Corporation and the Nicholson Transit Company.
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.
William J. Rountree Company was a steamship agent and broker company founded by William J. Rountree in New York City in 1912. William J. Rountree Company was active in supporting the World War II effort by chartering and operating Liberty ships and Victory ships.
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.
American Petroleum Transport Corporation was an oil shipping company founded in New York City in 1936. Daniel K. Ludwig was President of American Petroleum Transport Corporation. In 1939 American Petroleum Transport Corporation operated eight tanker ships from the Gulf of Mexico to Hatteras, North Carolina. American Petroleum Transport Corporation was active in supporting the World War II efforts. Some tanker ships American Petroleum Transport Corporation operated were sunk by German U-boat submarines. Daniel K. Ludwig founded in 1936 the company National Bulk Carriers.
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.
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.
Sieling & Jarvis Inc. was a shipping company that operated tanker ships and some cargo ships. Sieling & Jarvis was started by David B. Jarvis and Dick Sieling in New York City. Later David B. Jarvis was the company president and later became the sole owner of Sieling & Jarvis Inc. Mr. Sieling was the vice president and a partner in Sieling & Jarvis. Sieling & Jarvis supported the World War II effort by operating United States owned ships.
