Voyage of the Doric

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 7, 17 January 1884, Page 2

Voyage of the Doric

We extract the following from tbe> London letter of the Erening Posl :'— The Doric arrired from New Zealand ports on Sunday, 18th November* Sho made a capital passage of 42 days, the exact steaming time from port to port being 40 days 22 hours 25 minutes only. The passengers were landed all well at Grnvesend and the vessel wa» docked at Woolwich on the 18th. The Doric orings 9,000 carcases of frozen mutton, 2"0 sides of beef, 100 tons of chilled obeese and batter. This large nnd valuable., cargo was, it seems, kept in condition by one of Haslam's engines only (the British King has two and the Catalonia three), so that had there beea a slight breakdown, every atom of meat on board must bare proved worthless. How colonial shippers can run such a risk most of us are at a loss to understand. I learn from one of tbo passengers that Mr Ford, the engineer in charge,- and his assistants .had to work like slares from the first day of the passage to the last, and they were in a perpetual fever of anxiety lest some small hitch should occur and render all efforts abortive. With only a single engine going, it was not, of course, pessi* ble to keep the temperature of the chambers exceptionally low. Mr Ford returns the average temperature as 14 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest point ever reached being 22 above, and .the lowest 20 below zero. Ji. glance at tho table of temperature, Ac, forwarded » few mails back will show this should land the meat in good condition. The average temperatures returned by they., engineers of ships whose meat has beea oS thoroughly satisfactory range from seven -■ below zero to 14 above. The average temperature of the Mat aura was, however, 18 above zero, and the British Sing (where a number of oarcasesVent wrong) 17 above zero. 1 was aboard the Doric while the mutton was being unloaded and thought everything right. It trancpfred, however, thut four eur,cas.es, packed near the side of the ship in the lower hold, were black about the legs, and consei^ienily condemned by tbe health officer as unfit for food. The beef, though ! excellent in quality, hangs fire, and the | mutton (all uood save the four caroasur I above- named) only realised bH toS^d j wholesale, a deplorable price. I fear it is no use blinking the fact' that the'"---t Vtataum catastrophe prejudiced; |h# \ -frozen meat trade more lljaii many fancfe/i :> it did. Anyhow, the wholesale price has fallen steadily sinue.