United_States_Navigation_Co.,_Inc.
United States Navigation Company
Former Shipping Company
United States Navigation Company was founded by Edward Carl Wilhelm Oelsner (1888-1973) in New York City in 1917. Oelsner was a Prussian-born German (born in Bialystok, Podlaskie, Poland), who came to America in 1908. In 1915 became a manager of the Hamburg America Line's New York office. In 1917 he became a steamship broker, he then founded his own steamship brokerage firm, United States Navigation Company. United States Navigation Company's first clients were the Hamburg-American Line and North German Lloyd Line. Next Oelsner entered into a joint venture with Biehl & Company chartering ships that serviced the Gulf of Mexico ports. United States Navigation Company when went from just a shipbroker to a ship owner, with the purchase of 1885 SS City of Salisbury, a 397-ton cargo ship. On March 7, 1973, Oelsner died, he and his wife, Eva, were on vacation in Torremolinos, Spain. United States Navigation Company continued doing business. In 1979 the United States Navigation Company was sold and in 1981 closed. The United States Navigation Company supported the World War II effort with its ship and as an operator of United States owned ships.[4][5][6]
United States Navigation Company was a US broker for a number of shipping lines:[7]
- A partial list of Lines:
- Hamburg-American Line, of Germany
- North German Lloyd, of Germany
- Watts Line, of UK, of Watts, Watts & Co. Ltd.
- Reardon-Smith Line, of UK
- Iino Kaiun Kaisha, Ltd., of Japan
- Baron Line, of Scotland's H. Hogarth & Company
- K Line, of Japan, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd.
- Kousal line