The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-02-09
STEAMER TEXAN
MAKES A RECORD

1 NEW YORK, January 5.-The Amer
I Jean Hawaiian steamship Texan. a hi,
freighter holding the record betwee,
New York and San Francisco. wa,
among the fogbound fleet that anchor
ed outside the Hook on Friday night
. and lodged in yesterday morning. She
, brought another record with her
, namely nineteen days from Buenos
/, Ayres. No other merchantmen of any
/, nationality has ever done so well as
that between the capital of Argentina
and Sandy Hook.
On her way down to Argentina the
Texan, which burns oil and hence docs
not have to stop at coaling stations.
broke the record to Montevideo. can
ital of Uruguay covering the sea suaca
in twenty days.
The Texan is an American ship,
having been created at the yards of
the New York Shipbuilding Companv.
which sent into the water Yesterday
the biggest American battleship. the
Arkansas. She was good from the
very first when she burned coal, and
! she carried enough of that, being a
very economical ship even then. 70.
take her over about $4,000 miles be-
tween San Francisco and Sandy Hook
by way of the Strait of Magellan with
out a stop.
Barber q Co., through their vice
president, Francis NJ Wilson. charter
ed the Texan in November to take 4
big cargo down to Montevideo and
Buenos Ayres. 1t happened that the
American Hawaiian Line, whose ships
ply between New York and Puerto
Mexico, carrying sugar chiefly had no
work for few months for the Texan |
and would have laid her up if Mr.. !
Wilson had not decided that he could |
use her profitably on a time charter. |
This arrangement was profitable to
the American-Hawaiian Line as well
as to Barber & Co. The Texan sailed
on November and made Montevideo,
to the establishment of the natives and
American residents, who had never
seen the Stars and Stripes flying over
the taffrail of an American steamship.
Uruguay greeted the novelty with en-.
thusiasm and Capt. Parse of the Tex
an was hailed as a sort of hero. After
discharging cargo at Montevideo he
sailed up the Rio de la Plata to Buenoa
Ayres, about 1T miles away, and ev
erybody in the Argentine capital turn
ed out to see the first American flag
aboard a merchantmen run by steam
The skipper and his men owned the
town for a while.
The question that naturally sug-
gested itself to the ship news men
when they heard of the record MAX
ing ship was: Why cannot Amer
lean steamships go into the South
American trade and win money? /
Capt. Burnham and Mr.. Tomlinson,
in charge of the office of Dearborn
and Lapham, agents of the American
Hawaiian Line, told why. The Tex
an is an unusual vessel. She has
great cargo capacity and can be run
economically. She WAS fchaFtered ,
simply because she was the emily
big cargo carrier available when Bar
Der & Co., needed a ship to take
lot of goods to South America The
exact conditions that made her char
herring possible were not likely TO {
happen again in a quarter of a cen
Lury or more. 1t was an isolated IN
stance. The trade conditions were
Just ripe for the chartering of an
extra ship and the extra ship hap {
rened to be idle waiting for a char K
Ter. Now the business between {
Puerto Mexico and American ports
S good and the Texan will go back Z
On her old route, sailing for Puerto
Mexico next Friday. She came here
n ballast, her charterers not find 9
ng profitable cargo for her in South {
America. '
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