(PM) Pacific Mail
Steamship Company
Service To
Australia/New Zealand
1875-1885
Founded in 1848,
the he Pacific Mail Company established services between the East and
West
coasts of the United States,
and between San Francisco and
Yokohama and Hong
Kong. In 1875, the
Company was awarded a
ten-year contract, with a
subsidy mainly from New South
Wales, to provide a
five screw steamship service between San Francisco, Honolulu,
Kandavau (Fiji), and alternately to Sydney or Auckland and
other New Zealand
ports. Initial
voyages were made by the
Vasco
De Gama (a British flag screw steamer),
the Pacific Mail screw steamer Colima
and a chartered screw
steamer
Mikado.
From the beginning of 1876, the service became a regular
four weekly
service and the route had been changed to
include
both Auckland and Sydney
for
each voyage. In 1877, Honolulu replaced Kandavau in the route. The
service continued
until the contract expired in 1885
when
Pacific Mail decided not to renew, and the service was taken over
by the
Oceanic
Steam Ship Company (OS)
jointly with the
Union Steam Ship
Company of New
Zealand (UN)
Vasco
De Gama - iscs 2912t 1873 Renfrew
nmm
photo No. G01311
Built for
the China Transpacific
Steamship Co.
1875 - made one return voyage
San
Francisco-
Kandavau-Sydney
Colima - iscs 2905t 1873
Chester, Pa
Photo by D.A. de Maus
in
1875 - made two return voyages San
“Ships
in Focus Record No. 35”
Francisco-Kandavau-Auckland- Port
in
an article on de Maus by Ian
Chalmers.
Returned to Panama-San
Farquhar.
Francisco route
City of San
Francisco - iscs 3009t
1875 Chester, Pa
atl photo
by D.A. de Maus
1875-1876 made three return
voyages
San
ID:
1/1-002002-G
Francisco-Kandavau-Sydney
Same photo in “Ships in Focus
1877 - wrecked on Mexican
coast
Record No. 35” (as above)
Granada - iscs 2751t 1873
Wilmington, Del.
atl
- photo by D.A. de
Maus
1876 - made one return voyage
San
Francisco-
ID: 1/4-009617-G
Kandavau-Auckland-Port Chalmers.
Returned to
Same
photo in “Ships in
Focus
San Francisco Panama route.
Record No. 35” (as above)
Mikado - iscs 3034t
1873 Glasgow No
image found.
Built for D.R. Macgregor & Co
1876-- Made one return voyage
Sydney-Auckland San Francisco
City of Sydney - iscs 3016t
1875 Chester, Pa.
Photo in Dickson
Gregory’s
1876 - Began service on San
Francisco-
“Australian Steamships Past
Kandavau- Sydney route
and
Present”
City of New
York - iscs 3019t 1875 Chester,Pa Photo by D.A. de Maus in
1876 -Began service on San
Francisco-Kandavau-
“Ships in Focus
Record
Sydney route
No. 35” (as
above)
Zealandia - iscs 2730t 1875
Glasgow
Photo by D.A. de Maus in
Built and owned by the Faiffield Ship
Building
“Ships in Focus
Record
Company with British registry
and officers,
No.35”
(as above)
and Chinese crew but managed by Pacific
Mail.
Photo in Will Lawson’s
1876 - Began service on the
San
Francisco-
“Steam in the Southern
Auckland-Sydney route.
Pacific”
1886 - Sold to
Oceanic Steam Ship
Co.
Australia - iscs 2737t 1875 Glasgow
slq photo
Built for the same British company, and
under
Negative No. 128503
the same arrangements.
isn - Illustration of the
1876 - Began service on the
San
Francisco-
“Australia” as flagship
Auckland-Sydney route
of the New South Wales
1886 - Sold to Oceanic Steam
Ship
Co. National Regatta (above)
(1881,
vol. 18, no.2, p.21)
Sources
1. Will
Lawson’s “Steam
in
the Southern
Pacific: The
Story of
Merchant Steam Navigation in the
Australian Coastal and Intercolonial Trades, and
on the
Ocean Lines of the Southern Pacific”
(Gorden & Gotch,
Auckland
1909)
2
John M Maber’s
“North Star to Southern Cross”
(T.
Stephenson & Sons Ltd, Prescot , Lancs 1967)
3.
Peter
Plowman’s “Across the
Pacific: liners from
Australia and New Zealand to
North America”
(Rosenberg, Dural, NSW 2010)
–has photos of most of
the
Pacific Mail ships.
4.
Article on Photographer David de Maus Part ! by
Ian
Farquhar in “Ships in
Focus Record No. 35”
(2006).
5. Illustrated Sydney News,
1881
RETURN