American President Lines, LLC (APL) is an American container shipping company that is a subsidiary of French shipping company CMA CGM. It operates an all-container ship fleet, including eleven U.S. flagged container vessels.
In 1938, the U.S. government took over the management of the Dollar Steamship Co., which was in financial difficulties and transferred their assets to the newly formed American President Lines. In 1997, Singaporean shipping company Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) acquired APL, eventually moving APL's headquarters to Singapore. In 2016, CMA CGM acquired NOL, parent company of APL. History
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
Following the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848, the West Coast of the United States then extended from Puget Sound to San Diego. When the 29th United States Congress passed the Mail Steamer Bill (1847), mail delivery was authorized to be routed by ship from the East Coast of the United States to the Pacific Coast via the Isthmus of Panama, with two steamship routes operating: New York City to Chagres, Colombia on the Eastern side of the isthmus, and then a second route from Panama City, Colombia, to Astoria, Oregon. That same year, William Henry Aspinwall secured a 10-year government contract through Arnold Harris, with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company incorporating in the state of New York with a capital of $400,000, of which Aspinwall was elected the first president. This company was to move the mail from Panama to the West Coast, being paid $199,000 per annum by the U.S. government. In January 1848, the company ordered three mail steamers from the shipyard of William Henry Webb: the SS California, SS Panama and SS Oregon. On October 5 or October 6, 1848 the Pacific Mail's first of these steamers, the SS California, departed from New York City to run service from Panama to the West Coast, traveling around Cape Horn to San Francisco—coincidentally, the California Gold Rush began in January of that year, and the steamer—and its sisters, Oregon and Panama—took on many hopeful miners en route.
Prior to founding Pacific Mail, Aspinwall had extensive experience in the shipping business as a partner in Howland & Aspinwall. Howland & Aspinwall operated some of the most famous clipper ships ever built. In 1845, while it already owned the Ann McKim, which was regarded as the fastest ship afloat, the firm built the Rainbow, which was even faster. The Rainbow is considered to be the first of the extreme clippers, which were the racehorses of the sea. The next year, the company had the Sea Witch built, which set a speed record from China to New York that still stands.
Clipper ships sacrificed cargo capacity for speed, but in some markets, the fast service allowed their owners to charge premium rates (e.g. tea from China tasted better if it was fresh, so the cargo on the first ship of the season to arrive in New York was worth more). Also, faster speed meant that the vessel could complete more voyages in a given time period, which compensated for the diminished cargo capacity.
When in 1850, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company established a competing line to the U.S. Mail Steamship Company between New York City and Chagres, George Law placed an opposition Pacific Line of steamers (SS Antelope, SS Columbus, SS Isthmus, SS Republic) in the Pacific running from Panama City to San Francisco. In April 1851 the rivalry was ended when an agreement was made between the companies, the U.S. Mail Steamship Company purchased the Pacific Mail steamers on the Atlantic side (SS Crescent City, SS Empire City, SS Philadelphia), and George Law sold his ships and new line to the Pacific Mail.
By 1850, Pacific Mail maintained a monopoly over the Panama-Oregon trade, helped by the purchase of two steamers from Empire City Line. Large numbers of prospective gold miners paying for passage to California had meant that by 1850, the capital of Pacific Mail had increased from $400,000 to over $2 million. Pacific Mail also ordered four new ships, designed to meet the needs of trade to and from California, and opened ship depots at Panama City and Benicia, California. Aspinwall invested in the Panama Railroad Company, which would replace old wagon trails across the Isthmus, cutting travel time from four days to four hours. In 1852, George Law went into partnership with Aspinwall and developed its eastern terminal next to the wharf at Aspinwall, Columbia, then sold his interest in 1853. This line was completed in 1855, and coordination between steamships and this line meant the travel time from San Francisco to New York was cut to 21 days.
In 1856, Aspinwall retired from the position of president of the Pacific Mail Company, with the former secretary, William H. Davidge, taking the presidency. Under his control, the company's capital doubled, to $4 million, but the major turning point of his presidency of the company was in 1858, when Pacific Mail's contract with the government expired. At the same time, the contract of the U.S. Mail Steamship Company also expired. This company had been providing the ships for the New York to Panama route and went out of business in 1859. A through service was deemed necessary (and profitable), and the company bought three new ships: the SS Adriatic, SS Atlantic and SS Baltic, all of which had formerly belonged to Collins Line. Competition from the other Atlantic steamship lines was fierce, however, and within a few years, the route on the Atlantic side was pulled.
During the American Civil War (1861–65), Pacific Mail used its steamers to transport gold to the East Coast to support the Northern cause. The company also received the SS Colorado, launched from the same shipyard as the SS California. By the end of the war (1865), under the new presidency, Pacific Mail purchased its competitor, Atlantic Mail Steamship Company, which at this point was providing service from New York to the Isthmus. This in turn meant that, at last, Pacific Mail was able to provide complete service from New York to the West Coast via the Isthmus, without competition.
In 1866, the Federal government of the United States awarded the first mail contract of $500,000 per annum between San Francisco and the Far East — namely Hong Kong via Japan and the Sandwich Islands (later known as the Hawaiian Islands)—to Pacific Mail. The SS Colorado was pulled from the original New York–San Francisco route to be used on the new route from San Francisco to China and Japan. The Colorado was outfitted with a mizzen mast and more coal storage for the voyage, and in 1867, became the first steamship to run a regular service across the Pacific Ocean, running from San Francisco to Yokohama, Japan and onward to Hong Kong. Pacific Mail also ordered four new ships to run on this route: the SS China, SS Japan, SS Great Republic and SS America. These ships were ordered at a cost of $1 million, and the capital of the company was increased to $20 million to cover this cost.
By 1867, the company was running four different lines: The Atlantic Line, between New York and Aspinwall, Panama. This ran thrice monthly. The Pacific Line, which linked with the Atlantic Line, which ran between Panama and San Francisco, stopping at Acapulco and Manzanillo. This route also ran thrice monthly, except for the latter, which ran once monthly. The China Line, between San Francisco and Hong Kong, stopping at Yokohama. This ran once monthly. This linked with the Pacific Line. The Shanghai Line, which ran between Yokohama and Shanghai, via Nagasaki. This also ran once monthly, linking with the China Line.
Through these links, freight could be moved from New York to Yokohama in 42 days, to Shanghai in 47 days and Hong Kong in 50 days, including all detentions. In this same year, the company owned 25 ships, with a combined tonnage of 61,474 tons.
In 1869, the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad meant that the passenger traffic on the Panama route declined. In 1872, the U.S. government doubled the subsidy on mail transported by Pacific Mail, although it required the doubling of service and the modernization of the fleet. Therefore, in 1873, Pacific Mail took delivery of the first of 11 iron–hulled, screw-powered steamships, the City of Peking. In 1875, William Henry Aspinwall, died on January 18 at the age of 68, but Pacific Mail continued on, and soon began service to Australia and New Zealand.
During the 1880s Pacific Mail modernized its ships with steel hulls, replacing the old iron vessels, and installed electric lighting by Thomas Edison on the SS Columbia, making it the first ship to have electrical power in the world. In 1893, the Southern Pacific Co. acquired control over the Pacific Mail. In 1902, Pacific Mail launched the SS Korea and SS Siberia, which were its first steel-hulled ships, followed by SS Manchuria and SS Mongolia in 1904. These ships were the largest and fastest passenger-freight ships in the Pacific, the latter two measuring more than 13,600 gross tons, larger than any other ship the company owned at the time.
In 1912, Congress banned ships owned by railroads from using the Panama Canal, and so Pacific Mail was sold to W. R. Grace and Company, where it operated as a subsidiary from 1916 till 1925, when the company's trans-Pacific fleet was bought over by the Dollar Shipping Company for $5,625,000 in cash.
Dollar Shipping Company
Meanwhile, Captain Robert Dollar purchased his first ship, marking the beginning of his shipping empire. Dollar was born in Falkirk, Scotland in 1844, moving to Canada at the age of 11, where he worked in a lumber camp. Following this, in 1893, he purchased his own sawmill on the Pacific Coast. Due to unreliable shipping timetables, he found it hard to ship his lumber from the Pacific Northwest down the coast towards California. Hence, in 1893 Dollar bought a steam schooner called Newsboy. This led to the establishment of the Dollar Steamship Company (commonly known as "Dollar Line") on August 12, 1900, which soon grew to have a large fleet of schooners transporting lumber to market.
In 1902, Dollar sailed to Asia for the first time on a Pacific Mail ship, SS China, to prospect potential lumber markets on the other side of the Pacific. He began to acquire a number of ships, and began his trans-Pacific shipping with a chartered voyage to Yokohama, Japan and the Philippines, marking his entry into international shipping. During World War I, Dollar ordered the construction of $30 million worth of ships in China, and in 1923 bought seven "502 President Type" liners from the U.S. Shipping Board, pioneering his round-the-world service, marked by the departure of on January 5, 1924. These were all named after U.S. presidents, a tradition that Dollar Shipping continued until its end.
This was followed up in 1925 by the purchase of eight more "535 President Type" liners from the Shipping Board, which had previously been run by Pacific Mail. Dollar Shipping bid much lower than Pacific Mail for the ships—on the order of $1 million—but Pacific Mail's offer included stocks as well as cash. Thus, the Shipping Board declared that Pacific Mail was unable to meet the terms of tender, and awarded $30 million worth of ships to Dollar Shipping. This naturally caused troubles for Pacific Mail, and it was taken over by Dollar Shipping the same year, although Dollar had ordered his sons to begin buying stock of the company in 1920. In 1922 the Dollar Line also acquired the Admiral Oriental Line and renamed it the American Mail Line, making Dollar one of the most profitable shipping companies in the world.