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American-Hawaiian Steamship Company
	house flag
Company type	Private
Industry	Shipping, transportation
Founded	1899
Defunct	1953 (shipping); 1968 (holding company);
Fate	Bankruptcy
Area served	Transatlantic
Key people	George Dearborn (co-founder); Henry Lapham (co-founder);

The American-Hawaiian Steamship Company was founded in 1899 to carry cargoes of sugar from Hawaii to the United States and manufactured goods back to Hawaii. Brothers-in-law George Dearborn and Lewis Henry Lapham were the key players in the founding of the company. The company began in 1899 with three ships, operated nine by 1904 and was operating seventeen by 1911 with three on order.^[1]

At the time of the company's founding, its steamships sailed around South America via the Straits of Magellan to reach the East Coast ports. By 1907, the company began using the Mexican Isthmus of Tehuantepec Route.^[1] Shipments on the Tehuantepec Route would transship at Atlantic Port of Coatzacoalcos (formerly Puerto) or the Pacific Port of Salina Cruz and would traverse the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on the 310 kilometres (192.6 mi) Tehuantepec National Railway.^[2]^[3] The contract, binding until completion of the Panama Canal, with American-Hawaiian for its entire cargo moving between oceans and assuring a minimum of 500,000 tons of sugar and other cargo was important in the railway's economic plans from its beginning.^[4] For the steamship line the Tehuantepec route enabled the company to serve both a New York—Honolulu route and a coastal route from Salina Cruz to Pacific ports of the United States.^[5] With new ships to be delivered the company planned to have four 8,000 ton ships on the New York—Coatzacoalcos route, six 12,000 ton ships operating on the Salina Cruz—Honolulu route and two 6,000 ton ships serving the West Coast route.^[6]^[7]

Company ships were used on both the Pacific and Atlantic routes.^[8] When American political troubles with Mexico closed that route, American-Hawaiian returned to the Straits of Magellan route.

When the Panama Canal opened for traffic in August 1914, American-Hawaiian began routing all of its ships via this route. The temporary closure of the canal because of a series of landslides forced the company to return to the Straits of Magellan route for the third time in its history.

During World War I, twelve of the company's ships were commissioned into the United States Navy; a further five were sunk by submarines or mines during the conflict.

Roger Dearborn Lapham, a future mayor of San Francisco, California, served as company president in the mid-1920s.

Ships

SS Nebraskan, built by Bremer Vulcan, Bremen-Vegesack for North German Lloyd in 1912 as Elsass.^[13]^[14] The ship was seized by the United States on 6 April 1917 at Pago Pago, Samoa coming under the control of the United States Shipping Board as Appeles and then renamed Kermit in 1920 before acquisition by American-Hawaiian on 5 March 1920 for the price of $538,881.99 and being named Nebraskan.^[13]^[14]^[15] On 9 February 1942 the ship was delivered by American-Hawaiian to the War Shipping Administration (WSA) for operation under United States Army Transportation Corps charter with American-Hawaiian as the WSA agent, until title was transferred to WSA on 2 December for delivery of the ship under Lend Lease to the Soviet Union where the ship became Sukhona until return to the WSA on 6 April 1944.^[14] Returned to the Nebraskan name the ship was allocated to the Army on 17 October 1944 until returned for layup in the Wilmington Reserve Fleet on 17 October 1946.^[14] The ship was used by the Army in the Pacific as a floating mobile warehouse.^[14]
SS Ohioan
SS Oregonian
SS Panaman
SS Pennsylvanian
SS Texan
SS Virginian
SS Washingtonian

World War II

In World War II the company operated ships under the War Shipping Administration, some of which were company owned and taken over by WSA as was Nebraskan, and others wartime built and delivered directly to WSA for operation by commercial agents.^[16]

Alaskan November 28, 1942 torpedoed, 7 crew and one 1 US Navy Armed Guard killed
Albert Gallatin January 2, 1944 torpedoed
American June 11, 1942 torpedoed
Arkansan June 15, 1942 torpedoed
Benjamin Goodhue
Chanute Victory
Coloradan October 9, 1942 torpedoed
Harrison Gray Otis August 4, 1943 mined while at anchor
Honolulan July 22, 1942 torpedoed
Illinoian July 28, 1944 scuttled as breakwater, Omaha Beach
John Drake Sloat
John Milledge
Kentuckian August 12, 1944 scuttled as breakwater, Normandy
Logan Victory April 6, 1945, sunk by kamikaze
Marine Eagle.^[17]
Montanan June 3, 1943 torpedoed
Ohioan May 8, 1942 torpedoed
Oklahoman April 8, 1942 torpedoed
Oregonian September 13, 1942 torpedoed
Pennsylvanian August 4, 1944 scuttled as breakwater, Omaha Beach
Puerto Rican March 9, 1943 torpedoed
San Juan November 11, 1943 torpedoed
Texan March 11, 1942 torpedoed & shelled
Washingtonian April 7, 1942 torpedoed
William D. Burnham November 23, 1944 torpedoed
William M. Marcy August 7, 1944 torpedoed

After World War II

In the 1950s the company ceased sailing operations and was taken over by Daniel K. Ludwig, who used it as a holding company into the 1960s. Ventures at that time included the development of Westlake Village, California.^[18]^[19]

References

^ ^a ^b Johnson 1912, p. 8.
^ Heubner 1914, p. 102.
^ Hovey, p. 84.
^ Hovey, pp. 82, 83.
^ Hovey, p. 82.
^ Hovey, pp. 82, 84.
^ "American-Hawaiian Steamship Co". Archived from the original on 2013-12-14. Retrieved 2011-06-14.
^ Heubner 1914.
^ "Coloradan". uboat.net. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
^ "Empire Hawksbill". uboat.net. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
^ "Honolulan". uboat.net. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
^ Lloyd's Register 1930–31.
^ ^a ^b schiffe-maxim.de.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Maritime Administration: Nebraskan.
^ San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park: Roger D. Lapham photograph collection.
^ From Hell Hole to High Tech: Historical Highlights, Pacific Coast Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders and Wipers Association Affiliated with the Seafarers' International Union AFL-CIO. Pacific Coast Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders and Wipers Association, 1983 - Merchant mariners, page 40
^ MARAD Vessel History Database—Vessel Status Cards.
^ Watts, Ian (2009-10-23). "hawse pipe: American-Hawaiian Steamship Company". hawse pipe. Retrieved 2015-03-15.
^ Colvin, Richard Lee (1992-08-29). "Shipping Magnate Who Created Westlake Dies". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2015-03-15.

Bibliography

Cochran, Thomas C.; Ray Ginger (December 1954). "The American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, 1899–1919". The Business History Review. 28 (4). Boston: The President and Fellows of Harvard College: 343–365. doi:10.2307/3111801. JSTOR 3111801. OCLC 216113867. S2CID 154716297.
Hovey, Edmund Otis (1907). "The Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Tehuantepec National Railway". Bulletin of the American Geographical Society. 39 (January 1, 1907). Retrieved 10 February 2015.
Heubner, S. S. (September 1914). "Steamship Line Agreements and Affiliations in the American Foreign and Domestic Trade". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 55. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
Johnson, Emory R. (1912). The Relation of the Panama Canal to the Traffic and Rates of American Railroads. United States Senate Reports. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.
Lloyds. "Lloyd's Register" (PDF). Lloyd's Register (through PlimsollShipData). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 February 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
Maritime Administration. "Nebraskan". Ship History Database Vessel Status Card. U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration. Archived from the original on 11 February 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
Maritime Administration. "MARAD Vessel History Database". U.S. Department of Transportation, Maritime Administration. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. "A guide to the Roger D. Lapham photograph collection, 1892-1956". Online Archive of California. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
schiffe-maxim.de. "Elsass (1912–1948)". Retrieved 10 February 2014.