An intertwined history
The Black Diamond Steamship Company (BDSC) was established in 1919 following World War I by J.E. Dockendorff. He sought to build a line of passenger and cargo ships.
Meanwhile, the American Diamond Lines was founded at about the same time by the United States Shipping Board (USSB). As noted in an earlier FreightWaves Classics article, the USSB was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act on September 7, 1916. Once the U.S. entered World War I, the...
The U.S. Shipping Board (Shipping Board or USSB) was established on April 16, 1917, as an emergency government agency in accordance with the provisions of the Shipping Act of 1916, which was passed by Congress on September 7, 1916. The corporation’s mandate was to “acquire, maintain and operate a fleet of merchant ships to meet the needs of national defense and foreign and domestic commerce.”
Background
By the 1910s, U.S. vessels had been at a disadvantage to foreign ships and the nation’s...