Metropolitan Steamship Company
The Metropolitan Steamship Company was for half a century one of the chief transportation links between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts. It was closely associated with the Whitney family until its acquisition by Charles W. Morse in 1902.
The Metropolitan Steamship Company was established by Boston business interests soon after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 to operate steamships on the "outside route" between Boston and New York City around Cape Cod. Elected president of the company was Brigadier General James Scollay Whitney, who had been collector of customs for the Port of Boston in 1860-61.[1]
In 1866 Whitney's son, Henry Melville Whitney, joined the company as agent at Boston.[2] Other members of the family eventually became interested in the company, including Henry's younger brother, William Collins Whitney, and their brothers-in-law, Henry F. Dimock and Charles T. Barney.
Upon the death of James Whitney on October 24, 1878, Henry Whitney was elected his successor as president of the steamship line. In addition, he retained the office of agent at Boston.[3]
While on her customary route from New York to Boston the steamer H.F. Dimock collided with William K. Vanderbilt's yacht, the Alva, in the Vineyard Sound in July 1892, sinking the Alva. Captain Morrison of the Alva filed suit against the H.F. Dimock, but both the United States District Court for Massachusetts and the United States Supreme Court ruled against him.[4]
When the Joy Steamship Company established its New York City-Providence, Rhode Island service in 1899, the company also instituted freight-only service between New York and Boston. The Joy Line was acquired by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1906, ending its freight service to Boston.[5]
Charles W. Morse acquired control of the Metropolitan Steamship Company in 1902, placing ity under the Consolidated Steamship Company in 1905. In 1907 the steamers Harvard and Yale were built for the line. Three other modern steamers, the Massachusetts, Bunker Hill and Old Colony, were purchased in 1908 from the Maine Steamship Company, a New York, New Haven and Hartford subisidary.[6]
Morse crashed in the Panic of 1907. In 1910 the Harvard andYale were sold to the Pacific Navigation Company for service between San Francisco and Los Angeles; later they were operated on the same route by the Los Angeles Steamship Company.[7]
In 1911 the Metropolitan Steamship Company and the Maine Steamship Company were consolidated with the Eastern Steamship Company to form the Eastern Steamship Corporation. The line went into receivership in 1914, but emerged in 1917 as Eastern Steamship Lines. Service on Eastern's Metropolitan Line was maintained until November 1941.[8]
- ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. X, p. 154. New York: James T. White & Company, 1909. Reprint of 1900 edition.
- ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. X, p. 155.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ "The Alva-Dimock decision", The New York Times, January 5, 1893.
- ^ George W. Hilton, The Night Boat, p. 89. Berkeley, California: Howell-North Books, 1968.
- ^ Hilton, pp. 238-239, 99, 111, 236-237.
- ^ Hilton, pp. 236-245.
- ^ Hilton, pp. 99-100.