Pacific Steam Navigation Company
{{Short description|Maritime transport company of the United Kingdom}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
File:StateLibQld 1 40655 Victoria (ship).jpg
The Pacific Steam Navigation Company ({{langx|es|Compañía de Vapores del Pacífico|links=no}}) was a British commercial shipping company that operated along the Pacific coast of South America, and was the first to use steam ships for commercial traffic in the Pacific Ocean.[http://www.caphorniers.cl/magallanes/naufragios.htm Síntesis Histórica De Algunos Naufragios Ocurridos En El Estrecho De Magallanes Y Canales Adyacentes Desde Su Descubrimiento Hasta 1900 ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414234020/http://www.caphorniers.cl/magallanes/naufragios.htm |date=14 April 2012 }}, retrieved 6.December 2011 At one point in the 1870s, it had the world's largest merchant steamship fleet. The company continued in business until 1965, when it was purchased by another company, but it survived in name through a succession of ownership changes until at least the 1980s.{{Cite web |title=PSNC, Pacific Steam Navigation Company, shipowners |url=https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/artifact/psnc-pacific-steam-navigation-company-shipowners |access-date=2024-06-13 |website=National Museums Liverpool}}
History
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title = {{visible anchor|Pacific Steam Navigation Company Act 1878}}
| type = Act
| parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title = An Act to enable the Pacific Steam Navigation Company to reduce their Capital and to invest Moneys; and for other purposes.
| year = 1878
| citation = 41 & 42 Vict. c. li
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| royal_assent = 27 May 1878
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| original_text = https://books.google.com/books?id=alc1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA513
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File:House flag of Pacific Steam Navigation Company.svg used by Pacific Steam Navigation Company]]
The company was founded by William Wheelwright in London in 1838 and began operations in 1840 when two steam ships Chile and Peru were commissioned to carry mail.{{cite web |title=Pacific Steam Navigation Company |publisher=The Ships List |year=2007 |url=http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/pacific.html |accessdate=15 February 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805041328/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/pacific.html |archive-date=5 August 2011 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite book |last=Collard |first=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_br3ngEACAAJ |title=Pacific Steam Navigation Company: Fleet List and History |date=2014 |publisher=Amberley Publishing |isbn=978-1-4456-3484-5 |language=en}} Early ports of call were Valparaíso, Coquimbo, Huasco, Copiapó, Cobija, Iquique, Arica, Islay, Pisco and Callao. In 1846 the company expanded its routes to include Huanchaco, Lambayeque, Paita, Guayaquil, Buenaventura and Panama City. The company eventually came to dominate South American shipping routes on the Pacific Coast, driving its competitor, the Panama Railway's Central American Steamship Line, out of business by the late 1860s.{{cite book |last1=Delgado |first1=James P. |last2=Mendizábal |first2=Tomás |last3=Hanselmann |first3=Frederick H. |last4=Rissolo |first4=Dominique |title=The Maritime Landscape of the Isthmus of Panamá |date=18 May 2017 |publisher=University Press of Florida |isbn=9780813051826 |pages=167–195 |edition=Online |chapter-url=https://academic.oup.com/florida-scholarship-online/book/30586/chapter/258272490 |access-date=2 November 2024 |chapter=Canal Dreams and Realities, 1861–1902}}
In 1852 the company gained a contract for British Government mail to posts in western South America. Two direct routes were also established – Liverpool to Callao in 1868 and London to Sydney in 1877. In common with its contemporaries, the company lost a number of ships in its early decades. They included {{SS|Tacna||2}}, which exploded in 1874 killing 19 people, and {{SS|Atacama||2}}, which ran aground in 1877 killing 102 people.{{cite web |url= http://www.wrecksite.eu/ownerBuilderView.aspx?7826 |title=Pacific Steam Navigation Co. |work=Ship Owners |publisher=WreckSite |accessdate=16 December 2013}}
In 1905 the company sold its London – Sydney route to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, which bought the entire company in 1910. Pacific Steam continued to lose ships at sea. In 1902 {{SS|Arequipa||2}} was wrecked in a gale, killing 63 people. In 1907
{{SS|Santiago||2}} met a similar fate, killing 45 people. In 1911 {{SS|Taboga|1898|2}} ran aground, killing 60 people.
In the First World War ten of the company's ships were sunk, but at the relatively light cost of only 15 lives. In the Second World War a German submarine torpedoed a Pacific Steam passenger liner, {{SS|Oropesa|1919|2}}, sinking her and killing 106 people.{{cite web |url= http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/738.html |title=Oropesa |last=Helgason |first=Guðmundur |date=1995–2013 |work=Ships hit by U-boats |publisher=Guðmundur Helgason |accessdate=15 December 2013}}
RMSP's name and routes were retained until Furness Withy bought Royal Mail in 1965.{{Cite web |url=http://www.plimsoll.org/OnTheLine/ShippingLines/royalmail/default.asp#2 |title=Shipping Lines: Royal Mail Steam Packet Company |access-date=28 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130610101408/http://www.plimsoll.org/OnTheLine/ShippingLines/royalmail/default.asp#2 |archive-date=10 June 2013 |url-status=usurped }} Following the purchase the separate Pacific Steam Navigation Company structure was gradually abolished and the vessels sold or rebranded, effectively signalling the end of the company by 1984.
In 1919, the company began a house magazine called Sea Breezes. The journal outlived the company and it still exists, with a focus on international shipping matters.
Routes
| class="wikitable"
|+ Pre-Royal Mail routes ! Years ! Type ! Principal Route ! Ports of call | |||
| 1843–1923 | Chile – Peru | Valparaíso – coastal ports – Callao | |
| 1846–1923 | Chile – Panama | Valparaíso – Callao – Guayaquil – Panama | |
| 1848–1923 | Chile (domestic) | Valparaíso – Puerto Montt (Chile) | |
| 1868–1920 | Europe – Chile | Liverpool – Bordeaux – Lisbon – Cape Verde – Rio de Janeiro – Montevideo – Punta Arenas – Valparaíso (from 1870) – Arica – Mollendo – Callao | |
| 1877–1879 | Mail, passengers | Europe- Argentina | Liverpool – Bordeaux – Buenos Aires |
| 1904–1920 | Mail, passengers | Europe – Argentina | Liverpool – La Pallice – Corunna – Vigo – Lisbon – Recife – Salvador – Rio de Janeiro – Montevideo – Buenos Aires – Port Stanley – Punta Arenas – Coronel – Talcahuano – Valparaíso |
| 1914–1945 | Panama (domestic) | Cristóbal – Panama Canal – Champerico |
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.gjenvick.com/Passengers/Other/PSNC-Oroya-1925-01-22-PassengerList.html RMS Oroya Passenger List of the Pacific Line (PSNC) - 22 January 1925] GG Archives
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Category:Transport companies established in 1838
Category:Defunct companies of Chile
Category:Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom
Category:Multinational companies
Category:Shipping companies of Peru
Category:Shipping companies of Chile
Category:Shipping companies of England