The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-11-02

Hamburg American Has the
Largest Single Fleet in
the World.

While Great Britain may claim the
chief distinction of the maritime world,
the largest single feet carries the Red,
White and Black, and its house flag is
the Hamburg American, says the
Worlds Work in a current issue. Its
sixty eight distinct services carry the
world IS commerce into and out of near
" every important port of all the CONT
nents. If the entire feet were assem-
bled in one harbor it would present an
imposing array of 100 ocean steamers,
eight others under construction and 215
river steamers and harbor craft-a total
of 383 vessels, with a gross tonnage
of nearly a million. IF this feet were
welded into one mammoth steamer it
would be nearly five miles long, more
than a mile wide and about mile
deep. To load it with bales of cotton
would require the average yield of 2,
600 900 acres; it could take the wheat
crop of 100000 acres, and half bill,
lion feet of lumber would not fill it..
This is the commercial hyphen that has
connected Hamburg and America for
sixty-one years.
The first Hamburg American ship ar.
rived in New York harbor in 1847,
when the rate of postage. to Europe
was thirty cents a half ounce, when
Castle Garden was an amusement resort,
when Broad and Beaver streets were
the dry goods districts and when lower
Broadway. between Canal street and
The Aston house, was the "Great White
Way" That first vessel was the Deutseh-
land, sailing ship Of Ut tons The
Deutschland of today registers 1902
tons, and is nearly 1000 tons smaller
than the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria.
This steamship line, whose flag is as
familiar in Montevideo, Shanghai and
Sierra Leone as in Baltimore and Puget
Sound. has made its New York home on
historic soil. A tablet erected on it's
new offices says that it "marks the
site of the first habitation of white
men on the island Of Manhattan. -
There it was that Adrian Block, com
mander of the Tiger, built four huts
in 1913 after his ship was burned. This
same seadog is also credited with the
first vessel made by Europeans in this
eountrv-the Restless, launched in 1914.
Bat the home and the history Of the
Hamburg American line are Of far less
Importance than the opportunities
which this one unit Of transport offers
to American shippers It's $50 liners
and cargo boats may be of no more i'm
portance than an equal number Of
other vessels. but their assembling
under one house flag makes them more
convenient. This fleet touches regu-
7arlv at the ports Of New York, Bos-
ton. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk,
Newport News. Galveston, San Fran
cisco and Puget Sound. It brings
every one of these widely distributed
American ports into direct communlea-
ton with nearly all the world. II
there were other boats on the seas. an
American exporter wouid find Inst OF
about 500 ports where his goods might
be landed He might not only ship
to every seaport that he could name,
but he could get through bills Of lad
ing TO scores Of such unheard-of ports
as PuIo Web. Siam; Soloo. East In
dies: Ahwaz. Persia: Nossi Be. East
Africa: Half Jack, West Africa: Bed
sted. Denmark; Txpila. Finland, and
OerHskoeldsvik. Sweden.
The capacities Of these great steam
ers is enormous. The express steam