[2][3][4] The line sailed along the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada, operating out of Boston and New York.

The United States government requisitioned all of the fleet's vessels for military duty on both the Atlantic and Pacific.

Charles was already involved in the shipping business while a student at Bowdoin College, and at his graduation in 1877 he had accumulated a sizable capital.

Despite an initial announcement of such a sale, Morse failed in an attempt to purchase the Long Island Sound steamers of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

[4] A failure speculating in 1907 led to the collapse of banking interests Morse had acquired driving his steamship lines into receivership, for varying periods, in February 1908.

[9][10][11] Indicted by United States District Attorney Henry L. Stimson, Morse was convicted of violations of federal banking laws.

In 1923, Eastern hired naval architect Theodore Ferris to design new ships for the New York to Boston route.

The ships had to be stable enough to cross Block Island Sound but narrow enough to pass through the Cape Cod Canal.

The United States government requisitioned all of the fleets vessels for military duty on both the Atlantic and Pacific.

The ships were officially returned to Eastern by the U.S. government in February 1946, and it would take a year to reconvert them to passenger service.

Eastern Steamship would curtail this requirement by becoming one of the first lines to reflag their vessels to a flag of convenience with the less strict Liberian registry.

[citation needed] With ongoing financial troubles the Yarmouth was sold in 1954 to Frank Leslie Fraser of the Miami based McCormick Steamship Corporation for $500,000.

[18] The Canadian government would withdraw its subsidy, after ordering a new ferry MV Bluenose, for the 1955 summer season, which would lead to the end of the Eastern Steamship Line.

[21] The remainder of the Eastern owned piers, and laid up vessel Acadia, would be sold off, and all business would cease by 1955.