The story
The company was founded in 1921 by Stephen D. Stephendis.
The company started when Stephen D. Stephendis bought the Kilpatrick from the U.S. government. He rebuilt the ship, added a second funnel and renamed it the Acropolis. It was sold in 1923 to the Booras Brothers. The second ship, the New York, was chartered from the Irish American Line in 1922 and sailed only once for Stephendis from New York to Constantinople before being sold by auction.
From Wikipedia’s article on American Black Sea Line, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3