After World War II Pacific Far East Line purchased some of the low-cost surplus ships. All purchased ships were given names ending with the word "Bear". Pacific Far East Line flag was blue with a golden bear and below the letters PFEL, and Pacific Far East Line ads called PFEL routes "Routes of the Bear". During wartime, the South Atlantic steamship line operated Victory ships and Liberty shipss. Chairman Thomas E. Cuffe died in 1959. Pacific Far East Line operated some Lighter aboard ship (LASH ships).
In 1977 The US Maritime Subsidy Board approved the application of Pacific Far East Line, Inc. (PFEL) for being granted a construction-differential subsidy (CDS) for financing the reconstruction of four LASH barge carriers into full container ships at Bethlehem Steel's San Francisco shipyard at a cost of U$5 millions each. The four ships were the Thomas E. Cuffe, Golden Bear, Japan Bear, and the Pacific Bear, all built in 1971 and 1972 at Avondale Shipyards, Inc., New Orleans, La. However, as containerization expanded, Pacific Far East Line failed to upgrade sufficiently rapidly its fleet to container ships and modernize as other shipping lines did in the 1970s. With the Vietnam War over Pacific Far East Line lost revenues and eventually went bankrupt and closed in 1978, all ships being sold or scrapped due to age.[2][3][4]
Coastwise Line was owned-managed by Pacific Far East Line out of San Francisco, with Headquarters at 315 California Street. Coastwise Line was founded by Hector Hunt in 1938 in Portland, Oregon. The ships of Coastwise Line flew a white and blue flag with "CL" on it. During World War II, Coastwise Line was active in chartering ships. In 1960, the company closed. Coastwise Line's main ports included New York City, New Orleans, Galveston, Havana, and others. They also operated ferry lines across San Francisco Bay and riverboats between San Francisco and Sacramento. Additionally, Coastwise Line had port facilities for transferring equipment across the Sacramento River between Port Costa and Benicia, California. Main route was moving Northwest timber. Coastwise Line operated the Alaska service which ran between the Pacific Coast and British Columbia to/from Alaska. Coastwise Line operated the Columbia River service that ran between Portland, Oregon to/from Long Beach, California.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]
Lykes-Coastwise Line was a partnership founded in 1934 in Florida, with routes on the east coast, the agreement ended in 1946. Lykes-Coastwise Line also operated charter ships during World War II.[13][14]
Pacific Far East Line Routes
[edit]1976 envelope used in canoe mail with PFEL logo
US homes ports were: Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Main foreign ports were: Japan, Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka, Okinawa, Korea, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Guam, Philippines, Manila, Philippine Islands, and Thailand. Also ports in Manchuria. Some ports in the U.S.S.R.inAsia[15]
Atlantic Bear was a Roll-on/roll-off ship built in 1976 by Sun Shipyards for the Pacific Far East Line, at 17,300 DWT for $30 million, in 1984 she was renamed Atlantic Spirit in 1989 Kaimoku in 1998 El Yunque.[44]
Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point Shipyard constructed two C7-S-88a container ships for Pacific Far East Line (PFEL).[45] The two new ships were launched as SS Australia Bear and SS New Zealand Bear. Australia Bear was completed in 1973, but before New Zealand Bear had been fully outfitted both ships were sold in 1974 to Sea-Land Service, Inc. and renamed Sea-Land Consumer and Sea-Land Producer as Sealand's SL18P class.[46] Sea-Land was bought by the CSX Corporation in 1986, and both ships were renamed in 2000. The domestic U.S. liner operations of Sea-Land were sold in 2003 and subsequently operated under the name Horizon Lines.[47] Their service life came in a full circle when Matson, who had initially designed the ships decades earlier, acquired Horizon Lines in 2015. The vessels would serve their new owners a few more years as Matson Consumer and Matson Producer. They were scrapped in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
In the late 1960s, shipbuilding engineer Jerome L. Goldman designed the first LASH ships, Type C8-class ship, the Acadia Forest and the Atlantic Forest. Avondale shipyard start construction in 1969 of the second LASH ships the C8-S-81b. The ten C8-S-81b LASH ships were of identical design and built from 1970 to 1973. The 11 ships were used by two shipping lines Prudential Grace Line in New York and Pacific Far East Line in San Francisco. The price for each ship was $21.3 million.[50]
C8 Barge Carrier ship names:
Thomas E. Cuffe, Golden Bear, Pacific Bear, Japan Bear, and China Bear[51]
^"How We Ship - Vessels". Horizon Lines. Archived from the original on 26 March 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^World War II U.S. Navy Armed Guard and World War II U.S. Merchant Marine, 2007-2014 Project Liberty Ship, Project Liberty Ship, P.O. Box 25846 Highlandtown Station, Baltimore, MD [1]
^From Hell Hole to High Tech: Historical Highlights, Pacific Coast Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders and Wipers Association Affiliated with the Seafarers' International Union AFL-CIO. Pacific Coast Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders and Wipers Association, 1983 - Merchant mariners, page 40
