States Steamship Company, also called States Line and SSS, was started in 1928 by Charles Dant, in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

and later moved to the headquarters to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Dant started the States Steamship Company to take his lumber product to market. He had a fleet of lumber schooners. Dant started by leasing ships from the

United States Shipping Board The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was a corporation established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729), on September 7, 1916. The United States Shipping Board's task was to increase the number of US ships supporting ...

Emergency Fleet Corporation The Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) was established by the United States Shipping Board, sometimes referred to as the War Shipping Board, on 16 April 1917 pursuant to the Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729) to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant shi ...

and founded the Columbia Pacific Steamship Company in 1919, Columbia Pacific Steamship Company routes were between Portland,

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. In 1928 Dant merged the Columbia Pacific Steamship Company into the States Steamship Company. The Europe route ended in 1932 and the ship moved to a

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

route. With the shift to

container shipping Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers, or ISO containers). Containerization, also referred as container stuffing or container loading, is the process of uni ...

in the 1960s and Dant's fleet of ships becoming older and obsolete, the company into bankruptcy in 1979. States Line operated four subsidies: Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Company, California Eastern Line founded in 1937 for lumber shipping, Oregon Oriental Line and the Quaker Line. Charles Dant was a major stock holder in the China Import and Export Lumber Company, which had a large sawmill plant in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. The Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Company was active with charter shipping with the

Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 1950. The c ...

and

War Shipping Administration The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the United States needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime C ...

for

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Company also operated charter shipping for the Korea War and

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

States Steamship Company flag

In 1928 Charles Dant pick the

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

( at that time symbol of good luck until the 1930s) for this ship's flags. The red flag had a black upright swastika on it. After

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

picked the swastika for the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

flag in 1937, Dant was forced to change his flag to avoid associations with a state hostile to the United States. The first flag was blue and white with a red vertical stripe at the pole and was used until the 1950s. The swastikas painted on the

funnels A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its constructi ...

have been replaced by a white

sun cross A sun cross, solar cross, or wheel cross is a solar symbol consisting of an equilateral cross inside a circle. The design is frequently found in the symbolism of prehistoric cultures, particularly during the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods of ...

on a blue background. In the 1950s, the logo and flag was changed to a red

seahorse A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine Osteichthyes, bony fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. The genus name comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meanin ...

between the waves. New logo was ordered in

Walter Landor Walter Joseph Landor (born Walter Landauer, July 9, 1913 – June 9, 1995) was a brand designer and the founder of Landor & Fitch. He was a proponent of branding and consumer research techniques widely used to this day. Landor Associates, Landor ...

Associate and served until the end of the company's existence.

States Steamship Company ships

Die Prinz Eitel Friedrich als bewaffnete USAT Otsego

States Steamship Company ports: San Francisco, Portland,

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

, Shanghai,

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

. * SS ''General Lee'', passenger from United Fruit in 1932 * SS ''General Pershing'', passenger from United Fruit in 1932 * SS ''General Sherman'', passenger from United Fruit in 1932 * SS ''Hakozaki Maru'' * SS ''Terukuni Maru'' * SS ''Haruna Maru'' * SS ''Katori Maru'' * SS ''Yasukuni Maru'' * SS ''Hakone Maru'' * SS ''Fushimi Maru'' * SS ''Kaisar-I-Hind'' * SS ''Chitral'' * SS ''Ranpura'' * SS ''Corfu'' * SS ''Ranchi'' * SS ''Naldera'' * SS ''Carthage'' * SS ''San Clemente'' * SS ''San Rafael'' * SS ''Flomar'' (1919) * SS ''President Monroe'' * SS ''President Van Buren'' * SS ''President Polk'' * SS ''President Adams'' * SS ''President Hayes'' * SS ''President Wilson'' * SS ''President Garfield'' * SS ''Gneisenau'' * SS ''Potsdam'' * SS ''Scharnhorst'' * SS ''Ramses'' * SS ''Christiaan Huygens'' * SS ''Johan van Oldenbarnevelt'' * SS ''Johan de Witt'' * SS ''Marnix van St. Aldegonde'' * SS ''Colorado'' * SS ''Montana'' * SS ''Idaho'' * SS ''Nevada'', sank * SS ''Wyoming'' * SS ''Michigan'', sank off Philippines in storm. * SS ''California'' (1961) * '' Empire State VI'' * SS ''Hawaii'' * SS ''M.M. Dant'' * SS ''Arizona'' * SS ''Pennsylvania'' (1944) * SS ''Illinois'', June 1, 1942 torpedoed * SS ''Oregon'', Feb. 28, 1942 shelled by submarine * SS "Ohio", Unknown * SS ''C.E. Dant'' * SS ''Washington'' (1941) * SS ''San Angela'' *''San Felipe'' (1919)

Quaker Line and California Eastern Line

Quaker Line and California Eastern ships: * ''San Simeon'' * SS ''San Marcos'' * SS ''San Diego'' * SS ''San Lucas'' * SS ''San Vincente'' * SS ''San Rafael'' * SS ''San Anselmo'' * SS ''San Domingo'' * SS ''San Gabriel'' * SS ''San Clemente'' * SS ''San Felipe'' * SS ''San Bernardino'' * SS ''California'', torpedoed on Aug. 13, 1942 * SS ''Illinois'' * SS ''Iowa'' (1920), sank, all crew lost. * SS ''Kentucky'', torpedoed on Sept. 18, 1942 * SS ''Laruel'', sank in 1929 on Columbia River with load with lumber.

Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Company

Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Company Chartered ships:

Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by American shipyards during World War II. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slightly larger and had more powerful steam turbine engin ...
s

*''Alma Victory'' *''Billings Victory'' *SS ''Boise Victory'' * SS ''Davidson Victory'' *SS ''Drew Victory'' *SS ''Lewiston Victory'' *SS ''Middlesex Victory'' *SS ''Paducah Victory'' *SS ''Wellesley Victory'' *SS ''Saginaw Victory'' * SS ''Iran Victory'' * SS ''Colgate Victory'' * SS ''Nampa Victory''

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...
s

*SS ''Alan Seeger'' *SS ''Jose Pedro Varela'' *SS ''Felix Riesenberg'' *SS ''Allen C. Balch'' *SS ''Robert G. Harper'' *SS ''Felix Riesenberg'' (also to States Line) *SS ''William Allen White'' *SS ''William Sproule'' *SS ''J. D. Ross'' * SS ''Star of Oregon'', Torpedoed and sunk by ''U-162'' off

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

*SS ''Jack London'' *SS ''James Devereaux'' *SS ''Nathaniel Hawthorne'', was torpedoed on Nov. 7, 1942 *SS ''Henry Adams'' *SS ''Lucien La Baudt'' * SS ''Henry Bacon'', Torpedoed and sunk by aircraft in Barents Sea *SS ''Peter Kerr'', bombed on July 5, 1942 *SS ''Elias Howe'', bombed on Sept. 24, 1943 *SS ''John Sevier'', torpedoed on April 6, 1943 * SS ''Francisco Coronado''

Tanker

* SS ''Mission Solano''

Type C1 ship Type C1 was a designation for cargo ships built for the United States Maritime Commission before and during World War II. Total production was 493 ships built from 1940 to 1945. The first C1 types were the smallest of the three original Maritim ...

* SS ''Rose Knot'' (post war)

External links

Liberty Ships built by the United States Maritime Commission in World War II

References

{{Authority control Transport companies established in 1919 Defunct shipping companies of the United States 1979 disestablishments in California Transport companies disestablished in 1979 1928 establishments in Oregon