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HISTORY
In brief
SS California was one of the
first steamships to steam in the Pacific Ocean and the first
steamship to travel from Central America to North America. She was
built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company which was founded April
18, 1848 as a joint stock company in the State of New York by a
group of New York City merchants, William H. Aspinwall, Edwin
Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland.
She was built as the first of three steamboats specified in a
government mail contract to provide mail, passenger, and freight
service from Panama to and from San Francisco and Oregon.
First Decades
In the first decades of the Federal government's existence it was
not believed by a majority in Congress that the Federal Government
had the power or authority to build roads, canals or other internal
improvements—the U.S. Constitution did not specify this as a
legitimate Federal Government role. Internal infrastructure
improvements were thought to be the responsibility of private
enterprise or the states. One way around this prohibition was to
heavily subsidize mail contracts since this was recognized as a
legitimate Federal government role. Since most of the Federal
government's income then (about 89%) was in the form on excise taxes
(also called Custom duties or Ad Valorem taxes of about 25%) on
imports there was only a limited amount of money available.
Prior to 1848 Congress had already appropriated money to help
subsidize mail steamers between Europe and United States. A
Congressional mail contract from East Coast cities and New Orleans,
Louisiana to and from the Chagres River in Panama was won by the
U.S. Mail Steamship Company in about 1847. The often wildly varying
Charges river was the Atlantic terminus of the trans-Isthmus trail
across the Isthmus of Panama. After disembarking from their paddle
steamer by small boats travelers ascended the Chagres River about 30
miles (48 km) by native canoes or dugouts before switching to mules
to complete the about 60 miles (97 km) journey. In the rainy season
(June–December) the trail often degenerated into a very muddy
ordeal.
U.S. Mail Steamship
The U.S. Mail Steamship Company, headed by George Law, dispatched
their first paddle steamer, the SS Falcon from New York City on
December 1, 1848 just before the discovery of gold was confirmed by
President James K. Polk in his state of union speech on 5 December
1848 and the display of about $3,000 in gold at the War Department.
When the SS Falcon reached New Orleans, Louisiana they were swamped
by passenger requests. The SS Falcon was joined by the steamships SS
Crescent City, SS Orus and SS Isthmus as well as three overloaded
sailing ships headed for the Isthmus of Panama
California
California was built as the first steamship specified in a mail
contract (of about $199,000) set up by the U.S. Congress in 1847 to
establish mail, passenger and freight service to the newly acquired
territories of Oregon and California. These subsidies were for three
steamships of about 1,000 tons to regularly (roughly every three
weeks) steam from Oregon and California to and from Panama City.
Panama City was the Pacific terminus of the trans-Isthmus trail
across the Isthmus of Panama. The contract for the ship was given to
William H. Webb, of New York City in 1848—a well known builder of
Clipper ships. The designs for ocean going steamboats had already
been worked out for regularly scheduled packet ships already
crossing the Atlantic Ocean between Le Havre, France, Liverpool,
England and New York City, Boston, Massachusetts etc. Steamship
designs were well advanced in the United States but were temporarily
put aside in a lot of shipyards to build the new very fast Clipper
ships. California was 203 feet (62 m) in length, 33.5 feet (10.2 m)
in beam, 20 feet (6.1 m) in depth, drew 14 feet (4.3 m) of water and
had 1,057 gross tons capacity rating. She had 2 decks, 3 masts, a
round stern, with a normal capacity of about 210 passengers. On
January 4, 1848, California's keel was laid down at New York, and
launched 19 May 1848. She cost $200,082 to build.
California was built of choice oak and cedar, with her hull
reinforced with diagonal iron straps to better withstand the
pounding of her paddle wheels. Her hull was a modified version of
the Clipper ship hulls then becoming popular. She was rigged with
three masts and sails, and classed as a brigantine sailing ship. The
wind was meant to be only an auxiliary or emergency source of power
and she was expected to carry a head of steam at nearly all times
while underway.
California was a steamboat with two 26 feet (7.9 m) diameter side
paddle wheels driven by a large one-cylinder side-lever engine built
by Novelty Iron Works of New York City. The engine's cylinder bore
was about 75 inches (190 cm) in diameter with a stroke of 8 feet
(2.4 m). The engine turned the two side paddle wheels at about 13
revolutions per minute driving the ship at about eight knots with 14
knots possible under good conditions. She carried about 520 tons of
coal.
Gold Rush Period
As word of the Gold rush spread she started picking up more
passengers wanting to go to California. At Valparaíso she filled
most of her remaining berths. As word got back to the East Coast
about the California Gold Strike and the estimated time of
California's arrival at Panama City, there was a rush on to get to
Panama to catch California to get to California. When California
arrived at Panama City 17 January 1849 there were many more
passengers than there was room. She loaded up with coal, fresh
water, fruit, vegetables. Provisions were made for extra passengers
that were selected by lottery and paid $200.00 per ticket—some sold
their tickets for much more. The passengers were jammed on board and
the SS California proceeded towards San Francisco with about 400
passengers and a crew of 36; but many more passengers were left
behind to find their way later on other ships. On the way to San
Francisco low coal supplies required her to put in to San Diego and
Monterey, California to get wood to feed her boilers—engines then
were simple enough to burn either coal or wood. Any "extra" wood on
board was also fed to the boilers. The combination of a larger load
and the southbound California Current required more coal than she
had picked up in Panama. As the first steamship on the Panama to San
Francisco route she had no prior experience or fuel consumption
information to follow.
Shortly after arriving in San Francisco nearly all of her crew
jumped ship and deserted California. It took Captain Cleveland
Forbes two months to rehire a new crew, get more coal and steam back
to Panama. California left San Francisco on 1 May 1849 with the
California Mail, passengers and high value cargo as specified in the
Congressional mail contract and arrived off Panama City 23 May 1849.
The new crew was much more expensive but the Panama City – San
Francisco route was so potentially lucrative that this was simply
included in the price of the ticket. The mail, passengers and
priority cargo to and from California soon developed into a paying
proposition as more and more mail, cargo and passengers flowed to
and from California. Much of the gold found in California was
shipped by the various merchants and bankers in California back east
by Panama Steamer. Business of all kinds needed new goods which were
nearly all only available in the east. By the end of May 1849 59
vessels, including 17 steamers, had disgorged about 4,000 passengers
in San Francisco.
As some of the early miners started returning to San Francisco with
the gold they had found many bought tickets to return to the East
Coast via Panama (the fastest and most popular return route) and
there was soon a lucrative scheduled steamships running to and from
Panama City. Most of the gold found in California was eventually
exported back to the East Coast over the Panama route. Well guarded
gold shipments regularly went to Panama, took a well escorted mule
and canoe trip to the mouth of Chagres River where they caught
another steamship to the East Coast—usually New York City. As the
Panama Railroad was being constructed passengers, gold shipments,
mail, etc. took advantage of its track as it crawled across Panama.
These shipments and passengers helped pay for its construction and
after it was built made its 47 miles (76 km) of track some of the
most lucrative in the world.
The first three steamships constructed for Pacific Mail for service
in the Pacific were California (1848), SS Oregon (1848) and SS
Panama (1848). Oregon was launched on August 5, 1848 by Smith &
Dimon, New York 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. The Oregon was used regularly on the San
Francisco – Panama City route until 1855. The Panama was launched on
July 29, 1848. She sailed from New York on February 15, 1849 and
arrived San Francisco on June 4. The trip from Panama City to San
Francisco normally took about 17 days with slightly less time to go
from San Francisco to Panama City. As more steamers became available
a regular schedule for mail, passengers and cargo was a trip about
every ten days to and from Panama City.
As the California Gold Rush continued the very lucrative San
Francisco to Panama City route soon needed more and larger paddle
steamers—ten more were eventually put into service. California was
soon dwarfed by much larger ships built to carry more passengers and
freight to and from California. She operated regularly between San
Francisco and Panama from 1849 to 1854, then was put to use as a
spare steamer in 1856. In 1875 she was converted into a sailing ship
and her engine removed. Rigged as a bark, she was engaged in hauling
coal-and-lumber until she wrecked near Pacasmayo Province, Peru in
1895.
Panama Railroad
Starting in 1851 William H. Aspinwall and associates started
constructing the Panama Railroad across Panama. This route stated in
a town called Aspinwall (now called Colon Panama) as its Atlantic
terminus. The Pacific terminus was Panama City and tracks were laid
in both directions till they met at the Culebra summit. This route
was completed when the tracks met in January 1855 at a cost of about
5,000 lives and $8,000,000. This railroad made the Panama route very
attractive, faster and reliable to travelers going to or from
California even before it was completed in 1855. A trip that had
taken 7-10 difficult and uncomfortable days was converted into a one
day train ride. After 1855 a trip from the East Coast to California
could be reliably predicted to take about 40 days or less going
either way. After 1855 the Panama route and the easy one day passage
across Panama essentially shut down the competing routes to
California across Nicaragua and Mexico. Most of the returning miners
(its estimated that about 20% of 'Argonauts" returned east) and
their gold took the Panama route.
Ship log
The SS California Log, was originally published in the New Orleans,
Louisiana Daily Picayune (February 23, 1849 Evening Edition). All
dates are given in sea time. Navigators begin their day at noon,
because that's when their latitude is normally determined by
observation of the sun, while the longitude is also normally
determined during the daytime by referencing a chronometer and an
astronomical almanac. The navigator's count of days is one day in
advance of that of the astronomer's (and civilians) calendar.
‡‡ The trip from New York City to Rio de Janeiro took 24 days and
broke existing records. The long stay at Rio is attributed to making
necessary repairs to the engine and a sick Captain.
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