The Munson Steamship Line was founded in 1899 by Walter D. Munson, who built a freight line from
New York to
Havana into a line that encompassed eastern
Cuba,
Mexico, and ports on the
Gulf of Mexico and operated over 60
cargo ships, and becoming the largest ocean freight company on the
Eastern Seaboard. Walter Munson was succeeded first by his son
Carlos, and later by his other son, Frank Munson, shortly after the end of
World War I. The , built by
Maryland Steel in
Baltimore, became the first passenger liner and was employed on the eastern Cuba route. service in 1918–19 Munson acquired a British subsidiary, the Crossburn Steamship Company, with offices in Glasgow. When Britain entered the
First World War in July 1914, Crossburn owned two UK-registered ships:
Mundale, registered in
Swansea, and the newly-built , registered in
Glasgow. Both ships were transferred to the Munson Line's direct ownership and re-registered in New York. Frank Munson, after securing former
German steamships seized in the war, began New York–South America service with (the former
Prinz Joachim of the
Hamburg America Line) in December 1919. , a former
Austro-American Line steamship, and , and , all former
North German Lloyd steamships, were added to the service by the
United States Shipping Board (USSB) soon after. In July 1921, four
Type 535 class ships—, , , and —were assigned to the Munson Line by the USSB (and the former North German Lloyd ships were returned). In 1922,
Martha Washington was returned to Italy after an act of
Congress declared that she belonged to the
Cosulich Line. , built at
New York Shipbuilding of
Camden,
New Jersey, was added to Caribbean service in 1921. In 1925, Munson Line bought outright the USSB ships. In 1931,
Western World ran aground off the coast of
Brazil, where she would remain for four months before finally arriving in New York for repairs. But the
Great Depression dramatically reduced ocean traffic and the company slowly dwindled in size, laying up ships or scrapping them to save the costs of operating them. In June 1934, Munson Steamship Line filed a petition for a reorganization under Section 77B of the Bankruptcy Act. By 1937, the
United States Maritime Commission, a successor to the USSB, had taken over the remaining ships of the troubled line when it declared bankruptcy in 1937. ==Passenger steamships==