International Mercantile Marine Co.
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The International Mercantile Marine Co., originally the International Navigation Co., was a trust company formed in the early twentieth century as an attempt to monopolize the shipping trades. It was founded by shipping magnates Clement Griscom of the American Line and Red Star Line, Bernard Baker of the Atlantic Transport Line, J. Bruce Ismay of the White Star Line, and John Ellerman of the Leyland Line. The Dominion Line was also amalgamated. The project was bankrolled by the House of Morgan, led by financier J. Pierpont Morgan. The company also had working profit-sharing relationships with the German Hamburg-Amerika Line and the North German Lloyd lines. The trust caused a great panic in the British shipping industry and led directly to the British government's subsidy of the Cunard Line's new ships RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania in an effort to compete. However, the new company had dramatically overpaid for acquiring stock due to an overestimation of potential profit and a proposed subsidy bill in the U.S. Congress failed, and the company thus was never really successful. In 1932 the company was dissolved; Cunard bought the remnants of the White Star Line and the remaining American pieces were amalgamated into United States Lines.
The company is noteworthy in popular history for having owned the RMS Titanic.
[edit] References
- Vale, Vivian (1984), The American Peril: Challenge to Britain on the North Atlantic 1901-04. Manchester, Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-1718-1
