Metropolitan Line
For the 1911 season the Massachusetts, Bunker Hill and Old Colony sailed between New York, Boston and Portland, Maine, for the Maine Steamship Company. In 1911 the Metropolitan Steamship Company and Maine Steamship Company were consolidated with the Eastern Steamship Company to form the Eastern Steamship Corporation. The Massachusetts and Bunker Hill were sent to the Cramp yard in 1912 for the addition of passenger accommodations and conversion to oil fuel. Their sister, the Old Colony, remained coal-fired.
The line went into receivership in 1914, but emerged in 1917 as Eastern Steamship Lines. The company's Boston-New York service, the Metropolitan Line, began using the Cape Cod Canal in 1916. During World War I the James S. Whitney and H.M. Whitney were sold to foreign interests, reportedly for $400,000 each, for ocean service. The H.F. Dimock and Herman Winter were also sold during this period and placed in the banana trade between Mobile, Alabama, and Bocas del Toro, Panama.
After the United States' entry into World War I, the Massachusetts and Bunker Hill were purchased by the United States Navy in 1917 and converted into minelayers as the USS Aroostook (CM-3) (later AK-44) and USS Shawmut (CM-4) (later USS Oglala (CM-4)).
Eastern assigned the steamers Camden, Belfast and North Land to the Metropolitan Line from 1918 to 1925. In 1924 the steamers Boston and New York were built for the service; they were joined at peak periods by the North Land. Sailings on the Metropolitan Line had always been summer-only, but Eastern assigned the steamers George Washington and Robert E. Lee to the route in the off season from 1927 to 1932. When the steamers Saint John and Acadia were built in 1932, Saint John was assigned to the Boston-Saint John, New Brunswick route in the summer, with the Acadia on a new route between New York and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. In the off season both were assigned to the Metropolitan Line.
Service on Eastern's various routes was gradually reduced in the 1930s. The steamer New York left Manhattan on the last sailing of the Metropolitan Line on November 29, 1941.
Read more about this topic: Metropolitan Steamship Company
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