Finding Aid for the General Correspondence of the Ship and Water Transportation Commission, 1922-1924, MARS ID 49.15

Folders contain recommendations for creation of Commission, General Assembly bill to that effect, statistics on current volume and needs of North Carolina shipping, studies of other states' ports authorities, recommendations regarding state-owned ships, report of Commission to the Governor, information on campaign to pass bond issue for state-owned port, letters pro and con state-owned port, blueprints for ships and ports, and ledger sheets. Folders are numbered -- Box 2 ends with No. 36, and Box 3 begins with No. 38. It is assumed that No. 37 was inadvertently omitted.

The State Ship and Water Transportation Commission was created by an act of the General Assembly in 1923 for the purpose of investigating the possibility of acquiring a state-owned series of ships and port or ports, and to estimate the earnings of such a shipping line to be operated and maintained by the Commission. It submitted a report to the Governor in 1923. The Governor's subsequent proposed $8.7 million bond issue for state port development was defeated in a November 1924 election, and the issue was dropped for the time being.

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