freight transport founded 1907 in buffalo new york headquarters 500 essjay road williamsville new york 14221 parent general american transportation corporation gatx website http www.americansteamship.com the american steamship company asc is an american transportation company that operates a fleet of self unloading vessels in the great lakes . 1 the company is owned by the general american transportation corporation gatx . contents 1 history 2 fleet 3 references 4 external links history edit the american steamship company was founded in 1907 in buffalo new york by partners john j. boland and adam e. cornelius . their first ship the ss yale was the first steel vessel owned by a buffalo firm and earned large profits for the partners . over the next five years the company added six new vessels to their fleet . at the end of world war i the american steamship company became the first great lakes steamship company to outfit all of its vessels with radio telegraph equipment . asc acquired the mitchell steamship company in 1922 thus adding another four vessels to its growing fleet . asc was hard hit by the great depression but took advantage of the downturn to convert three of its bulk freighters to self unloading vessels which would prove to be the way of the future in great lakes shipping . in the 1940s self unloaders would bring new business to asc and the focus of the company would ship from transporting iron ore and grain to shipping coal and limestone . during world war ii asc was active in the war effort at one point having twenty ships engaged in war trades around the world . the company embarked on a major expansion in the 1950s though the company continued to be run by boland and cornelius and their sons . by 1965 asc s annual volume exceeded 20 million tons and the company again launched an expansion effort . in 1967 the firm acquired the oswego shipping company . in 1973 the boland and cornelius families sold asc to the general american transportation corporation gatx . in the late 1970s and early 1980s asc became one of the first shipping companies to introduce computers on all of its vessels . from 2002 to 2006 the company partnered with oglebay norton marine services and in 2006 acquired six vessels from oglebay norton bringing the size of asc s fleet to 18 vessels and making it the largest american domestic provider of dry bulk self unloader transportation services on the great lakes . as of 2010 update asc s president was david w. foster . 2 fleet edit m v american spirit m v burns harbor m v indiana harbor m v walter j. mccarthy jr. m v american century m v american integrity atb ken boothe sr. lakes contender m v st. clair m v american mariner m v h. lee white m v john j. boland m v adam e. cornelius ship 1973 str . american victory laid up str . american valor laid up m v buffalo m v sam laud m v american courage references edit merchant marine careers at asc asc presidents and ceo . american steamship company . retrieved august 15 2015 . external links edit asc website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title american steamship company & oldid 676233898 categories shipping companies of the united stateshidden categories articles containing potentially dated statements from 2010all articles containing potentially dated statements navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 15 august 2015 at 16 49 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view