Eastern Steamship Lines

Eastern Steamship Lines was an American shipping concern that operated from 1901 to 1955[1] created through successive mergers by Wall Street financier and speculator Charles Wyman Morse.[2][3][4] The line sailed along the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada, operating out of Boston and New York.

Eastern Steamship Line
IndustryShipping
Founded1901
FounderCharles W. Morse
Defunct1955


Formation of Eastern Steamship Company

Founded by Charles Wyman Morse in 1901

C.W. Morse's father had a large role in the towing business on the Kennebec River in Maine. Charles was already involved in the shipping business while a student at Bowdoin College, and at his graduation in 1877 he had accumulated a sizable capital. After college he went into business with his father and a cousin, Harry F. Morse, forming C.W. Morse & Company and engaging in an extensive business shipping ice and lumber.[5]

After profiting in the creation and sale of substantial holdings known as the "Ice Trust," Morse returned to the realm of shipping in 1901, when he established the Eastern Steamship Company by consolidating the Boston and Bangor Steamship Company, dating from 1834; the Portland Steam Packet Company, organized in 1843; and the International Steamship Company, established in 1859.[6]

Consolidating additional steamship lines 1902-1914

In 1902 Morse acquired control of both overnight steamboat lines on the Hudson River - the People's Line, established in 1835, and the Citizens' Line, established in 1872 - and organized the Hudson Navigation Company to operate them. They were collectively known as the Hudson River Night Line. The People's Line named its new 411-foot steamer C.W. Morse in his honor in 1904.[7] (Morse's uncle James Thomas Morse, his father's brother, was the namesake of the Rockland-Bar Harbor, Maine, steamer J.T. Morse, also built in 1904.[8])

Morse acquired control of the Metropolitan Steamship Company from the Whitney interests in 1906. He organized the Consolidated Steamship Company in January 1907 as a holding company for the Eastern Steamship Company, Metropolitan Steamship Company Clyde Steamship Company and Mallory Steamship Company. Despite an initial announcement of such a sale, Morse failed in an attempt to purchase the Long Island Sound steamers of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.[9] He did, however, acquire control of the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company and the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company in 1907.

He parlayed this success into a prominent role in high finance in New York City.[4] A failure speculating in 1907 led to the collapse of banking interests Morse had acquired driving his steamship lines into receivership, for varying periods, in February 1908.[10][11][12]Indicted by United States District Attorney Henry L. Stimson, Morse was convicted of violations of federal banking laws. He was sentenced to 15 years in the Atlanta federal penitentiary in November 1908 but remained free on appeal.[13]

S.S. Camden

On October 8, 1909, the assets of the Metropolitan Steamship Company were sold at foreclosure sale to John W. McKinnon of Chicago. The company was reincorporated three days later in Maine with Morse as president.[14] The Metropolitan Steamship Company and Maine Steamship Company were consolidated with the Eastern Steamship Company in 1911 to form Eastern Steamship Corporation. This concern went into receivership in 1914 and emerged in 1917 as Eastern Steamship Lines.[15]

Ships in World War I

Many of the Eastern Steamship Fleet served during the War.

Coastal routes from Boston & New York
SS Yarmouth (1926), at Yarmouth NS

After the First World war, Eastern Steamship Line operated a fleet of small ocean liners on routes alternating from Boston to Yarmouth, New York to Norfolk, along with cruises from those port to Bermuda or Nassau.

Ships in World War II

Eastern Steamship Lines served as operator for the War Shipping Administration in World War II. The United States government requisitioned all of the fleets vessels for military duty on both the Atlantic and Pacific.

Post War Fleet: Yarmouth & Evangeline

After the war, only two of Eastern's fleet, the Yarmouth and Evangeline were in condition to return to service. The ships were officially returned to Eastern by the U.S. government in February 1946, and it would take a year to reconvert them to passenger service. The Yarmouth resumed regular service on the Boston to Yarmouth route, while the Evangeline sailed on weekly cruises from New York to Bermuda. The condition of the ship, even after the refit, lead to maintenance issues, along with higher costs of fuel and labor. This would lead to the sailings being canceled after a few months, and the Evangeline was laid up in New York.[16][17]

Reflagging Fleet to Liberia

After a seaman strike in 1950, the American Merchant Marine required better crew accommodation and facilities for all American flagged vessels. Eastern Steamship Lines who was already struggling financially would not be able to afford the required updates, along with the conversion of some of the for-profit passenger cabins into non-profit crew cabins. Eastern Steamship would curtail this requirement by becoming one of the first lines to reflag their vessels to a flag of convenience with the less strict Liberian registry.[16] The line was still able to keep a many of its routes, but without a U.S. registry, it would no longer be allowed to go directly between American ports.

End of Eastern Steamship Line 1955

With ongoing financial troubles the Yarmouth was sold in 1954 to Frank Leslie Fraser of the Miami based McCormick Steamship Corporation for $500,000.[18] The ship was renamed Yarmouth Castle, and sailed within a division of the non-related Eastern Shipping Corporation. The Evangeline took over the Yarmouth's Boston to Yarmouth route during the 1954 summer season.[16] The Canadian government would withdraw its subsidy, after ordering a new ferry MV Bluenose, for the 1955 summer season, which would lead to the end of the Eastern Steamship Line. The Evangeline's final sailing was on September 19, 1954 and the last ship to sail for line.[1] She would be sold to the Eastern Shipping Corporation and would join her former sister for cruises to the Bahamas and Caribbean.[19] The remainder of the Eastern owned piers, and laid up vessel Acadia, would be sold off, and all business would cease by 1955.[20]

Revival of Name: Eastern Steamship Line & Eastern Cruise Lines

The two final ships of the Eastern Steamship Line, Yarmouth(renamed Yarmouth Castle) and Evangeline both ended up sailing for the Eastern Shipping Corporation. They would be joined by the SS Bahamas Star in 1959, and SS Ariadne in November 1960. In May 1961, owner Frank L. Fraser had passed full control to William R. Lovett(of Winn-Dixie supermarkets), with the name being changed to Eastern Steamship Corporation. An "L" for Lovett would replace the "F" for Fraser on the funnel.[21] In 1963 the original Eastern ships would eventually be sold off. The Yarmouth Castle would go to the Chadade Steamship Company, which formed a new subsidiary line, Yarmouth Cruise Line, and the Evangeline sold to Caribbean Cruise Line. The Evangeline would eventually rejoin her sister at Yarmouth Cruise Lines in 1964, after Caribbean Cruise Line went bankrupt.

In 1965, Eastern's owner Lovett would rename the company Eastern Steamship Line, reviving the former company in name only, with no official corporate connection to the 1901 company, but with similar southern cruising routes to its predecessor. In 1968 the line acquired the even larger Miami from the Peninsular & Occidental Steamship Co and renamed her New Bahama Star.

In 1970 The Eastern Steamship Line was bought out by Gotass Larsen, who was one of the owners of the new Royal Caribbean Cruise Line. In 1972 the Adriadne would be sold, and replaced with the larger TSS Emerald Seas, which was purchased from Chandris Line as the Atlantis. In 1981 the company was renamed again to the more modern Eastern Cruise Line. In 1986, Eastern Cruise Line was merged along with Western Cruise Lines and Sundance Cruises to form Admiral Cruises. The line would later be dissolved by partner line Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in 1991, with most of the ships sold off, and the planned new build, Future Seas, being transferred to Royal Caribbean as the Nordic Empress.

Fleet List
Eastern Steamship Fleet 1901-1955
Name Years of Service Route Specifications Notes
Acadia
Bay State
Belfast
Boothbay
Boston
Brandon
Bunker Hill
Calvin Austin
Camden
City of Augusta
City of Bangor
City of Rockland
Evangeline
Yarmouth

Notes
  1. "Sale of Liner Evangeline Furls House Flag of Eastern Steamship; Lowering of Her White 'E' Foreshadows End of Coastal Fleet Touching Ports From Norfolk to Yarmouth". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  2. Druett, Joan (2000). She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea. [Simon and Schuster. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-7432-1437-7. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
  3. Robert F. Bruner and Sean D. Carr, The Panic of 1907. Lessons Learned From the Market's Perfect Storm, pp. 39-40. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2007. ISBN 978-0-470-15263-8
  4. Walter Lord, The Good Years. From 1900 to the First World War, pp. 182–183. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960.
  5. Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XIII, pp. 239–240.
  6. George W. Hilton, The Night Boat, p. 97. Berkeley, California: Howell-North Books, 1968.
  7. Hilton, pp. 120, 132.
  8. Hilton, p. 112.
  9. "Morse Buys Sound Lines From New Haven", The New York Times, February 7, 1907.
  10. "Ask Receivers For Morse Ship Lines. Bondholders Act in Maine, Boston, and This City to Protect Their Interests", The New York Times, January 31, 1908.
  11. Lord, p. 183.
  12. Hilton, pp. 97, 99.
  13. Pringle (1939)
  14. "Morse Heads New Company. Metropolitan Steamship Lines Will Be Incorporated in Maine To-day", The New York Times, October 11, 1909.
  15. Hilton, p. 99.
  16. Crockett, L. Dunbaugh, David, Edwin (1997). Eastern Steamship. Providence, RI: Steamship Historical Society of America. ISBN 0-913423-11-4.
  17. Congress, United States. Reports and Documents.
  18. "LINER YARMOUTH IS REPORTED SOLD; Eastern Company Ship Said to Be Scheduled for Cruise Service Out of Miami". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  19. "Transport News and Notes; Liner Evangeline, Under New Flag, Sets Cruise to Indies--Fire Damages Ship". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  20. "Eastern to Sell Norfolk Holdings Today -- Great Lakes Port Unit Considered". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  21. "Ship Concern Changes Hands". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-06-06.
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