B. Mclain Transportation Line

B. McLAIN TRANSPORTATION LINE

THE vast movements of freight in the harbor of New York have long commanded the attention of enterprising men who have organized this harbor service on a basis of high efficiency and growing volume, so that at all times there are many boats moving, carrying bulk freights to and from the various sections of the harbor.

One of the largest and most active of the fleets engaged in this important feature of harbor business is that known as the B. McLain Transportation Line, which takes its name from its founder, Bernard McLain, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, who, in 1887, resigned his position as car inspector for the Central Railroad of New Jersey and. Purchased six barges, which were the nucleus of the large fleet which he afterward acquired and which he managed with great ability and with a strict business integrity, which insured the scrupulous fulfillment of every contract he entered into. His judgment was sound and his energy untiring. His prompt and excellent service brought him the approval of all with whom he had dealings, so that the business controlled by his line grew apace.

He added to his fleet boat by boat, and by close application to business he became one of the foremost of those engaged in the bulk transportation of coal, grain, ice, etc., about New York Harbor and tributary rivers.

In 1897 he was joined in the business by his son-in-law, Jeremiah J. Kelly, and they continued together until January 1, 1914, when Mr. McLain retired from the business, selling all his interests to Mr. Kelly. Mr. McLain had made the business a signal success, and had earned for himself the highest reputation in the trade.

Since Mr. Kelly became the owner and general manager of the business he has devoted his personal attention to it, and is now aided by his son, Mortimer B. Kelly, as assistant manager.

Mr. J. J. Kelly had been in railroad life before entering the water transportation business,

and in October, 1897, he resigned from his posi-tion as an accountant in the office of the auditor of freight traffic for the Central Railroad of New Jersey, 143 Liberty Street, to enter the transportation business with Mr. McLain. With him he continued in constant association up to the time of the transfer of the business in 1914. Since that time he has devoted his attention to the improvement and enlargement of the busi-ness. In his association of seventeen years with Mr. McLain in this business he has mastered its details and its problems, and since acquiring ownership he has added considerably to its tonnage, which now has a carrying capacity of about two million tons a year.

In the past few years there has been a most wonderful increase in the volume of water traffic carried on in New York Harbor, and Mr. Kelly, with one of the largest fleets in New York under his full control, has met the emergency with marked ability and increasing prestige for this line. He manages the business with a constant endeavor to give valuable and efficient service.