The China Mutual Steamship Company, Ltd., and the Ocean Steamship Company, Ltd., both of which are owned by Alfred Holt & Company, British ship owners, operate a joint service between TACOMA and Liverpool and Glasgow by way of the Orient, Suez Canal and Mediterranean route. Dodwell & Company, the TACOMA agents of the line, shipped from TACOMA in 1903, for the Orient and Europe, by this service and the smaller steamships of the Northern Pacific Steamship Company, cargoes valued at $4,635,325, with additional cargo from Seattle valued at $31,805. The steamships Tacoma, Victoria and Olympia, for many years in the TACOMA-Oriental trade, have recently been sold, the traffic having outgrown their capacity. The cargo capacity of these pioneer steamships in TACOMA’S Oriental trade ranged from 3,000 to 3,800 tons. The new steamships in the service have cargo capacity ranging from 6,739 tons to 18,000 tons. The Shawmut and Tremont of the Boston Steamship Company, and the Ning Chow, the Oanfa and the Keemun of the Holt lines, are the largest carriers in the Trans-Pacific trade.
[Illustration: Tacoma’s Wheat Warehouses.
1—Loading by Electric Conveyor. 2—Machinery for Cleaning Wheat. 3—Sacked Wheat in Warehouses. 4—Where Sail meets Rail. ]
The Kosmos Line operates a regular service between Puget Sound and Hamburg by way of Mexican, Central and South American ports. In 1903 there were fifteen sailings from Puget Sound by steamships of this line, TACOMA furnishing nearly 70 per cent. of the total cargoes carried from the Sound.
The largest vessels engaged in the coastwise trade from TACOMA are the steamships of the American-Hawaiian line operating from TACOMA to Honolulu and New York, returning by way of San Francisco. The Arizonian, Alaskan and Texan of this line, are vessels of 8,671 tons gross register and 12,000 tons cargo capacity. There were fourteen sailings from TACOMA for Honolulu and New York by this line in 1903.
Two lines of steamships are operated regularly between TACOMA and other Sound ports and San Francisco, and several lines to Alaska. A fleet of colliers also plies constantly between TACOMA and San Francisco, carrying coal from this port. In 1902, 375,183 tons of coal were shipped as cargo from this port, exclusive of fuel for steamships. In 1903, the shipments of coal increased to 488,723 tons.