wholly owned subsidiary of American Maritime Industries, built three 2,000 DWT multi-purpose ships to carry cargo between the United States and Brazil: the Amazonia and her two sister-ships, America and Antilla. In 1983, the United States Maritime Administration took possession of the three ships after American Atlantic defaulted on Title XI payments. Rainbow Hope In May 1984, entrepreneur Mark W. Yonge of Monmouth County, New Jersey founded Rainbow Navigation for the sole purpose of serving the route between the United States and United States military base at Keflavik, Iceland. Using money he earned from a ship-chartering company, Yonge chartered Amazonia from the Department of Transportation and renamed it Rainbow Hope. The company consisted of one ship, a crew of 22, and seven full-time employees. Icelandic companies had serviced the Iceland route since the late 1960s. Yonge submitted a bid quoting the same rates that the Icelandic companies were charging and invoked the Cargo Preference Act of 1904. Rainbow won an $11 million contract to carry 70% of the cargo on the route, and immediately began to work the route under contract to the Military Sealift Command. According to an official of the U.S. State Department speaking on the condition of anonymity, "Almost right at the start, Iceland let their feelings be known about losing the business... For the Icelanders, who are entirely dependent on seagoing trade, it was an issue of national sovereignty." Minister Counselor for the Icelandic Embassy in Washington, Hordur Bjarnason informed the Reagan Administration that Iceland "could not accept that a foreign shipping company would have a monopoly on carrying the cargo to Iceland." Before Rainbow Hope ever left the pier, the Department of Transportation approached Rainbow trying to defuse the situation. The New York Times characterized the ensuing fight as Rainbow Navigation versus "the Navy, the National Security Council and the Departments of State, Defense, Justice and Transportation to the President himself." During 1985, Iceland raised the matter with the United States Department of State at least six times, including a meeting in Lisbon in June of that year between Secretary of State George Shultz and Foreign Minister of Iceland Geir Hallgrimsson. Shultz described the matter as a "major irritant in U.S.–Icelandic relations" and relations were strained to the point that Iceland threatened to start boarding U.S.-flagged ships and to close the Keflavik base. Shultz's State Department attempted to solve the problem in a number of