Ocean Steamship Company, 1931 Ocean Terminal, 1990 Freight cars at Ocean Steamship Company GPA Transformed Former Ocean Steamship Company Site The property is now home to Georgia Ports’ Ocean Terminal to buy Central docks appears a dead issue,” stitched together a tattered quilt, one that didn’t cover the whole issue. To comprehend how far Ocean Steamship had fallen, you had to realize how high the company once stood. The venerable Ocean Steamship Company sailed to an end in the pages of the Savannah Morning News in 1958, playing out over 11 months in 28 separate stories, featuring the Central of Georgia Railway, the governor, state legislators, state officials and the Georgia Ports Authority. Headlines such as “Central of Georgia Railway Co. sells Savannah waterfront terminals to Georgia Ports Authority,” “State Auditor to block sale of water- front terminals,” “New docks purchase proposal presented,” and “Latest plan GAPORTS.COM It all started in 1872. The Central of Georgia purchased six steamships, and launched the Ocean Steamship Company as a subsidiary. The railway served as an east-west connection to the cotton fields of Georgia and Alabama. The steamship company sailed a north-south passage to Northern markets and mills. The steamship operation was centered at Vale Royal Plantation. Just upriv- er from Savannah City Hall, it dated back to the colonial era, and its fields were filled with docks, warehouses and a riverfront terminal. Success followed quickly. In its annual report for 1875-1876, the Steamship Company posted a profit of $50,268. “This result is regarded quite as favorable as could be expected,” the official report stated. That trend continued into the 1880s. Sailing north, the steamships carried passengers in cabins, and jammed cotton, naval stores (resin and turpentine), and seasonal fruits and vegetables into its holds. By 1912, Savannah was positioned as the second-largest cotton port in the world, trailing only Liverpool. Ocean Steamship, and the city’s other lines, transported more than 2 million bales. But rough seas were ahead. The boll weevil, a minuscule beetle some 16 millimeters long, devastated the cotton industry in the 1920s. Pro- duction plummeted as acreage fell. To add to Ocean Steamship’s woes, a con- current increase in highway construc- tion, and the use of private automobiles and trucks, further reduced its revenue. Hard times continued through the Great Depression. Then, World War II
