Niart - ML
Ships Transport
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
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.
Wiki: Advertisement from The Daily Examiner of 1887
Pacific Mail Steamships "Colorado" and "Senator" at the Pacific Mail docks off South Beach, c. 1880s. Pacific Mail was the backbone of trans-Pacific shipping during the 1860s and 1870s. Not only did Pacific Mail have a guaranteed contract from the U.S. government to carry mail across the seas, they were also the primary carrier of immigrant Chinese labor. Thus, in July, 1877 during three days of riots by unemployed white workers, starting in the sandlots near the then-under construction City Hall, deputized members of the “Pick-Handle Brigade” fought off rioters intent on setting these docks aflame to deter further Chinese immigration. Repelled, the rioters set a nearby lumberyard on fire, probably on Mission Creek.
Photo: San Francisco National Maritime Museum, A12.18.322n
Pacific Mail Steamship Company docks, 1871. Photo: Carleton Watkins
The history of the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company (PMSSC) (1848-1925) is synonymous with that of San Francisco, where the line was based throughout most of its history. Its history is also synonymous with Gold Rush transportation and with Pacific Basin trade and migrations. Here are some 19th Century lithographs and paintings depicting PMSSC ships, all of which helped contribute to the City's economic and social development.
Original lithograph ca. 1867 of the wooden side-paddle-wheel steamer "China," built for Pacific Mail's pioneering trans-Pacific route between San Francisco and Yokohama, with service also to Shanghai. Lithograph by Endicott, New York.
The "Tennessee" was on Pacific Mail's Panama-San Francisco run when she ran aground at Tennessee Cove in Marin County in 1853. This Sarony & Major litho, ca. 1850, belonged to Renee Pierre Schwerin of San Francisco, the company's VP and General Manager in the late 19th Century.
Pacific Mail Company's offices on the southeast corner of First and Market, 1896. Photo: Shaping San Francisco
Death Ship
by Dr. Weirde Photo: San Francisco Maritime Museum
The Chinese in San Francisco remained so attached to their homeland that they didn't want to be buried anywhere else. For years, "death ships" laden with Chinese corpses, bones, and ashes plied the Pacific, returning the remains of Chinese immigrants to their native soil. In 1858, for example, the ship Asia sailed from San Francisco to Hong Kong, bearing the embalmed bodies of 321 Chinese in its hold. The same year, the American clipper Flying Cloud sailed the same route, carrying 200 Chinese corpses as its main cargo. It wasn't until the 20th century, with the earthquake and fire of 1906 and the fall of the Manchu Empire in 1912, that the majority of Chinese here decided to stay and make San Francisco their permanent home ... both in life and in death.
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