Brothers-in-law George Dearborn and Lewis Henry Lapham were the key players in the founding of the company.

[1] At the time of the company's founding, its steamships sailed around South America via the Straits of Magellan to reach the East Coast ports.

The temporary closure of the canal because of a series of landslides forced the company to return to the Straits of Magellan route for the third time in its history.

During World War I, twelve of the company's ships were commissioned into the United States Navy; a further five were sunk by submarines or mines during the conflict.

Roger Dearborn Lapham, a future mayor of San Francisco, California, served as company president in the mid-1920s.