New Orleans: Gateway to the Americas
Del Sud, 1938 |
The photograph of this painting by an unidentified artist of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project shows the unloading of the steamship Del Sud in the Port of New Orleans, ca. 1938. In that year, nine steamship companies sailing to Cuba, the West Indies, Central America, and Mexico operated in the port, among them, the Delta Line of the Mississippi River Shipping Company, owners of the Del Sud. In fact, Delta Line operated two ships named Del Sud over time. This is the first, a 4982 ton steamship built in 1919 at Hog Island, Pennsylvania, and originally named the Salvation Lass. The Del Sud offered regular passenger and freight service between U.S. Gulf ports and Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. The second Del Sud was built especially for Delta Line and made her maiden voyage on sMarch 28, 1947. Today, the Port Record reports, "twenty ocean carriers call Central America and the Caribbean basin with service at the Port of New Orleans," and trade with Latin America accounts for 10.1 per cent of the total trade volume at the port.[Works Progress Administration Photograph Collection. Federal Art Project Series]