On one voyage,White Star Line’s Doric (1883) was launched at Harland & Wolff in Belfast on 10 March 1883. The first Doric (there was a second one in 1923), offered accommodations for 70 first-class passengers and 900 emigrants.
The 4,784 GRT liner, 440.1 feet long and 44.2 feet at beam, first sailed for the White Star/Shaw, Savill & Albion New Zealand service. She was later chartered to the New Zealand Shipping Co. In 1896 Doric was transferred to the White Star/Occidental & Oriental Line and assigned to the San Francisco-Hong Kong service.
On 6 July 1902, Doric arrived in San Francisco carrying the then-largest ever shipment of opium: 33,210 pounds.
Doric was sister ship to both Coptic and Ionic. Each of the three liners were constructed of steel, a first for Harland & Wolff, whose previous designs had been constructed only in iron.
The ship in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “McAndrew’s Hymn” was inspired by Doric.
On 23 April 1911, Doric ran aground in fog in the East China Sea and was wrecked near the Taichow Islands. After her crew and passengers were safely evacuated, the ship was looted and destroyed by local fishermen.
