| Isthmian Steamship Company | |
| Foundation: | 1910–1974 |
| Location City: | London, England and New York, USA |
| Services: | Sea transport |
The Isthmian Steamship Company was a shipping company founded by US Steel in 1910.
Isthmian Steamship was the brainchild of US Steel President James A. Farrell, who had connections with the maritime industry through his father's trade as a ship's master. Farrell realized that US Steel could save substantial sums of money by owning its own fleet of freighters, rather than chartering cargo space from other companies. Farrell named the company after the Isthmus of Panama, in honour of America's recent construction achievement, the Panama Canal.
Farrell headquartered Isthmian Steamship in London, partly in order to take advantage of Great Britain's respected name in the industry, and partly to benefit from Britain's long history of maritime experience. Management of the company was assigned to the British Federal Steam Navigation Co Ltd, a company which traced its own origins back as far as 1782 with the British East India Company. The US end of Farrell's new company was managed by the Norton Lilly Agency.
The company's first ship was Bantu, a British steamship launched in 1902 and bought by US Steel from the Bucknall Line in 1910[1] for a reputed £24,000. In 1911 US Steel took delivery of its first newly-built ship,, from William Hamilton and Company in Port Glasgow,[2] and bought second-hand the British tramp ship Kentra.[3]
In 1913 Isthmian added Buenaventura, newly-built by the Northumberland Shipbuilding Company.[4] She was joined in 1914 by another newly-built ship, San Francisco, from the North of Ireland Shipbuilding Company in Derry.[5] Until the First World War broke out in 1914, all Isthmian ships remained registered in Britain.
Isthmian also bought second-hand the entire fleet of Charles G Dunn of Liverpool:, and the twin-stacked cargo liner Crofton Hall all in 1914,[6] [7] [8] followed by in 1915.[9] With the outbreak of the First World War, Farrell re-registered all the company's ships in the then-neutral United States.
On 30 January 1930 Isthmian Steamship Company was organized separately from US Steel which retained the ships Steel Chemist, Steel Electrician, Steelmotor, and Steelvendor. Isthmian Steamship Company acquired the ships:[10]
was bought in 1947, renamed Steel Director, and operated until sold to the States Marine Lines in 1956, where she continued operating under the same name until scrapped in 1971.
The company would continue to expand its operations in the ensuing decades. In 1956 however, the by then highly lucrative company, then under retired Vice admiral Glenn B. Davis, was sold to States Marine Lines. US Steel justified the sale on the grounds that Isthmian's overall usefulness had diminished, as it now carried only a fraction of the corporation's exports.
It continued to operate as a property of States Marine until the early 1970s. Its last list of corporate officers is dated 1974.[15]