The Los Angeles Steamship Company or LASSCO was a passenger and freight shipping company based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Description

The company, formed in 1920, initially provided fast passenger service between Los Angeles and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. In 1921, LASSCO added service to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

in competition with the San Francisco-based

Matson Navigation Company Matson may refer to: *Matson (surname) *Matson, Gloucester, England, a suburb of Gloucester *Matson, Missouri, an unincorporated community *2586 Matson, an asteroid * Matson, Inc., a shipping company, formerly Matson Navigation Company *Matson Film ...

using two former

North German Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of t ...

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...

s that had been in

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

service during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Despite the sinking of one of the former German liners on her maiden voyage for the company, business in the booming 1920s thrived, and the company continued to add ships and services. In 1922, the City of Los Angeles, a renamed and refitted liner, was one of the largest American ships sailing in Pacific waters. The worsening economic conditions in the United States, and the burning of another ship in Hawaii, caused financial problems for the company. After beginning talks in 1930, the Los Angeles Steamship Company was taken over by Matson Navigation on January 1, 1931, but continued to operate as a subsidiary until it ceased operations in 1937.

Ships of the Los Angeles Steamship Company

This is a list of passenger ships of the Los Angeles Steamship Company: * (ex USAT ''Sherman'' 1899–1922, ex S.S. ''Mobile'' of African Steamship Company 1892–1898, Scrapped 1933 at Osaka, Japan) * SS ''City of Honolulu'' (I), sunk in 1922 * SS ''City of Honolulu'' (II), burned in 1930 * * * * *

References

* Defunct shipping companies of the United States Los Angeles Harbor Region Companies based in Los Angeles American companies established in 1920 Transport companies established in 1920 Transport companies disestablished in 1937 1920 establishments in California 1937 disestablishments in California Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles {{US-shipping-company-stub