The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-06-12

Founder of the line was c. H.
Mallory, son Of y noted builder
of Clipper ships: S5AAS
In 1870 the clyde Line was re-
sponsible for aanotheIA improve
ment in American ship construc-
ton It gave up the practice of
building passenger staterooms in
the stern of its ships and adopted
an English innovation and set
them amid ships Not long after
wards other American lines fol-
lowed the same ship-building
pattern.
During 1872 the Clyde Line
launched the George w. Clyde,
an iron-hulled steamer of 1904
tons. In it was installed another
Clyde innovation-the first COM
pound engine ever manufactured
in the United States. Fitted-up
for service the vessel was as
signed to the New York-Galves-
ton run, a route then covered
weekly by the steamers of the
New York and Texas Steamship
Company.
: To provide "a shortcut to the
Far West, the Clyde Line then
formed the Panama Transit
Steamship Company. This line,
which furnished cheap and quick
transportation of passengers and
freight between the Atlantic and
San Francisco, was so devised
that it eliminated the hazardous
Cape Horn trip. Passengers and
cargo were taken aboard at New
York and transferred TO the
Panama Railroad at Colon. After
a rail trip over the Isthmus pas
sengers again boarded a Clyde
boat for the journey up the west
coast.
Inauguration of steamer serv-
ice between New York and Jack
sonville, Thanksgiving Day, 1886.
was an historic event in the
career of that southern city.
When the Cherokee, the largest
ship to negotiate the St. Johns
River, tied up at Jacksonville,
every one of the $4,000 residents
was said to have tramped
through the ship to inspect its
sumptuous appointments.
In 1898, Clyde liners again
served the purposes of war,
carrying troops and war goods
during the Spanish-American
conflict. One of the three boats
drafted into this service was the
.Comanche, built in 1895. This
liner. the first TO be equipped
with quadruple-expansion en-
CINE, was 800 feet 10 inches long
and of 1902 tons register Later,
in 1901, it was heightened to 369
feet 4 inches. increasing her ton
mage to 1856.
- It was not until a dozen years
later that another vital event in
the history of the Clyde Line
took place. This was the opening
of the service between New York
and Miami in 1924.
Although Miami, even at that
time, was famous for the lavish
ness of its civic spectacles, it
outstripped all past performances
in staging a welcome for the
Apache. AS the Clyde liner, with
a full cargo, eased into the Bay
of Biscayne, the shoreline be-
came a moving rainbow of color
and the city took on tie flam-
boyant hues of a carnival.
Banquets, elaborate cere-
monies. gay parades, all of these
contributed to the holiday as
poets of the welcome. On the
reception committee was viz
tually every public figure in the
state. Among the welcomers al
so were the governors of a num-
Der of nearby states.
In anticipation of tremendous
increase in travel to Miami and
other southern cities. the Clyde
Line in 1925 began the largest
shipbuilding program ever un-
dertaken by American ship
owners. Within two years more
than sl4,OOO,000 was expended
for ship construction. And into
the sea sid the Cherokee, Semi
mole. Mohawk, Algonquin, fol-
lowed by the Iroquois and
Shawnee.
Climax to the individual his
tories of the Clyde Line and the
Mallory Line took place in 1892,
when in the interest of greater
efficiency and service, the two
lines merged into one great ship
ping network. At the time of the
consolidation, the Mallory Line
was one of the most important
freight-carrying services plying
along the Atlantic and Gull
coasts. 'iil 10 = lef@
Under the aegis of the Clyde
Mallory Lines, the combined COM
panies augmented their facilities
and established what is now pos
sibly the greatest sea-going vaca-
ton medium of transportation IN
the world.