SS Doric (1923)

SS Doric was a British ocean liner operated by White Star Line.

Doric was White Star's second and last turbine-propelled ship. The vessel was constructed by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and was launched in 1922. Her passenger capacity was 600 in cabin class plus 1,700 3rd. class, with a crew of 350. The ship's maiden voyage on 8 June 1923, was from Liverpool to Montreal, Canada.

Several postcards and photos of the SS Doric are available. Most photos and documents refer to the ship as the SS Doric, however a September 1923 postcard is annotated for a specific trip and is titled RMS Doric. This suggests the Doric carried Royal Mail Ship designation during or before September 1923. That specific annotation reads: Embarked Liverpool, R.M.S. Doric 31 August 1923. Disembarked Quebec 9th Sept 1923. 2,487 miles.

According to a passport issued 25 Feb 1924 in Washington, to Chicago lawyer, Charles Lincoln Powell and his wife, Blanche; the Doric was scheduled to depart the port of New York on 8 March 1924. New York could have been a regular stop on the Doric's Liverpool to Montreal and Quebec route. The application simply calls the ship Doric, without the SS or RMS designation.

An Abstract of Log from September 3, 1926 to September 11th, 1926, shows the ship's route as: LIVERPOOL to QUEBEC and MONTREAL, via Belfast and Glasgow. That specific trip departed Cloch Point at 8:57pm GMT on September 4, with a rough head sea. They arrived at Father Point at 9:34 a.m., EST, September 11, 1926. A distance of 2,385 [nautical] miles over a passage of 6 days, 16 hours, 27 minutes, for an average speed of 14.86 knots. That same 4 September 1926 voyage lists the SS Doric at 16,484 tons and under the command of T. Jones. Without the RMS designation, it would appear the ship was no longer carrying Royal Mail by 1926.

It is believed the Doric served on this same basic route from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal from 1923 to 1932. From 1933 until her end in 1935, the Doric was used for only cruising. She was based at Liverpool until 1934 when she was one of ten White Star liners transferred to the newly merged company Cunard White-Star Ltd. The vessel was the second White Star ship to bear the name Doric, after a previous ship built in 1883.

Fate
On 5 September 1935 Doric collided with the French vessel Formigny, of the Chargeurs Reunis line, off Cape Finisterre. Following this collision the ship had emergency repairs at Vigo, Spain. However once the Doric returned to England her damage was determined to be a constructive total loss and she was subsequently scrapped in November 1935 at Cashmores shipbreaker's yard in Newport, Monmouthshire. Various examples of solid oak wall paneling from the Doric today still decorate the St Julian's Arms on Caerleon Road in Newport.