One of many war-built ships operated by Isbrandtsen and American Export after World War II, the steam-powered C2-S-B1 type Flying Cloud was completed in 1944 by California’s Moore Dry Dock and scrapped under combined American Export-Isbrandtsen colours at Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1972.
TREVOR JONES
Next year will mark the 80th anniversary of the formation of the Isbrandtsen Steamship Company in the United States, later to be combined with the earlier established American Export Lines to create American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines in 1964. Hans Isbrandtsen, who first came to the United States in 1914, joined forces with his cousin, A.P. Møller, who later established Mærsk Line, to form the Isbrandtsen-Moller Company at New York in 1919.
A decade later the firm signed an agreement with the Ford Motor Corporation to transport auto parts and general cargo from the US to Japan, China and the Philippines. Although this business grew, it was impacted by World War II, and in 1943 the joint venture with A.P. Møller was terminated. Hans Isbrandtsen then formed the Isbrandtsen Steamship Co, while Møller and his son, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, founded the Interseas Shipping Company, predecessor to the Moller Steamship Co, and eventually became the US agent for the 1928-established Mærsk Line.
Isbrandtsen went on to build up his company with surplus war-built tonnage until it had become the largest independent and nonsubsidised steamship company in the US by the time of his death in 1953. His son, Jakob, then took over the company and in 1960 purchased a controlling interest in the 1919-established American Export Lines, later merging the two firms to form American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines in 1964.