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"Morgan Line" was the trade name for a variety of shipping companies founded by
Charles Morgan, who first entered the shipping business by investing in shares
of cargoes in 1819. By the 1830s, he no longer owned cargoes but specialized in
owning and managing the ships themselves. In 1834, he opened the first scheduled
steam service along the US east coast with a line connecting New York and
Charleston. By 1838 he had shifted his focus to the Gulf of Mexico and
Caribbean, steaming among New Orleans, Galveston, and Havana, eventually
returning to the New York-to-Gulf business after the American Civil War.
In
addition to shipping, Morgan owned major interests in railroads in the South and
essentially controlled all transportation, including the port facilities, in the
Houston-Galveston area. In 1877, he consolidated his diverse holdings into the
Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship Company. For a short time after
Morgan's death in 1878, his company continued in operation, but in 1882 his
heirs sold a controlling interest to Collis P. Huntington of the Southern
Pacific Railroad. The Morgan Line thus became a subsidiary of the newly formed
holding company, the Southern Pacific Company, but continued to do business
under its own name and flag. Over time, however, it increasingly became known as
the Southern Pacific Steamship Company, its official title. Early in World War
II, Southern Pacific decided to leave the ocean shipping business and, after
more than 100 years in business, the Morgan Line passed from the scene. The fleet was sold to the United States Maritime Commission in 1941.
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