The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-04-05
NEW STEAMERS
ARE COMING OUT
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. STEAM
SHIP COMPANY ADDS TO ITS
MERCHANT FLEET

SAN FRANCISCO, March 22-The
| American Hawaiian steamship Com
pany announced yesterday the pur-
chase of two steamers, which are to
| be employed as a reinforcement to
the fleet of the company in Pacific
waters he steamers were acquired
from the Atlantic Transportation Co.
of West Virginia, and are the Maine
and Missouri identical in dimensions
and tonnage and sister ships in every
particular. Both are rated at 1914
gross but will easily carry 1000 tons
freight cThey were built by the Mary
! land Steel Company at Sparrow Point,
! Nd in 1908 and are steel with twin
hcrew and equal in speed to the new
ships built for the company at the
! Union Iron Works twelve and a half
to fifteen knots. The Missouri sailed
! from New York February 18th and
ought to arrive on the Coast in about
arrive i'm New York i'm May, and, after
| discharge, will at once depart for the
Pacific. Both steamers will reach the
Hawaiian Islands in time for sugar
cargoes, and will at once enter into
that traffic. The purchase of the Ma
line and Missouri will. it is said,
cause an alteration in the plans Of the
American-Hawaiian Company in ref
erence to building new ships, which
| the increasing traffic of the company
would have demanded but for this
new addition The company, it is said,
will only defer letting out contracts
for new ships for a time The Next
can, launched in December, is very
nearly ready for her initial trip, and
! the Columbia, to be launched March
Both, will add 100000 tons in addition
to the same amount of the two new
ships; so that, within six months or
less the mem tonnage Of the company
on the Pacific will equal $4,000 tons,
ready to launch which will be COM
pleted before the first of next year.
With the four steamers added, the
With the four steamers added, the
fleet of the American Hawaiian Com
Ipany will number sixteen irst-class
steamers, with a tonnage of 1913, 900.
Five steamers will remain on the At
lantc, connecting Eastern ports with
Tehuantepec, and the rest of the fleet
will engage in the triangular service
| 10 Tel lie
and Pacific Coast ports.
The Tehuantepec route has ceased
to be an uncertainty and is now con-
sidered fixed and undoubted fact
The harbor of Coatzacoalcos, at the
gulf terminus of the railroad, has now
an easily maintained depth of twenty
four feet and is. to be extended as
quickly as possible. At present the
harbor is not deep enough to accom-
modate the big steamers of the At
lantic when fully loaded. On tn Pa
c.fc terminus, Salinis Cruz has a lock-
cd basin of large dimensions, which
has been dredged out to a depth that
will carry any steamer sailing in the
Pacific ocean. The Arizonan on her
first voyage to Salina Cruz, in Janu-
airy, carried 11OOO tons of sugar and
drew twenty-eight feet She had no
difficulty in making the docks and
lying alongside the tracks of the rail-
road and in transferring her cargo.
The main embarrassment at Salina
cruz is the quolty of labor available
for loading and unloading cargoes
The supply is abundant, but primitive
once taught the way to manipulate
the appliances for freight handling, the
labor question will not be embarrass
ing The difficulty of transferring
v cargoes at Salina Cruz lessons as tn,
2 natives get more familiar with tn
| work