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Personal Sketches of Marine Men Franklin D. Mooney, President Atlantic Gulf @ Wet Steamship Lines By EEG. Kreutzberg RANKLIN D. MOONEY has earned distinction as a member of the group of outstanding steam- ship company executives who displayed marked ability to weather. the terrific depression which hit the shipping industry very hard after the war, and who have been able to adjust themselves to the present exacting conditions in that business. He was elected president of the Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Lines in 1921, when the shipping industry was entering the blaeckest period within the memory of the present generation. Suc- ceeding A. R. Nicol, whose health had given way under the strain, Mr. Mooney, had on his hands a difficult task. Agwi then was reporting monthly big operating deficits and it had unpaid commitments of about $20,000,000 in connection with oil and other enterprises. Under his management, the company was guided safely through the depression and discontinued the use of red ink at the end of 1923. Since that time its reports have been in- creasingly favorable. The company has wiped out pre- viously incurred bank loans, reduced its bonded indebted- ness, built or modernized many fine terminals and carried out a shipbuilding program involving the expenditure of nearly $20,000,000. This includes four large fast com- bination passenger and freight boats, already delivered, three similar vessels of the same type now under con- struction, and the purchase of a number of boats from the United States shipping board. The company also has nearly completed the return to its treasury of its great investment in oil enterprises. The man under whose guidance and leadership this achievement has been accomplished, was born at Elizabeth, N. J., in 18738. He was educated in the schools of that city. At the age of 18, he entered the employ of Miller, 62 IS entire career has been devoted with remarkable singleness of purpose to shipping and allied business interests. HARD and thorough worker him- self he expects efficiency and ap- plication to the job, in hand on the part of all his associates. E RECEIVES ungrudgingly and in full measure the loyalty and active support of his colleagues due to his marked characteristics of patience, tact and recognition of the work of others. Bull & Co., New York, who later became Miller, Bull & Knowlton. This firm, among its other important shipping activities, was part owner of the New York & Porto Rico Steamship Co., and Henry T. Knowlton was treasurer of that line. One day, John E. Berwind, controlling factor in the New York & Porto Rico line, worried by the illness of Mr. Knowlton, sent for young Mooney and told him to go over and see that things were taken care of during Mr. Knowlton’s absence. On the death of Mr. Knowlton, in 1903, Mr. Mooney was appointed general manager of the New York & Porto Rico Steamship Co. He con- tinued to occupy this post after the New York & Porto Rico Steamship Co. went into the merger known as the Consolidated Steamship Lines and which, in 1908, was re- organized as the Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Lines. In 1915, Mr. Mooney was elected president of the New York & Porto Rico Steamship Co., succeeding Henry R. Mallory. Later, he was elected vice president of the parent company, the Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Lines. In 1921 he was elected president of the latter company. In that capacity he is the chief executive of the holding company which controls and directs many im- portant interests, chief of which are the Clyde Steam- ship Co., Mallory Steamship Co., New York & Cuba Mail Steamship Co., New York & Porto Rico Steamship Co., the Southern Steamship Co., Atlantic Gulf Oil Corp. and Colombia Syndicate. He is president of the following corporations: Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Lines, Agwi Trading Corp., Agwi Transportation Co., Atlantic Gulf Oil Corp., Coamo Steamship Co., Colombia Syndicate, Cia. Petrolera del Agwi, (Continued on Page 71)