This very typical American coastal liner had a long and interesting career afloat of forty years, and continues to have a useful function today as a cut-down breakwater at Port Hueneme in California. She served the route from San Juan in Puerto Rico to New York for many years as a liner. old San Juan is an island on the north east part of the mainland and is a very beautiful port, connected to the mainland by motorway bridges, and today is very busy with the numerous calls of international cruise ships that dock in the port area to the south of old San Juan. The El Morro headland has the impregnable and impressive San Felipe del Morro fortress, completed in 1539 by the Spanish with walls 140 feet high and fifteen feet thick to keep out would be conquerors of this island and its rich seams of gold.

Colon (Christopher Columbus) landed in Puerto Rico or Borinquen in the native language on his second voyage to the Caribbean on 15th November 1493 and stayed for two days. Spain began to colonise Borinquen from 1508 when Juan Ponce de Leon landed with 42 settlers and eight sailors in the Bay of San Juan. He was proclaimed governor of Borinquen in 1514 after the defeat of the last local Taino Indians. He was wounded by a poisoned arrow in an attack on Sanibel Island in Florida in February 1521 and was carried back to Cuba and died in agony five months later at Havana. Output of gold for the Spanish treasury from Borinquen equalled that of La Espanola (Dominican Republic and Haiti today). A Carib Indian attack on San Juan in 1521 killed thirteen Spaniards and fifty local Taino Indians. This was the last hostile act in the Spanish colonisation of Borinquen. The island was frequently attacked by the English, French and Dutch because of its strategic position, but the El Morro fortress was strong enough to repel all attackers.

History of the New York and Porto Rico Line

The New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company was founded in New York in 1885 and lasted 64 years until 1949. The roots of this company go back to Archibald H. Bull and his fleet of sailing ships that operated between New York and Puerto Rico beginning in 1873. The New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company was at first incorporated as a British company with British flagged steamers. When Puerto Rico became an American possession in 1898 after the Spanish American War, the U.S. cabotage privilege was extended to the new territory, forcing Archibald H. Bull to sell his British ships and buy American ones instead. This was because a ship had to be built in America in order to fly the American flag until 1912. Sugar was carried at first in steamers from San Juan and Havana in Cuba to the New York sugar refineries. A passenger service was begun in 1896 with a weekly service from 1909 and sailings every Saturday from New York on the four or five day passage. The vessels docked at Pier 35 at Brooklyn Heights until 1928, and then at Pier 16 at the foot of Wall Street in New York.

Three passenger ships thus joined the New York and Porto Rico Line between the end of 1898 and 1901. The first pair were sisters of 3,506 grt built at Wilmington (Delaware) by the Harlan & Hollingsworth yard as Ponce and San Juan with accommodation for 83 passengers spread over three decks. The pair were launched together in September 1898 and completed at the end of that year for the 1,380 mile route from New York to San Juan in Puerto Rico and the 1,585 mile route from New Orleans to San Juan. San Juan and Ponce had a hull length of 317 feet and gave long service to the company until they were scrapped in 1940. The third passenger ship had been launched in 1891 at the Alexander Stephen yard at Linthouse in Glasgow as State of California of 4,384 grt for States Line, a British flagged fleet financed mostly with American money. She had accommodation for one hundred passengers, but was sold while fitting out to Allan Line of Glasgow and later renamed Californian in 1898, and then joined the New York & Porto Rico Line in 1901 as Coamo. She had dimensions of 385 feet length, beam of 46 feet and depth of 32.8 feet, and could also carry 5,000 tonnes of cargo at a service speed of 14 knots. The fleet also contained three cargo steamers and the sailing ship Maryland at this time, all loading with sugar for New York.

The expense involved of buying American ships caused the other shareholders of Bull, including Juan Ceballos of San Juan, to find a buyer for their shares. John Berwind then purchased all of the shares of the company, but in 1907 he sold out to Charles Morse and his Consolidated Steamship Lines. Unfortunately, Consolidated was bankrupted two years later, and the New York and Porto Rico Line was taken over by the holding company of AGWI Lines. AGWI stood for the Atlantic, Gulf and West Indies Steamship Lines, and included Ward Line with services from New York to the Caribbean. A U.S. Tariff rebate Bill of 5% was introduced in 1912 by Oscar Underwood into Congress, whereby import duties of merchandise carried in American built ships was reduced. This discrimination in favour of U.S. shipping kept the American fleet busy at the expense of foreign shipping, and the American fleet was helped again in April 1914 by the opening of the Panama Canal which greatly increased cargoes for American ships. Passenger fares at the outbreak of World War I were $65 to $80 for First Class and $45 to $50 for Second Class passengers from New York to San Juan.

In 1916, Mallory Line, a member of AGWI Lines, sold their 6,399 grt twin funnelled passenger liner Brazos to the New York and Porto Rico Line. She retained her name for four years and was then rebuilt with a single funnel, given oil firing, and renamed San Lorenzo with a reduced passenger capacity for two hundred First Class passengers. She was equipped with radio and her fares throughout the 1920s were $270 for the New York to San Juan run. Brazos had been built in 1907 by the Newport News Shipbuilding Corporation on dimensions of 418 feet length and 54 feet beam, and could also carry 5,000 tonnes of general cargo at her service speed of 15 knots, and was broken up in 1934.

The New York and Porto Rico Line also had cargo services from San Juan to Galveston and Port Arthur in Texas, and three cargo ships of 3,000 dwt and a length of 335 feet were completed in 1911 by the Newport News yard as Corozal, Isabella, Lorenzo and Montoso with a fifth sister delivered in 1915 as Mariana. Lorenzo became a war loss in 1915, and five more cargo ships of the same size were built in 1916/17 for the company by various yards as Carib, Choctaw, Manta, Ozama and Sioux for requisition by the U.S. government. They were released for commercial service in 1921/22 and carried sugar from San Juan, Havana, Ponce and Mayaguez until sold in 1928 by the company.

Carolina of 5,017 grt was purchased by the line in January 1906, and was one of six ships sunk on ‘Black Sunday’ of 2nd June 1918 by gunfire from U151 off the New Jersey coast in the space of a few short hours. Capt. TR Barbour was given a warning by the U boat commander of his intention to sink his ship, and only thirteen lives were lost among the 217 passengers and 117 crew members onboard. The passengers were mostly Puerto Ricans with some troops of the Porto Rico regiment of infantry. The passenger ship had been built in 1896 at the Newport News yard as La Grande Duchesse for the Plant investment Company but delivery had been refused by the owner because of boiler and propeller problems until she was finally accepted on 9th April 1899. She was immediately chartered to the U.S. government as a transport during the Spanish American War, and then sold in November 1901 to the ocean Steamship Company and renamed City of Savannah for a service between New York and Charleston (SC). She had dimensions of length 380 feet, beam of 47 feet and depth of hold of 33 feet and was an early hurricane decked ship.

A fleet of fourteen passenger and cargo ships was being operated by the company in 1920. The passenger liner Porto Rico of 4,760 grt and overall length of 370 feet with a Bridge Deck of 152 feet joined the fleet in 1922. She had a closed in superstructure and had been built in 1903 at Flensburg for Hamburg Amerika Line (Hapag), but was seized on 6th April 1917 by the U.S. government and renamed Mocassin for operation by the United States Shipping Board. She was transferred to Munson Line in 1919 and then to the New York and Pennsylvania railroad Company before beginning service with the company, and she was broken up in 1937.

Mrs. Franklin D. Mooney launched the next passenger liner on 22nd July 1925 at the Newport News yard as the turbine powered Coamo (2) of 7,057 grt. She had dimensions of 429 feet length, 59.5 feet beam and 35 feet depth, with a Bridge Deck of length 250 feet, and fo’c’stle of 71 feet. She had accommodation for 271 First Class passengers and 90 in Second Class spread over three decks, and carried refrigerated cargo amongst her 5,164 tonnes of general cargo at a service speed of 16.5 knots.

A further cargo ship joined the company in 1927 as Comerio of 4,874 dwt and had been built by the West Hartlepool yard of William Gray & Co. Ltd. as Registan in 1910. She had been purchased by Ward Line, a member of AGWI Lines, in 1911 and renamed as Guantanamo until her transfer to the New York and Porto Rico Line. The passenger liner Borinquen, the subject of this article, joined the company in 1931 from the Quincy yard of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, at a time when the company fleet stood at a dozen passenger and cargo ships.

Design of Borinquen

She was designed by Theodore E. Ferris as a hurricane decked coastal liner, and named as Borinquen, the alternate name for Puerto Rico in the native language. She was similar to and a development of her earlier sister Coamo of 1925. A hurricane deck was unique to American coastal liners and was, usually, but not always, the uppermost full length deck and divided the ship horizontally into two. The upper half was devoted entirely to passengers and their accommodation and included, of course, the navigating bridge and the Master and officers’ accommodation. Below the hurricane deck were the crew quarters, stores, fuel tanks, engine and boiler rooms and the cargo ‘tween decks and holds. Cargo was loaded through large side doors, below the hurricane deck, directly into the ‘tween decks where it was stowed or lowered into the holds by elevators or electric hoists. The forward two holds were served by normal derrick arrangements, with side doors in number two ‘tween decks.

Main Deck was the next deck down from the hurricane deck and below that was the Orlop Deck and then the machinery spaces below the Orlop. Above the hurricane deck was the Bridge Deck, Promenade Deck and Boat Decks, all extending almost to the stern and without the usual trunking or hatches for access to the cargo holds. She had accommodation for 261 First Class passengers and 96 Second Class passengers, the latter confined to the after end of the ship below Promenade Deck. Borinquen was of 7,114 grt able to carry 5,155 tonnes of cargo in two holds forward and two holds aft, on dimensions of length 429 feet overall, beam of 59.8 feet, and depth of hold of 23.2 feet. She had seven main watertight bulkheads with a Bridge Deck of length 249 feet and a fo’c’stle of length 77 feet.

She was laid down at the Quincy yard of Bethlehem Steel on 20th January 1930, launched on 24th September 1930 and completed on 20th February 1931. She was powered by impulse reaction single reduction geared turbines developing 6,500 shaft horse power to give a service speed of 16 knots at turbine revolution of 1,650 rpm and propeller rotation of 90 rpm. Four Babcock and Wilcox watertube boilers worked at 375 pounds per square inch burning oil fuel, and with superheaters gave a steam temperature of 600 degrees Fahrenheit. On trials she achieved a flat out speed of 17.58 knots.

Public Rooms

Borinquen sailed on her maiden voyage from New York on 22nd February 1931 for San Juan and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic with a full load of passengers. She looked a fine sight as she cleared lower New York harbour, her oval sectioned black funnel with white, yellow and white bands gleaming in the sunshine, and her hull showing off her sheer and clean lines. The Promenade Deck was partly enclosed in glass and was useful for deck games, sports, exercise, promenading or just sitting quietly on a deck chair. The passengers could enjoy the public rooms of:

First Class Dining room was at the forward end of Bridge Deck and was a very elegant room. The serving area was at one end with column pillars at either side, and there were tables for two, four or six passengers, all supplied with fresh flowers. The windows had four by four glass sections with thick curtains and a pelmet above. There was subdued but sufficient wall and ceiling lighting for this room of modest proportions.

First Class Lounge was on Promenade Deck abaft the funnel and was a beautiful room two decks high with plenty of natural light streaming in from windows and a skylight on the upper section, and from curtained windows on the lower section. The walls, ceiling and friezes were decorated in wavy patterned banding, and the fabric covering of the sofas and easy armchairs was also in wavy patterns. There were plenty of round tables, potted plants and other decorations, and there was a small bar at one end. The ship’s orchestra played here for daily concerts or evening dancing, as well as in the nearby Music room.

First Class Tea room was elegant and had a refreshing lightness of colour with plenty of cane chairs and tables, with two double doors at the rear end to exit to an outdoor verandah. Potted plants, light coloured curtains at the windows, and beautiful wall paintings of Puerto Rican scenes graced this decorated room.

The First Class Writing room was small as it shared the width of the ship with the well stocked library. There were several wide fabric covered armchairs at the window side of the room and elegant writing tables inboard.

The First Class Smoking room was on Promenade Deck arranged around the foot of the mainmast and was large and airy and very suitable for passengers travelling in tropical waters and was fitted with louvre air ventilation.

The First Class Staterooms were fitted with large raised double beds with both a bed head and a bed foot. They were well equipped rooms with full length mirrors, side tables, dressing tables, armchairs and clothes cupboards.

Borinquen in Service

Borinquen operated with her near sister Coamo of 1925 on the New York to San Juan and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic service. They also made calls at Puerto Plata and Sanchez in the Dominican Republic for sugar before making their way back to San Juan for the next sailing to New York. Capt. Nels Helgesen was Commodore of the company at this time, and commanded the passenger liners Borinquen, Coamo, Porto Rico, San Lorenzo, San Juan and Ponce, as well as the cargo ships Huron, Manta, Choctaw, and Marianna during his thirty year career with the company.

Capt. Nils Helgesen was born on 2nd January 1888 at Haugesund in Norway and emigrated to America at the age of seventeen years, and later Americanized his Christian name to Nels. He became an American citizen in 1911 and joined the New York and Puerto Rico Steamship Company as a junior deck officer in 1912, staying with the company for his entire career. In November 1928, Capt. Helgesen was in command of the passenger steamer San Juan and was the first ship to reach the scene of the sinking of the Lamport & Holt passenger liner Vestris on her South America service to La Plata from New York. Vestris had sunk off the Virginia Capes in very stormy weather, and 213 passengers and crew out of a total complement of 325 were picked up by the rescue ships including San Juan.

In 1934, the company merged with Clyde-Mallory Lines and another Mallory Line passenger ship was transferred to the company. This was San Jacinto of 6,069 grt built in 1903 by the Delaware River Shipbuilding Company yard at Chester (Pennsylvania). She was a good looking twin screw triple expansion steam powered ship with accommodation for 130 passengers in two classes spread over three decks. AGWI continued to operate the New York and Porto Rico Line until 1949 when Bull Line purchased it and ended its separate identity. The black funnel with yellow, white and yellow thin central bands was then painted in Bull Line colours, but the red pennant house flag with a large yellow ‘B’ was retained as it stood equally for Berwind or Bull.

Capt. Nels Helgesen became Master of Puerto Rico, the former Haiti of the Colombian Line, in 1938, but unfortunately the ship lost money on her San Juan to New York service and she was transferred a year later to the Cuba Mail Line as Monterey. Capt. Nels Helgesen then resumed command of Coamo, sister of Borinquen. AGWI Lines then temporarily transferred a vessel from the Clyde-Mallory Line passenger quartet of Cherokee, Seminole, Mohawk and Algonquin of 5,896 grt and built in 1925/26, to the San Juan service to New York. They had accommodation for 421 First Class passengers and a crew of 110 and carried 2,800 tonnes of sugar in the holds of these fine vessels of length 402 feet with a beam of 55 feet and a service speed of 15 knots from geared steam turbines.

a reasonably sized fleet of American coastal liners operated in 1939 from New York to Miami, San Juan, Santo Domingo, New Orleans, Havana and Vera Cruz, with prices as little as $65 for a New York to Miami round trip. The twin funnelled Iroquois and Shawnee of 6,210 grt carried a good total of 754 passengers for Clyde- Mallory Lines on their run from New York to Miami, and had been built in 1927 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. Theodore Ferris had introduced two important features in the coastal liner in this pair, the first was the bulbous bow to increase their speed to 16 knots, and the second was that the superstructure formed 80% of the length of the ship, their overall length being 394.7 feet and 62.2 feet in the beam.

World War II Service

Borinquen continued to serve her normal peace time route from San Juan and Santo Domingo to New York for over two years after the declaration of war in Europe. She sailed from San Juan on 16th October 1941 under Capt. John O. Ellertson with 167 passengers for New York including fourteen returning American cruise passengers travelling home after a sunny Caribbean holiday. Seven weeks later, the Japanese attack against the American battle fleet at Pearl Harbour brought the U.S.A. into the global conflict, and most American citizens either went to war or served in munitions factories or shipyards for four years to defeat the Japanese. Borinquen also went to war, first with the U.S. Engineers Corps, and then as the U.S. army Transport (USAT) Borinquen with accommodation for 1,249 troops and 404 medical patients. She was a very lucky ship during the war, serving on the North and South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, and Baltic theatres of war, and was never fired upon by aircraft, surface warship or U-boat.

Borinquen was requisitioned by the War Shipping administration on 31st December 1941, and she sailed from New York on 15th January 1942 for U.S. Engineers Corps service carrying personnel, stores and equipment for the construction of new U.S. overseas bases in Iceland and Scotland. On 10th May 1942 she sailed from the Clyde for Freetown, and began a long period of operations based in West African ports. In June 1942 she sailed south to Cape Town and on up the east coast of Africa to Aden and Suez before returning to West Africa. She sailed back to New York on 10th august 1942, and then began operations in November in the North African ports of Oran, Casablanca and Algiers shortly after the successful operation Torch landings in North Africa. She transferred to Palermo on 31st July 1943 after the successful liberation of Sicily, and then returned to New York on 22nd August 1943. She then operated as a troopship on the North Atlantic until she sailed from Swansea on 5th June 1944 with troops for the Normandy landings.

She made another voyage with troops to Normandy from Belfast before operating a shuttle service with troops across the Irish Sea from Belfast to Liverpool. She returned to New York for crew leave on 25th October 1944, and then sailed for Southampton on 3rd January 1945 to begin a troop shuttle service between Southampton and Le Havre. She made a return voyage into the Mediterranean at Marseille in august 1945, and then returned safely to New York on 31st august 1945 for demobilisation. She underwent a long and well earned refit, and returned to commercial service in 1947.

Her consort Coamo was not so lucky. In January 1942, Coamo under Capt. Nels Helgesen came across an overloaded lifeboat with 71 survivors from the sunken Lady Hawkins of Canadian National Line, torpedoed off Cape Hatteras, North Virginia. The lifeboat had drifted for five days and five people had died of exposure, but after saving the survivors, Coamo had to escape a U-boat by first trying to ram it and then by speeding away on a zig-zag course. In February 1942, Coamo and Capt. Helgesen began her service as a troop transport with a voyage to South America, then to Liverpool to take on troops for operation Torch. She then sailed back to the Western approaches in convoy, but when nearing Land’s End the admiralty radioed that she should proceed directly to New York on her own. Coamo was sunk in mid Atlantic to a single torpedo by U604, and although a few men escaped in lifeboats, none of the 166 men onboard survived, these being 133 crew, 17 naval armed guard, and sixteen U.S. army personnel. Capt. Nels Helgesen had married Helen Sorhaug from Haugesund in November 1922, and they had two children, Henry and grace Marion.

Post-War Service

Borinquen returned to service in 1947 for the Clyde-Mallory Lines service of AGWI Lines from New York to Miami. She now had a light grey hull and Clyde-Mallory funnel colours of black with a broad white band containing two narrow blue bands and a red star in the centre. However, air travel and rising costs had made the service unprofitable by 1949 and it was abandoned. Borinquen was then sold on 25th April 1949 to the Bull Steamship Co. inc. and renamed Puerto Rico. She then returned to sunny San Juan and Santo Domingo and her old peace time route, with black funnel colours with a broad band edged with narrow red ones and with a blue ‘B’ in the centre. Alterations were made with her mainmast removed and the foremast shortened, and with her radar scanner now carried on a lattice tripod at the after end of the bridge. A new funnel of wider section and with a cowl on the top was fitted, and the lifeboats were reduced to six, three on each side, while the forward well deck was plated in. The Bull Steamship Co. inc. had a good sized fleet of twenty steam powered passenger and cargo ships at this time, eight of them turbine propelled, together with one C1-M-av1 motor cargo ship.

As Puerto Rico, she carried just over two hundred passengers on her eleven day schedule from New York to San Juan, Santo Domingo and other sunny Caribbean ports. At first she made a profit with plenty of Puerto Ricans and tourists reliving the former service, but competition and soaring costs led after only two years of service to lay up in New York in 1951. She was then purchased in 1953 by arose Line for Transatlantic service, and arrived in Bremerhaven in 1954 for reconstruction, gaining a new long raked bow that increased her length to 466 feet. The accommodation was completely altered to take 38 First class passengers and 768 Tourist Class passengers, with two glass enclosed Promenade Decks and 18 lifeboats on Boat Deck, some being double banked. The First Class passengers were accommodated on the Upper Promenade Deck in spacious outside cabins, most of which had private facilities, and their public rooms included the Winter garden, forward on Promenade Deck, the Dining room and Lounge.

She was renamed Arosa Star for an emigrant service from Europe with many people fleeing austerity and war-torn Europe for a new life in Canada or the United States. Tourist Class passengers were accommodated in two, three, four or six berth cabins with comfortable beds not bunks, wardrobes and hot and cold running water. They had the use of seven public rooms including a bright, wood panelled Dining room, lounges and bars, as well as the glass enclosed Promenade Deck. On Boat Deck, many passengers played deck quoits or other games, and later reminisced about the active social life onboard of dances, film shows and fancy dress parades. However, Arosa Line was declared bankrupt in Geneva on 10th April 1959, and Arosa Star was arrested in Hamilton (Bermuda) after running a few last Caribbean cruises from New York.

She was then sold for further service to Eastern Steamship Lines, well known on the eastern seaboard of the U.S.A., and was renamed Bahama Star. She was given air conditioning during a refit at Jacksonville, and a white hull with her funnel painted blue with a narrow black top and a white-edged broad red band containing a blue diamond with a white ‘F’ in the centre, which stood for F. Leslie Fraser who had purchased Eastern Steamship Lines for $500,000 in June 1954. The central letter was later changed to ‘L’ in 1961 when financier William r. Lovett of Jacksonville took over the company. She ran three and four day cruises from Miami to Nassau with accommodation for 380 passengers.

She had a dramatic time on 13th November 1965 when the competing Yarmouth Castle ex Evangeline suffered a serious fire in the early hours of the morning. A fire had started in an empty cabin used as a storeroom, and Bahama Star was quickly on the scene and managed to rescue 378 survivors in a four hour ordeal, but unfortunately 88 passengers and two crew of Yarmouth Castle were lost. The former Evangeline of Eastern Steamship Lines had been completed in 1927 by the Cramp yard at Philadelphia for their Boston services to New York and Nova Scotia as well as summer cruises from Miami. She sank 60 miles NW of Nassau in a position about 13 miles NW of great Stirrup Light in the Bahamas in 400 fathoms of water. Bahama Star continued her Miami to Nassau cruising until 1969, when she could not be brought up to the required operating standard, and she was sold to Western Steamship Lines and renamed La Janelle.

Her new owners had her towed around to Port Hueneme near Santa Monica in California, where the intention may have been to have her converted into a floating restaurant. She was anchored outside the port in early 1970 to avoid port fees until in a storm on 13th April of that year she dragged her anchor and ran aground on the sandy beach just to the west of the port breakwater pier. She listed badly and as she began to settle into the sand her two ‘night watchmen’ were taken off by helicopter. She became a stranded tourist attraction during the coming months, with souvenir hunters and surfers looting the proud ship after her career of forty years. Finally, a U.S. Navy team cut up the ship for scrap, and part of her hull was incorporated into a new arm of the Port Hueneme breakwater. This lovely old ship had been held in affection by all of her many Masters as Borinquen, Puerto Rico, Arosa Star and Bahama Star.

Postscript

Hurricane deckers such as Borinquen are long gone from San Juan, and have been replaced by numerous calls by cruise ships at six berths at Piers 1, 3 and 4. There are container terminals to serve over two hundred calls per year by Libra Line of Brazil, as well as calls by the other big container lines, and calls by six container ships of the Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping authority. The Autoridad de los Puertos de Puerto Rico (Port authority of Puerto Rico) was created as a public corporation of U.S. territory in 1942. It has 6.9 kilometres of berthing including 34 docks and 46 berths, with 10.2 hectares of warehouse space and 13.9 hectares of open cargo space. There are eight main cargo terminals, five in Puerto Nuevo and three in old San Juan and Isla Grande. Most cruise ships can berth and sail again without the use of tugs, but the port has four powerful tugs as well as six small passenger ferries that run from old San Juan to Catano and Hato rey across the beautiful Bay of San Juan.

San Juan is the most historic port in the Caribbean, and also the one that has done the most to preserve its cherished historic past. In this respect, the preserved, cut down hull of Borinquen at Port Hueneme is a reminder of the two decades when she used to slip out to sea past the massive El Morro fortress and set a course for New York. Her happy cruise passengers would look up at the hundreds of cannon pointing seawards, and perhaps think of the Spanish troops that once drilled in the Plaza del Armas for almost four centuries.