The story
1920s
United States Lines was the trade name of the United States Shipping Board's Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) organization created to operate the large German liners seized by the United States in 1917. By 1925 the corporation operated ex-German liners Leviathan, George Washington, America, Republic and the USSB built ships President Roosevelt and President Harding in service between New York and Europe. On 15 November 1921 the line began operating from piers 3 and 4 at the USSB's Hoboken Terminal which had been the Hamburg America Line facilities in Hoboken, New Jersey seized by the United States and, during the war, operated by the Army as the Hoboken Port of Embarkation. The USSB engaged in advertising of the line and its ships through agencies using a "coupon" system to collect names and addresses of interested persons for direct mailings. All the line's funds were managed by the USSB Treasurer.
The line started with three ships from the tonnage of the failed United States Mail Steamship Company. One of the founders was Kermit Roosevelt, son of US President Theodore Roosevelt. Two of the ships, America and George Washington, were originally German vessels that had been seized during World War I and kept as reparations. Both America and George Washington made New York–Bremen runs, while Centennial State ran from New York to London.
The line became well known in the 1920s when two valiant historic rescues were made using their ships President Roosevelt in 1926 and America in 1929 by Captain George Fried.
More ships were acquired in 1922 and renamed after US presidents. The 52,000-ton Leviathan, formerly Vaterland and one of the largest liners in the world, was acquired in 1923.
Throughout the 1920s, the line accumulated debt, and in March 1929, the line was sold to P.W. Chapman Company, and reorganized as the "United States Lines Inc." of Delaware. The stock market crash made matters worse, and in 1931, the remaining ships were sold to "United States Lines Company" of Nevada. Later in 1931, United States Lines was acquired by the Roosevelt International Mercantile Marine Company, which had been formed earlier in the year from the merger of the Roosevelt Steamship Company and International Mercantile Marine Co.
1930s
In 1932, Manhattan, at a cost of approximately $21 million, became the first ship actually built for the line, followed the next year by Washington. In 1940, a new America joined them.
In 1932, United States Lines had offered to build a new passenger liner, called U.S. Express Liner, which would also double as a mail ship, and would dramatically decrease the time of delivery for trans-Atlantic mail by catapulting an aircraft when it was within range. Congress refused to give a guarantee on trans-Atlantic postal rates and it was never built.
During the 1930s, United States Lines' ailing parent company, Roosevelt International Mercantile Marine, began winding down its other operations and merging several of its divisions into United States Lines. United States Lines absorbed the American Merchant Lines in 1931, the American Line in 1932, and the Baltimore Mail Line in 1937.
Read the full text
1940s
The decade started with United States Lines absorbing the Roosevelt Line in 1940, leaving United States Lines as Roosevelt International Mercantile Marine's sole operating business. Roosevelt International Mercantile Marine Company finally changed its name to "United States Lines Inc." in 1942, reflecting its new focus.
In World War II, the ships were converted into troopships. Manhattan became USS Wakefield, and Washington became USS Mount Vernon. The flagship America became the USS West Point After the war, the company began to build smaller and cheaper ships, and operated a number of cargo ships, all named beginning with "American" or "Pioneer".
Duquesne Spy Ring
In 1941, two Nazi spies, Franz Joseph Stigler and Erwin Wilhelm Siegler, worked for United States Lines as members of SS America's crew. While on America, they obtained information about the movement of ships and military defense preparations at the Panama Canal, observed and reported defense preparations in the Canal Zone, and met with other German agents to advise them in their espionage pursuits. They operated as couriers, transmitting information between the United States and German agents aboard. Stigler worked undercover as the chief butcher. Both remained on America until the US Navy converted her into USS West Point.
Stigler and Siegler, along with the 31 other German agents of the Duquesne Spy Ring, were later uncovered by the FBI in the largest espionage conviction in US history. Stigler was sentenced to serve 16 years in prison on espionage charges with two concurrent years for registration violations; Siegler was sentenced to ten years imprisonment on espionage charges and a concurrent 2-year term for violation of the Registration Act.
From Wikipedia’s article on United States Lines, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4