The service began with the three steamers called
for by the contract, the first sailing from New York on the sixth of
October, the other two early in December. They were the _California_,
1050 tons, the _Panama_, 1087 tons, the _Oregon_, 1099 tons, all built
in New York. The New York and Chagres line was started also in December
with the sailing of the _Falcon_, 1000 tons, a purchased steamer which
the Navy Department accepted temporarily, while the new ships were
building, that the service might be immediately begun. The opening of
the new territory south of Oregon acquired through the Mexican War, and
the beginning of the rush of the "Argonauts" to the newly discovered
gold fields of California, had made all concerned anxious to get these
connecting steamship lines a-going.
At first the service was halting because of unavoidable circumstances.
The Pacific Company were unable at once to meet the demands. Sufficient
or competent crews could not be obtained on the California coast during
the gold excitement,[GL] at fever heat in 1849. But it was not long
before more ships were put on, and the service improved and prospered.
By September, 1849, the Chagres company had their first completed ship
in commission.
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