Ward Line - History

History

The Ward Line evolved from the freight consignment company established by James Otis Ward in New York in 1841. After Ward’s death in 1856, his son James Edward Ward took over and expanded the company, eventually incorporating under the name New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company in 1881. In 1888 the company bought out its main competitor on the Cubans routes, the Alexandre Line, in the process acquiring all of Alexandre’s ships, property, and it Mexican freight contracts and subsidies.

Upon James Edward Ward’s death in 1894, control of the company passed to Henry Prosper Booth. In 1898 all of the Ward Line ships were requisitioned for United States military use during the Spanish-American War. Increased demand for passenger and freight service helped the line modernize its fleet and become a leader in the coastal trade.

In 1907 Consolidated Steamship Lines, a shipping conglomerate of Charles W. Morse, bought the Ward Line for a large sum. When that company went bankrupt the following year, the former subsidiaries of Consolidated, including the Ward Line, joined forces to form the Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Lines (Agwilines) holding company. Common resources were pooled, but each company maintained its own management.

During World War I, two of its newest liners, SS Havana and SS Saratoga, and two new liners under construction, SS Siboney and SS Orizaba, were requisitioned for government use. Saratoga and Havana became United States Navy hospital ships Comfort and Mercy, respectively; Sibony and Orizaba became troop transports under their original names. All but Saratoga/Mercy eventually returned to the line after the war.

In the 1920s, service reductions, poor management, and rehabilitation of its aging fleet nearly bankrupted the company, but subsidies from the United States government helped to resuscitate the company. In 1929 government financing help the Ward Line build two new luxury liners, SS Morro Castle and SS Oriente. With two of the newest liners in the Merchant Marine and relatively low fares, the company was able to weather the early years of the Great Depression relatively well.

In 1934, the Ward Line’s reputation for safety at sea suffered a major setback. On September 8, 1934, Morro Castle caught fire killing 137, a tally that is still the highest death toll of any U.S.-flagged merchant ship. In the months that followed the company suffered a series of further public relations disasters. Havana ran aground near the Bahamas in January 1935, and SS Mohawk a ship chartered by the Ward Line to replace Havana, sank on its initial voyage the same month. The Ward Line name was dropped in favor of Cuba Mail Line to help put these disasters behind the company, but it never truly recovered.

In 1942 all of the company’s remaining passenger liners were requisitioned by the government for use during World War II, none of which were returned to the company. In 1947, Agwilines resurrected the Ward Line name for limited passenger service on converted World War II freighters. This reduced service lasted until 1954, when Agwilines was liquidated as a result of rising fuel prices and competition from airlines.