The history of steam navigation

by John Kennedy

Chapter X.

Steamers on the Pacific.—The Telica (1825).—P. S. N. Co., 1840.—Compound Engines adopted, 1856.—Service extended from West Coast, South America, to the River Plate (1865), and to Liverpool, 1868.—The P. S. N. Co. and Messrs. Anderson Anderson & Co., 1878.—Gulf Line of Steamers between Great Britain and West Coast, South America.

The first steamer to trade along the Pacific Coast of South America was a small steamer, named the Telica, in 1825. She was owned and commanded by a Spaniard bearing a Russian name, Mitrovitch. The venture proved a failure, chiefly owing to the scarcity of fuel, and the unfortunate man, in a fit of despair, fired his pistol into a barrel of gunpowder, and blew up his vessel in the harbour of Guayaquil, destroying himself and all on board, except one man.

The next person to attempt to establish steamship communication along the Pacific Coast was an American citizen, Mr. William Wheelwright, born in Newburyport, Mass., U.S.A., in 1798, and appointed United States Consul at Guayaquil in 1824. Mr. Wheelwright, notwithstanding the tragic fate of the Telica and her owner, was convinced of the importance of steam communication to the development of the rich resources of the western side of the South American Continent, spent six years in arranging plans for steam communication between the different Republics, and at last obtained from the Peruvian, Bolivian, and Chilian Governments the privilege of establishing and maintaining a steamship service along their respective coasts for a period of ten years. In pursuance of this object he came to England, and secured the co-operation of several wealthy merchants, and on the 17th February, 1840, a charter was obtained for the establishment of the undertaking known as the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, together with a small subsidy for the conveyance of the mails. It was not the intention of the founders of the company to trade elsewhere than along the Pacific Coast, and for this purpose a capital of a quarter of a million pounds was thought to be sufficient. The capital consisted of 5,000 shares, £50 each. Only the amount required to build two small steamers was called up. These steamers were the Chili and Peru, each of about 700 tons gross register, with engines of about 150 horse-power nominal. They were brig-rigged paddle steamers, built of wood, by Charles Young and Co., Limehouse, London, and engined by Miller & Ravenhall.

Peru. Pacific Steam Navigation Co., Ltd.

Owing in great measure to the scarcity of fuel on the coast, the company, during the first five years of its existence, sustained a loss of four-fifths of its paid-up capital, but the shareholders courageously resolved to persevere with their undertaking. The seat of management of the company was, however, transferred from London to Liverpool (1846), and the late Mr. William Just appointed Managing Director. The following year (1847), the Directors were for the first time able to declare a dividend, a modest two-and-a-half per cent.

In 1850, having obtained an extension of the Government Postal contract, the Directors ordered four steamers, at a total cost of £140,000. These steamers were named the Lima, Santiago, Quito and Bogota, and were each of about 1,000 tons gross and 300 horse-power nominal.

In 1856 the company’s service was re-organised by Mr. Just, who visited the West Coast specially for that purpose. During the same year the compound type of engines was adopted in the company’s steamers, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company being thus one of the earliest ocean steamship companies to use this type of engine.

A supplemental charter was obtained in 1865, extending the operations of the company, and authorising steamship communication between the West Coast of South America, and the River Plate on the East Coast.

As the profits of the company had been steadily increasing for a number of years prior to 1867, it was resolved at a meeting of shareholders, held in December of that year, to establish a monthly line of steamers from Liverpool to the West Coast of South America, via the Straits of Magellan, and to increase the capital of the company to £2,000,000.

The first new steamer of the new service was the Pacific, 1,630 tons gross register, 1,174 tons net, with engines of 450 horse-power. Her principal dimensions were, length 267 feet, beam 40 feet, depth 17 feet. She was built on the Clyde in 1864, by Randolph Elder & Co., and cost £61,855. After trading for about three years on the Pacific Coast, she sailed from Valparaiso for Liverpool in May, 1868, as the pioneer steamer of the new mail service. During this year five steamers of about 3,000 tons each, specially built for the maintenance of this service, were added to the company’s fleet. These were the John Elder, Magellan, Patagonia, Araucania and Cordillera.

So profitable was the Liverpool trade to the West Coast, the Directors determined in 1870 to make the sailings fortnightly, and in that year they added the steamers Chimborazo, Cuzco, Garonne, Lusitania and Aconcagua to the fleet.

In December, 1871 they recommended a further increase of the company’s capital to £3,000,000, with a view of making the service from Liverpool a weekly one. During the year they had greatly increased the number of the company’s ocean steamers, having built in 1871 seven steamers, each of about 4,000 tons gross, viz., the Sorata, Illimani, Cotopaxi, Galicia, Corcovado, Puno and Potosi.

In July, 1872, the capital of the company was raised to £4,000,000, and the steamers Valparaiso and Britannia were added to its fleet, and in the following year the Iberia and Liguria.

Orellana. Pacific Steam Navigation Co., Ltd.

In addition to the above steamers, which were all built for the Liverpool to West Coast service, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company built during the years 1869 to 1873 inclusive, eighteen steamers for its Pacific Coast service.

The Iberia and Liguria were the last of the barque-rigged, clipper-bow type of steamer built for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. The succeeding vessels of the fleet have as a rule four pole masts and a straight stem.

Although the trade between Liverpool and the West Coast of South America had increased with marvellous rapidity, the increase in the company’s tonnage had more than kept pace with it. It was found that the combined passenger and cargo trade would not support a sailing each week, and the sailings were reduced to two each month. As a consequence of the reduced number of sailings, as many as nine of the company’s steamers were at one time laid up for want of employment. In 1878 the Directors were fortunately able to charter four of their vessels, the Chimborazo, Lusitania, Cuzco and Garonne, to Messrs. Anderson, Anderson & Co., who in that year founded the Orient Line of steamers from London to Australia. In 1882, when the latter company decided to double its sailings, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company made arrangements to employ several additional steamers in the Australian service. Although the Pacific Company was the first to establish steamship communication between Great Britain and the West Coast of South America, it has had to share the traffic in later years with the Gulf Line of steamers belonging to the Greenock Shipping Company, and with the steamers belonging to Messrs. Lamport & Holt.