House Flags of U.S. Shipping Companies: I

Inland Navigation Co.

 image by Joe McMillan

Inland Navigation Co., Seattle
A regional carrier in the Puget Sound area in the early 20th century. I believe this was one of the lines amalgamated by H. F. Alexander into the Admiral Line, This was also known as the International Steamship Co and the Tacoma-Seattle-Everett Route. The flag was blue with a red star on a large white lozenge.
Source: Lloyds 1912

Joe McMillan, 23 October 2001

Interisland Steam Navigation Co.

 image by Joe McMillan

Interisland Steam Navigation Co.
The islands referred to were the Hawaiian Islands, which Interisland served with about a dozen ships, peaking in the 1920s. Flag was a RWB horizontal tricolor with a red disk on the center.
Sources: www.steamship.net (no longer available), Reed (1896), Talbot-Booth (1937)

Joe McMillan, 23 October 2001

Interlake Steamship Co.

A major Great Lakes carrier, formed not long ago by amalgamating various older companies. It is a vertical tricolor, dark orange-red, white, and blue, with an outline map of the Great Lakes overall superimposed on the funnel of the ships.

Joe McMillan, 23 October 2001

In February of 1883, Civil War veteran Colonel James Pickands and Samuel Livingston Mather founded Pickands Mather for the purpose of mining iron ore from Minnesota's Mesabi range and Michigan's upper peninsula and delivering it by ship to Cleveland, Chicago and other Great Lakes ports.

Twenty years later, when some of the fiercest storms swept across the Great Lakes in 1913, four separate Pickands Mather operated fleets merged to form the Interlake Steamship Company.

What started with a 13/20ths interest in the 1700-ton Steamer, V. H. Ketchum has grown into a fleet that includes the largest ship on the Great Lakes, the M. V. Paul R. Tregurtha at 1013.5 feet in length.

Source: www.interlake-steamship.com/

Phil Nelson, 27 August 2000

Isbrandtsen Steamship Co.

 image by Joe McMillan

Isbrandtsen Company was established by Hans Isbrandtsen after the breakup of ISMOLCO, his joint venture with his cousin A. P. Mo/ller, the shipping magnate who formed the great Maersk Line. Isbrandtsen Co. traded mainly with the Far East. This first flag of the company was a white swallowtail with a red cross, the first quarter blue with a white star. I have seen a flag, which may have been that of ISMOLCO, that is of this same basic design but with the canton in light blue and the star having seven points--a seven-pointed star on light blue being the Maersk (Mo/ller) house flag. Hans's son Jacob took over the company in 1953 and bought American Export Lines in 1960 to form American Export Isbrandtsen.
Source: Stewart (1953)

Joe McMillan, 23 October 2001

 image by Joe McMillan

Isbrandtsen Steamship Co. (1939-1962), New York
Hans Isbrandtsen, a cousin of Denmark's famous Arnold P. Møller, established the Isbrandtsen SS Co in 1939 to serve ports not already served by a joint venture, ISMOLCO, that he ran with his cousin. His son Jakob took over after Hans's death in 1953. The flag was blue with a large canton containing a swallowtailed white flag with a red cross, with the first quarter of that flag blue with a white star.  In 1964, Jakob Isbrandtsen merged American Export Lines with his other properties to form American Export Isbrandtsen.

Sources: US Navy's 1961 H.O., Stewart (1953), Stewart & Styring (1963)

Joe McMillan, 21 August 2001

For the first version of the Isbrandtsen Steamship Co. shown above, most sources, including Stewart (1953), have the cross fessepoint at what would be the centre of a rectangular flag i.e. it is closer to the fork. Variations abound of the flag. Talbot-Booth in Merchant Ships 1942 & 1944 shows the normal swallowtail with an eight pointed star in the canton, as do Brown 1958 and Loughran (1979), Brown 1951 had no swallowtail, and Stewart (1953), 1957 shows the 5 pointed star version. The merger into American Export Isbrandtsen Lines Inc. came to an end in 1973 and they resumed their separate identities but on their part there does not appear to have been any direct shipping involvement from thence.
Neale Rosanoski, 9 March 2004

Isthmian Steamship Co.

 image by Joe McMillan

Isthmian Steamship Co., New York (1910-1960s)
Isthmian was created by US Steel, originally under the UK flag, to carry the company's products to non-US markets. The ships were transferred to US registry at the outbreak of WWI in an effort to keep them from being requisitioned by the British government or attacked by German commerce raiders. It was quite a sizable operation at its peak, with 85 ships in operation as of 1949, but the evolution of the shipping industry soon made it more profitable for US Steel to contract out its shipping rather than doing it in-house. The line was sold to the States Marine Corporation in 1956, which maintained Isthmian's identity and flag until late 1960s.
Sources: Wedge (1926), Stewart (1953)

Joe McMillan, 23 October 2001

This page, dedicated to Isthmian Lines, has some details to offer: http://www.isthmianlines.com/ . In 1903, in collaboration with Dunn & Co. in Liverpool, Farrell Lines chartered two ships for the newly established New York & South American Line. Soon four more ships were built by Dunn as trade to South America flourished. Sent out were iron and steel produce, back went nitrate and ore. It seems ships were UK flagged: some were requisitioned during WWI, others transferred to the US flag if I understand correctly.

Jan Mertens, 9 July 2005