Mistress of the Oriental Trade.

The Oriental trade of the Pacific Coast now centers at Tacoma. In June, 1892, the first steamship for the Orient from Puget Sound was dispatched from Tacoma. In 1903, forty-four regular liners sailed from Tacoma for the Orient, carrying cargoes valued at $8,149,906 from Tacoma, and cargo from Seattle valued at $946,318.

Tacoma is the home port of the Boston Steamship Company, which operates a line of five large steamships of American build and registry between Puget Sound and the Orient. This line was established in July, 1902. During the first two years of its operation, there were thirty-five sailings from Tacoma for the Orient and thirty-two arrivals by vessels of the line. Cargoes of foreign merchandise valued at $6,146,488 were landed at Tacoma, while domestic merchandise for export to the value of $6,444,911 was loaded on vessels of the line at this port. Seattle furnished additional cargo for the line to the value of $2,505,935. Tacoma has handled 83.4 per cent. of the total foreign commerce carried by the Boston Steamship Company since the inauguration of its Puget Sound-Oriental line.

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.

Tacoma’s Wheat Warehouses.

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.

Tacoma handles the largest share of the staple products of the State of Washington, lumber, wheat, flour and coal. The shipments of lumber and coal have already been stated. Tacoma’s facilities for the handling of wheat are unequalled at any other port in the world. The new wheat warehouses erected in 1900 and 1901 on the city waterway, are the longest in the world, being 2,360 feet in length and 148 feet in width. They doubled the warehouse capacity for grain at this port and afford admirable facilities for receiving the wheat from the cars, cleaning and sacking it and loading it on ocean carriers. There are also two enormous grain elevators and three large flour mills on the waterfront. Tacoma’s facilities for exporting wheat and flour are so extensive that in October, 1902, no less than twenty-five wheat carriers were loaded and dispatched and the exports of the month included upwards of 2,000,000 bushels of wheat and 200,000 barrels of flour.

Tacoma is now the leading wheat and flour shipping port on the Pacific Coast, and the customs district of Puget Sound, of which Tacoma is the leading port, now ranks fourth in the United States in both wheat and flour exports, and fourth also in the combined exports of wheat and wheat flour reduced to wheat measure, each barrel of flour being equivalent to four and one-half bushels of wheat.

Group of Wholesale Houses.

THE PUGET SOUND CUSTOMS DISTRICT, OF WHICH TACOMA IS THE LEADING PORT, HANDLING 90 PER CENT. OF THE WHEAT AND 60 PER CENT. OF THE FLOUR EXPORTS OF THE DISTRICT, ROSE FROM TENTH TO FOURTH PLACE IN WHEAT EXPORTS AND FROM SEVENTH TO FOURTH PLACE IN FLOUR EXPORTS IN THREE YEARS FROM 1900 TO 1903.

The following table, compiled from the records of the Tacoma harbormaster, shows the total value of Tacoma’s ocean commerce, foreign and coastwise, for the last five years:

Coastwise and Foreign—
Receipts.Shipments.Total.
1899$8,607,196$12,195,915$20,803,111
19009,058,32514,858,50723,916,822
190111,495,85922,904,87734,400,736
190212,544,86527,886,80040,431,665
190313,335,39821,861,97235,497,370