The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-06-02
NINE SHIPS NEEDED
TO HANDLE BUSINESS OF OCEAN
STEAMSHIP COMPANY.
GREAT GROWTH RECENTLY
MADE NECESSARY THE MACON
AND SHIPS NOW BUILDING.

None of Present Fleet TO Be Dis
posed of, Says General Manager
w. II. Pleasants-PIenty of Freight
Now and Will Have All Can Ham
die When Cotton Season Opens.
Tallahassee Again on Line After
Being in Dry Dock Year-Has
New Bottom, New Engines and
Has Been Completely Done Over.
The addition of the City of Macon
to the line of the Ocean Steamship
Company now gives that company
eight ships between Savannah and
New York and one between New York
and Boston. The enormous carrying
capacity of the latest addition to the
fleet. which is almost double that of
the sin9ller vessels, and the fact that
each ship will carry a full cargo en-
each trip, both north and south,
shows how greatly the business of the
line and of the port of Savannah has
grown recently.
Mr.. W. H. Peasants, vice president
and general manager of the line, was
asked yesterday if the amount of
freight that has hitherto been handled
by the other vessels will be sufficient
to keep the entire feet, with the new
addition to it, filled on each trip. He
said that it would. The business has
grown greatly in the last two years,
he said, SO largely that all the boats
of the present feet are actually
needed.
This is the slack season, too, he stat
ed, so far as freight is concerned, and
judging by the experience of last sea-
son, when the cotton shipments begin,
the line will have all the freight that
can be handled. Why he said last
season it wasn't necessary to solicit
business at this end; we had all we
could do, and in some cases had to turn
it away" Though Mr. Peasants did
not say so, it is known that during
the busy season ships have often been
forced to leave freight on the wharf.
after having taken on all their holds
would accommodate.
Referring again to the growth of the
business during the last two years, Mr..
Peasants stated that the officers of
the company looked not only for con-
tinuance of it, but a very large increase
as they have contracted for two more
ships of the Macon and Memphis type,
and expect by the time they are de-
livered that there will be enough
freight to guarantee them full cargoes.
It was supposed that with the COM
pletion of the large ships the smaller
ones would be given in part payment,
or sold, but Mr.. Peasants stated that
there is no such plan on foot. He
said further when asked about the
possibility of establishing a Savannah
Philadelphia line that there is no
probability of it.
The Tallahassee one of the ships of
the line, which has been in dry dock
for the last year, will return on her
run between New York and Savannah,
leaving New York to-day. She has
been completely overhauled and now
has a new bottom, new engines and
new fittings, changes so great that
she may be said to be a new ship.
Since the separation of the Central
of Georgia road and the Ocean Steam
ship Company's offices in Jacksonville,
which formerly was a joint office, the
Ocean Steamship Company has not
been represented in Jacksonville
though an agent will be appointed
there. MIR. Peasants states, as soon as
he can And a suitable man.