SS City of Peking - Construction

Construction

In 1865 the Pacific Mail Steamship Company had obtained a $500,000 annual subsidy from the U.S. Congress to operate a steam packet between the United States, China and Japan. On June 1, 1872, Congress approved an additional $500,000 subsidy, raising the company's total subsidy to one million dollars annually. Under the terms of the statute, the new subsidy was contingent upon the company increasing its packet to a monthly service beginning on October 1, 1873 and continuing for a period of ten years. The statute also stipulated that the company must utilize iron ships of at least 4,000 tons for the service, built in the United States and suitable for conversion into naval auxiliaries in the event of war.

With the incentive of the new half million dollar subsidy, Pacific Mail decided to upgrade its entire fleet of aging wooden side-wheelers with new iron vessels. The company it chose to build its new fleet was John Roach and Sons, which had recently opened a state-of-the-art shipyard, the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Company, in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Pacific Mail ordered a total of nine iron ships from Roach, the first of which were to include the 4,000 ton sister ships City of Peking and City of Tokio. During construction however, rumors abounded that a newly established British company, China Transpacific, was building even larger ships in England for service on the same route. Pacific Mail concluded that it would require larger ships than originally envisaged to successfully compete, and submitted new specifications, which upgraded the two ships from 4,000 to 5,000 tons. The change required a complete redesign of the hull and machinery, and Roach, who had already laid the keels and constructed the frames to meet the original specification, was forced to start from scratch, delaying the ships' completion.