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Standard Oil Company of New York

This company, once part of the Rockefeller trust, was formed in 1911. It has since grown into a world wide producer and marketer of crude oil and refined petroleum products. In 1935 it opened a major oil terminal on Staten Island, New York, which became the nerve center of the firms substantial American-flag tanker fleet. It presently operates thirty seven large oil tankers massing more than 291,000 tons gross and 461,000 tons deadweight.

Sun Transport Company

The Sun Oil Company, this firms corporate parent, was organized in 1886 by Robert Pew, and entered the shipping of petroleum by sea in 1901. It established its own tanker fleet in 1916, and opened the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Chester, Pennsylvania that same year. The Chester shipyard has built all of the Sun Transport Companys vessels, which today number seventeen  most of which are modern motorships. The fleet aggregates more than 157,000 tons gross and 251,000 tons deadweight.

Swayne, Hoyt and Company

Based in the city of San Francisco, this firm entered the intercoastal trade in 1918, offering sailings from the Pacific Coast to the eastern seaboard, primarily with timber cargos eastward and manufactured goods on the return voyage. It was among the first intercoastal operators to avail itself of the Mexican Canal, opening new services to the Gulf ports of New Orleans and Mobile. Its fleet presently comprises eight freighters of more than 23,000 tons gross and 36,000 tons deadweight.

The Texas Company

Commonly known as Texaco, the Texas Company was founded in 1897 as the Texas Fuel Company. As with most petroleum firms of that period, it was obliged to enter the tanker trade to haul its oil from ports in eastern Texas to the markets in the major metropolitan centers on the eastern seaboard. It presently operates eighteen vessels totaling more than 145,000 tons gross and 222,000 tons deadweight.

Tidewater Associated Oil Company

This firm was formed in 1937 by the merger of the Tidewater Oil Company of New York and the Associated Oil Company of San Francisco. It operates a fleet of eleven oil tankers engaged primarily in the domestic petroleum trade, totaling more than 83,000 tons gross and 134,000 tons deadweight.

Union Oil Company

Based in Los Angeles, California, this firm was founded in 1890 by the merger of the Hardison and Stewart Oil Company, the Sespe Oil Company and the Torrey Canyon Oil Company. In 1917 it purchased Pinal-Dome Oil Company. It built its first tanker in 1916, and its fleet has subsequently grown to eleven vessels totaling more than 80,000 tons gross and 124,000 tons deadweight.

Union Sulphur Company

This firms principal business is the mining of sulphur along the coast of Texas and Louisiana, and the marketing of sulphur removed from crude oil during the refining process. It entered the ocean shipping trade in 1920 with the construction of four specialist tank vessels for carriage of liquid sulphur. Its fleet totals more than 19,000 tons gross and 31,000 tons deadweight.

Vaccaro Brothers Inc.

This import-export company, based in New Orleans, trades principally to the Caribbean, Central America and the northern coast of South America. Its subsidiary, the West Indies Fruit and Steamship Company, operates four fruit carriers specializing in the carriage of bananas, for which Vaccaro Brothers is one of the major importers. Another subsidiary, the American Trading and Shipping Company, handles coffee and other produce from Colombia and Venezuela. The firms fleet comprises eight vessels totaling more than 24,000 tons gross and 32,000 tons deadweight.

John B. Waterman and Company

This firm, advertised as the Mobile, Miami and Gulf Line, provides coastal and intercoastal services from the Gulf Coast to ports on the eastern seaboard and, via the Mexican Canal, to the Pacific Coast. The present fleet comprises twelve freighters totaling more than 66,000 tons gross and 100,000 tons deadweight. There have been reports that this firm is contemplating expansion into the South American market as well as expanding its fleet; to date, no formal plans have been announced in this regard.

Weyerhaeuser Steamship Company

A subsidiary of the Weyerhaeuser timber products firm of Newark, New Jersey, this firm entered the intercoastal trade in 1928 with the introduction of the first of three specialist timber carriers constructed at the Bethlehem Steel yard at Quincy. While carrying the companys own timber and pulp cargos from the Pacific Coast to markets in New York and Philadelphia, it acts as a common carrier soliciting cargos for the return voyage. The fleet totals more than 16,000 tons gross and 27,000 tons deadweight.