Pacific Steam Navigation Company—First steamer on the Pacific, 1825—Mr. Wheelwright—Obtains a charter, 1840—First vessels, the Chili and Peru—Warm reception at Valparaiso—The Company persevere—Appointment of Mr. Just, 1846—Extension of contract, 1850—Marked improvement in the prospects of the Company, 1860—New lines—Vast increase of capital, 1867—Further increase of capital to 3,000,000l., 1871—Capital increased, to 4,000,000l., 1872—Extent of fleet, Iberia and Liguria—Chimborazo, 1871—Too rapid increase—Loss arising therefrom—Modification of mail contract and reduced services—West coast steamer Bolivia—Future prospects of the Company—Trade with Mexico—First line of steamers from Liverpool to Chagres—West India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company—Liverpool, Brazil, and River Plate Steam Navigation Company.
Pacific Steam Navigation Company.
About the period when the West India Steam Line was in course of formation, another company, destined to surpass it in importance, had obtained from the British Government a charter for establishing “steam navigation along the shores of North and South America in the Pacific Ocean,” as well as between those shores and China, the Australasian Colonies, and certain ports in the West Indies and in the Atlantic Ocean.
To establish a line of steam-ships for the purpose of carrying on efficiently the large and valuable, but hitherto undeveloped, commerce within the area named was indeed a bold undertaking, and one requiring extensive and varied knowledge, with a large amount of experience and judicious management combined with the necessary amount of capital. These various requisites were not, however, readily obtained at a period when ocean steam navigation was comparatively in its infancy, and were rendered still more difficult by the knowledge that the endeavours of the original projectors of steam navigation on the shores of the Pacific had not been attended with success. Indeed, the first of those undertakings proved most unfortunate, and was, also, accompanied by a good deal of romance.
First steamer in the Pacific, 1825.
So early as 1825, when the struggles among the republics of the South Pacific for supremacy were at their height, a few merchants resident in Panama formed themselves into an association for the purpose of trading along those shores, but they had so many difficulties to overcome that a long time elapsed ere they could obtain the required capital. The first steamer on the Pacific coast was a small craft named the Telica, commanded and owned by a Spaniard named Mitrovitch; but his career and that of the vessel under his charge was a short and melancholy one. In a fit of despair at his want of success, with some further annoyance from the complaints by his passengers, caused chiefly by delay, and his inability to find a sufficient supply of fuel, he fired his pistol into a barrel of gunpowder, blowing up his vessel in the harbour of Guayaquil, and destroying himself and all on board except one man. An occurrence of this lamentable nature, though it happened ten or fifteen years previously, would, in most cases, have destroyed, for many years subsequently, any attempts, by means of steamers, to trade between Valparaiso and Panama, had not a gentleman, then resident in Guayaquil and familiar with the trade of the coast, taken up the business with the determination to carry it through at all hazards.
Mr. Wheelwright.
William Wheelwright,[283] an American citizen, and at that time United States’ Consul in Guayaquil, was no common man. He saw the advantages to be derived from developing the rich resources of the eastern shores of the Pacific, and the facilities which steam communication would afford to the more frequent and more rapid intercourse between the then rival republics. Nor was he mistaken in the views he entertained, though he had many difficulties to overcome. Steam, while it eventually became the chief means of settling the petty wars which had so long raged, offered, at the same time, so many new sources of profitable employment, with the opening up so many new channels of trade, as happily to direct the attention of the native inhabitants from the struggles of war to the peaceful pursuits of commerce. Studying the wants of those countries and the most efficient means of affording profitable employment to the people, Mr. Wheelwright spent six of the best years of his life in arranging plans for steam communication between the different republics, and, at last, obtained from the Peruvian, Bolivian, and Chilian Governments the privilege of thus navigating their coasts for the term of ten years. He then made a journey to England for the purpose of endeavouring to influence the wealthy merchants of this country to aid him in the undertaking.
Obtains a charter, 1840.
Here, however, he had still many difficulties to overcome, for the trade he proposed to develop was then comparatively unknown, and the little wars between the republics of the Pacific naturally led English merchants to hesitate, ere they embarked their capital in a company whose prospects were at that time far from encouraging. Nevertheless, he succeeded in his object, and, on the 17th of February, 1840, obtained, under letters patent, a charter for the establishment of the undertaking now known as the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, together with a small subsidy for the conveyance of the mails.