Pacific Mail Steamship Company

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1906 advertisement for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company from The World Today magazine

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded in 1848 by William Aspinwall with the participation of Howland & Aspinwall , which played an important role in the history of the Wild West . Before it was founded, Aspinwall signed a ten-year contract that allowed mail to be transported from the Isthmus of Panama to California. Since there was no rail line between the east and west coasts of the United States when the company was founded, this was a profitable route for exchanging mail between east and west. Other lines led to New York and Hong Kong and between China and Japan. Aspinwall remained president of the company until 1856.

history

Right from the start, the company made big profits because of the California gold rush (1848–1854). Every year there was a return on investment of 30 percent in some cases. A contract was negotiated with the government of the Republic of New Granada, which gave the Panama Railroad Company , which was partly owned by Aspinwall, exclusive rights to build the railway. With the completion in 1855, the transport was accelerated. In 1865 the Atlantic Mail Steamship Company was bought up so that the company transported mail from New York to San Francisco. In the same year, the company acquired a ten-year trade permit for East Asia trade.

Just five years after its founding, 18 steamships were in operation, in 1869 already 23. However, profits fell as a result, since the railway lines of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad between Sacramento and Omaha had been completed in the same year. Passenger transport also fell sharply. In addition, the company's ships were not being technologically renewed quickly enough, so that they felt increased pressure from competitors such as the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company . The company was initially able to survive through contracts with Australia and New Zealand, after which it was taken over by the Southern Pacific Company in 1893 . In 1912, a law was passed in Congress prohibiting ships belonging to rail companies from crossing the Panama Canal , which was under construction . After several other sales, most recently to American President Lines , the company became increasingly insignificant and finally in 1949 it was also formally dissolved.

Ships

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company's first ship was the California , built in 1848. Sister ships were the Oregon and the Panama . In 1850 the company bought two ships to create a monopoly in trade between Panama and Oregon , and built four more ships. In 1864 the Colorado was completed. In 1867 it was used for trade with China and Japan after the hull was reinforced and a mast was added. The ship City of Rio de Janeiro was put into service in 1878 and belonged to the Pacific Mail from 1881 and drove the route San Francisco – Honolulu – Yokohama – Hong Kong – San Francisco for the transpacific passenger service. The sinking of the ship on February 22, 1901 was probably the worst shipping accident in the San Francisco Bay Area to date .

The largest ships in the history of the shipping company were the two 13,639-tonne Mongolia and Manchuria , which were bought in unfinished condition by Atlantic Transport Line in 1903 and put into service in 1904.

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