The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-04
WHY STEAMERS ARE SHORT.
The Pacific Mail Affected by a Ship
builders Strike in Belfast.

The Pacific Mail Affected by a Ship
builders Strike in Belfast.
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company is
in a really bad way fer ships to accommo-
date all the demands upon its carrying
capacity, not alone between this port and
Panama. but in the trans-Pacific business
with the Orient. As a natural result of
this predicament the Pacific Mail Com
pany has lost an enormous volume OF trade
IN both branches of its service.
The cause is not known in San Fran
cisco for this apparent shorG-sighted pol
cy, and, indeed, it has been left to the ex-
IRENE ends of the earth to supply informa-
lion that casts light upon what, after all,
turns out to be misfortunes more than
faults Of the company.
Not long ago news of the accident to the
splendid White Star steamer Belgic, char
tered for the Oriental business, came from
Japan. Ever since then she has been out
OF commission and upon the drydock I'M
dergoing repairs. The Mail Company had
another ship in view, but she, too, has
been tied up through unforeseen circum-
stances, and the result is that the corpora
ton is short at least two large steamers on
the trans-Pacific route.
About the time Colonel G. f. Croker
returned from Europe the Doric, we'll
known White Star liner on the Australian
run, was chartered by the Mail Company.
She was taken off her run to the antidode s
and placed in the shipyards at Belfast,
Ireland, where all the champion ocean
racers were built. The owners concluded
to alter the vessel, making her modern
ship in every particular and increasing
her horsepower 10 something like double
its former capacity, so that she would be
a fitting competitor on the broad Pacific
Ocean against the British ships plying be-
tween Victoria, b. c., and the Orient. 1t
is months ago now since the Doric was
taken in hand. and general surprise among
shipping men interested in her appear
ance on the Pacific has been manifested.
But this was fully explained away yester-
day by the following dispatch from a
Dublin newspaper:
In consequence of the strike at Belfast the
White Star Company have decided to bring
their Aus tralian liner Doric TO Liverpool from
Belfast, IN order TO have her alterations CON-
pleted. The Doric was sent to Belfast in July
last to be reftted and supplied with new en-
gines and boilers by the builders, Messrs. Har-
land IL Wolff. Two powerful tugs left the
Mersey to-day TO tow the Doric to Liverpool
The Press Associations Belfast correspondent
telegraphs that great suffering Is being ex-
perlenced by the labOreTS, OF whom about 5000
are out OF work, and of these only 1000 are
connected with a society. The others are at
the mercy of public charity, and hundreds OF
families are sOrely distressed.
1t will be seen from this news that the
Doric has been tied up on the ways for
months through the great strike of ship
builders on the Clyde and in Belfast. The
fact that she was hauled off the Belfast
yards by two powerful tugs from Liverpool
is taken as evidence that the Mail Com
pany pressed its claims on the steamer s
owners and that she must be refitted and
sent out to this port without further de-
lay. In the meantime the Mail Company
and the OCCIDENTAL and Oriental Company
are compelled to look at the bulk of the
Pacific business pass to the Canadian and
Northwestern lines.
But the worst of it all is the port of San
Francisco is suffering from the lack of car
rying capacity in the service of the two
great companies.