The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett (American consul at Lima, Peru and also involved with the Panama Railroad Company), Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland.

History Founding The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was established to carry US mail on the Pacific leg of a transcontinental route via Panama. The federal government discussed the possibility of creating subsidies for a private shipping company, similar to the model already established in Britain for the Cunard Line and the British Mail Steam Packet Company. Such a policy served the larger objective of annexing and developing Oregon. President James K. Polk brought the Oregon Territory into the Union in 1846. Developing and maintaining the new land required the development of faster transportation and communications between the eastern seaboard and the remote northwest.

At first, the federal mail subsidy program served a second objective: the establishment of civilian steamships which could be easily converted to warships or privateers during times of war. Thus the 1845 federal enabling legislation vested authority of mail contracts with the Secretary of the US Navy. His dual mandate was letting federal mail contracts and overseeing the construction of the steamers to ensure that they would be suitable for conversion to warships. In accordance to Polk’s aggressive program for developing Oregon, Congress passed more specific laws in for mail subsidies early in 1847. The new laws approved funding for four naval steamers, directed the US Department of the Navy to supervise the construction of these ships, and directed the Secretary of the Navy to contract with private carriers to carry US Mail to Oregon via Panama. Initially they planned for monthly mail service. One set of ships was to serve the Atlantic leg between the eastern US and Panama; the other set was to serve the Pacific leg.

Secretary Mason set the terms for the Pacific mail contract: a steamer would be required to sail from Panama to Astoria, Oregon in thirty days or less. He awarded the first contract to Arnold Harris, a straw buyer from Arkansas. The contract paid $199,000 annually and was in effect for ten years. Just days later, Harris assigned the mail contract to William H. Aspinwall, who brought in three partners: Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, and Gardiner Greene Howland. They incorporated the Pacific Mail Steamship Company on April 12, 1848 with a capital stock of $500,000.

California Gold Rush

The first three steamships constructed for Pacific Mail were the , of 1050 tons, the SS Oregon, of 1250 tons, and the SS Panama, of 1058 tons. The company initially believed it would be transporting agricultural goods from the West Coast, but just as operations began, gold was found in the Sierra Nevada, and business boomed almost from the start. During the California Gold Rush in 1849, the company was a key mover of goods and people and played a key role in the growth of San Francisco, California.

In addition to their maritime activities, Pacific Mail also ran some of the earliest steamboats on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, between San Francisco, Sacramento, and Stockton. Domingo Marcucci came from Philadelphia in the Pacific Mail steamship SS Oregon with a knocked-down steamboat in its hold. He started a shipyard in San Francisco on September 18, 1849, on the beach at Happy Valley, at the foot of Folsom Street, east of Beale Street. Marcucci's company assembled the Captain Sutter in six weeks. Built for the Aspinwall Steam Transportation Line, owned by George W. Aspinwall, brother of William Henry Aspinwall, it was one of the first steamboats that ran between San Francisco and Stockton, in 1849.Scott, Erving M. and Others, Evolution of Shipping and Ship-Building in California, Part I, Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, Volume 25, January 1895, pp.5-16; Quod.lib.umich.edu accessed March 10, 2015Nancy J. Olmsted, Vanished Waters: A History of San Francisco's Mission Bay", Mission Creek Conservancy, 1986, Chapter 7, Steamboat Point, 1851-1864 Foundsf.org accessed February 19, 2015 Also for the Pacific Mail, Marcucci next converted the 153 ton side-wheel steamboat El Dorado that had been rigged as a 3 masted schooner for the trip around Cape Horn, to be used for the Sacramento run. Subsequently in March 1850, for the same company, he assembled the Georgiana, a small 30 ton side-wheel steamboat made in Philadelphia, knocked down and sent by sea also for the Sacramento run. That April Georgiana pioneered the shortcut route between Sacramento and Stockton through a slough in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta that was between the Sacramento River and Mokelumne River, which afterward became known as Georgiana Slough.

1850–1869 In 1850, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company established a steamship line competing with the U.S. Mail Steamship Company between New York City and Chagres. George Law placed an opposition line of steamers (SS Antelope, SS Columbus, SS Isthumus, SS Republic) in the Pacific, running from Panama to San Francisco. In April 1851, the rivalry was ended when the U.S. Mail Steamship Company purchased Pacific Mail steamers on the Atlantic side, and George Law sold his new company and its ships to the Pacific Mail. One of the company's steamships, the SS Winfield Scott, acquired when the New York and California Steamship Company went out of business, ran aground on Anacapa Island in 1853. In 1854, Marshall Owen Roberts purchased Law's interest and became president of Pacific Mail.

During the American Civil War, the ships of the Pacific Mail, that carried the gold and silver of the western mines to the eastern states were under threat from the Confederate Navy in the form of commerce raiders, and several plots to seize one of their steamships for its precious cargo or to convert it into a raider to capture one of its other ships with such cargo. After one of these plots, that of the Salvador Pirates came to light, to prevent any further attempts to seize Pacific coast shipping, General McDowell ordered each passenger on board American merchant steamers to surrender all weapons when boarding the ship and every passenger and his baggage was searched. All officers were armed for the protection of their ships. Detachments of Union soldiers sailed with Pacific Mail steamers.Aurora Hunt, The Army of the Pacific; Its operations in California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, plains region, Mexico, etc. 1860-1866, The Pacific Squadron of 1861-1866, pp.314-315.

In 1867, the company launched the first regularly scheduled trans-Pacific steamship service with a route between San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Yokohama, and extended service to Shanghai. This route led to an influx of Japanese and Chinese immigrants, bringing additional cultural diversity to California. Their warehouse in San Francisco, the Oriental Warehouse, was built in 1867 and was also used as an immigration station for a period.

As the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads met in Utah in 1869, the profitability of the Pacific Mail on the run from Panama to San Francisco ended. Many of its ships were sold or put on other routes.

1870–1925 While docked at San José de Guatemala, the Pacific Mail steamship SS Acapulco was involved in the Barrundia Affair of 1890. General Juan Martín Barrundia, a Guatemalan rebel general wanted by the Guatemalan government, was killed aboard ship after an attempted arrest by Guatemalan police, who hauled down the American flag and raised the Guatemalan flag in its place. The affair led to the recall of the U.S. Minister to Central America, Lansing Bond Mizner, by President Benjamin Harrison.

The company was a charter member of the Dow Jones Transportation Average.

In 1912, Congress banned ships owned by railroads from using the Panama Canal by means of the Panama Canal Act. Because of this, Pacific Mail was sold to Grace Shipping, a subsidiary of W.R. Grace and Company, which owned the company from 1916 to 1925.

In 1925, the transpacific fleet of company was purchased by Robert Dollar, of the Dollar Steamship Company. With the government bail-out of the Dollar Line in 1938, ownership passed to American President Lines, but by this time, PMSS essentially existed only on paper. It was formally closed down in 1949, after just over a century of existence.

Gallery

Ships of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company (1848–1866, 1872–1874): Built for the company, it was launched May 19, 1848 by William H. Webb, New York. It left New York on October 6, 1848 for Valparaíso, Panama City and San Francisco and then operated between San Francisco and Panama regularly until 1854. She was used as a spare steamer at San Francisco in 1856 and at Panama City in 1857. She made San Francisco to Panama City voyages for Pacific Mail in 1860, 1861 and 1866 and was later sold to the California, Oregon & Mexico Steamship Company. Returned to Pacific Mail in 1872, she was sold to Goodall, Nelson & Perkins in 1874. SS Oregon (1848–1861): Built for the company, it was launched on August 5, 1848 and sailed from New York for San Francisco on December 8, 1848, calling at Panama City and arriving at San Francisco on April 1, 1849. Used regularly on the San Francisco to Panama City route until 1855 and made one further voyage in 1856. Subsequently used on the San Francisco to Columbia River service and was sold to Holladay & Flint in 1861. SS Panama (1848–1861): Built for the company, it was launched on July 29, 1848. She sailed from New York on February 15, 1849 and arrived San Francisco on June 4. She then sailed regularly between San Francisco and Panama City until 1853, made a single voyage in 1854 and in 1856–57 was used as a spare steamer at Panama City. From 1858 she was used on the San Francisco to Columbia River service, until she was sold to Holladay & Flint in February 1861. The Panama was sold to the Mexican government in 1868 and was renamed the Juarez. SS Tennessee (1849–1853): Launched in 1848. Purchased by Pacific Mail Steamship Company, she left New York on December 6, 1849, arrived at Panama City on March 12, 1850 and San Francisco on April 14. She operated between San Francisco and Panama City until March 6, 1853 when she went aground in dense fog near San Francisco and broke up. Her passengers, mail and baggage were saved. SS Carolina (1849–1854): Completed in December 1849, she was sold to Pacific Mail Steamship Company and sailed from New York for San Francisco on January 9, 1850 arriving in San Francisco on May 7, 1850. She was used on the San Francisco to Panama City service until the end of 1851. Sold for service in China in 1854. SS Unicorn (1850–1853): Built in 1838, she sailed from New York for California and arrived at San Francisco on December 1, 1849, having been chartered by Pacific Mail Steamship Company, who purchased her in 1850. She operated occasionally between San Francisco and Panama City until April 1853 when she was sold and returned to England via Australia. SS Columbia (1850–1862): Built for the company in 1850 and sailed from New York for San Francisco on October 15, 1850. She was intended for the mail service between San Francisco and Astoria, Oregon, but the amount of business between San Francisco and Panama City caused her to be used in that service occasionally between 1851 and 1854. Sold to Chinese owners in 1862. SS Ecuador (1850–1853): Built for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company in 1845 for the Callao – Guayaquil – Panama City service she made one voyage from Panama City to San Francisco in July–August 1850. In 1850 she was sold to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and was wrecked at Coquimbo in 1853.