California Steam Navigation Company
In response to the Fraser Canyon gold rush and economic growth in the Pacific Northwest, the company expanded to ocean routes from San Francisco north to British Columbia.
While the California Steam Navigation Company was successful throughout its life in suppressing steamboat competition on its core Bay Area and river routes, it could not control the rise of railroads.
Steamboats and the barges they towed played an important part in moving people, agricultural commodities, and other goods around the region.
The San Joaquin was navigable year-round as far as Stockton and in periods of high water, steamers could reach into Fresno County, about 200 miles from the river's mouth.
To make matters worse for the shipping companies, they ordered additional steamers during the boom times and they began to arrive.
[2] The company's initial shareholders included Richard Chenery,[3] Captain James Whitney, jr., Marshall Hubbard, John Bensley,[4] and Major Samuel J.
[6][7][8] The new California Steam Navigation Company moved quickly to retire excess capacity: 23 ships were idled.
Rates from San Francisco to Sacramento fell as low as $0.25 per passenger as the California Steam Navigation Company sought to eliminate the thinly-capitalized newcomers.
Citizens' Steam Navigation Company built a larger ship, Queen City, but at the low prices they had to charge to compete, it lost money on every load.
[9] The general public and the local business community loathed the California Steam Navigation Company for its monopoly rates and the harsh tactics it used to suppress competition.
[10] One newspaper went so far as to editorialize that all candidates for the state legislature should pledge, "eternal opposition to the California Steam Navigation Company"[11] The Fraser Canyon gold rush created an immediate and large demand for transportation from the Bay Area to British Columbia beginning in 1857.
The California Steam Navigation Company used a few of its largest steamers for these new routes and acquired other ocean-going ships to meet this demand.
[13] In 1859 Pacific began service to Victoria with stops in Crescent City and Portland[14] and was later joined by Brother Jonathan, and Active.
In January 1866 the California Steam Navigation established another ocean route, offering the first regular steamship service between San Francisco and the Hawaiian Islands using its steamer Ajax.
[16] After only two round trips, however, the company put her on the San Francisco - Portland route to counter new competitive pressure.
At the time of the acquisition It had five steamboats on the San Francisco - Victoria route to the two (Pacific and Brother Jonathan) deployed by the California Steam Navigation Company.
[18][19][20] This forced the California Steam Navigation Company back to its Bay Area core, which itself was suffering from competition from new railroads.
[21][22] This included thirty-two sidewheel and sternwheel steamships, twenty-one barges, twenty wharves and depots, and the franchises that allowed the ships to sail.
It too, ran steamboats on the Sacramento River, but in this new world it was the upstart competitor under-cutting the monopoly rates of the entrenched incumbent.
[29] The California Steam Navigation Company owned and chartered dozens of ships, barges, tugs, and boats.
Some were operated only seasonally to meet the peak demand of the summer harvest time, when ships and barges would bring crops from the interior to San Francisco.
[41][42][43][44] Anna Abernethy (sidewheel steamer): She ran as a competitor to the company on the Marysville - San Francisco route beginning in 1854.
[1][48][22] Banner (sternwheel steamer): She was a light draft vessel which began competing with the company on the upper reaches of the Sacramento River in May 1862.
[41][64] Chrysopolis (sidewheel steamer): The ship was built for the company at the cost of $200,000[1] in San Francisco and launched in June 1860.
[81] Enterprise: She was built for the competitive Citizen's Steam Navigation Company for the Marysville to San Francisco run.
[56] Goodman Castle (sternwheel steamer): The ship was built in the Bay Area and began sailing as a competitor to the company in 1858.
[1][71] Governor Dana III (sternwheel steamship): She was a shallow draft vessel built for the company's Sacramento-Marysville route.
She was one of the original vessels consolidated into the company in 1854[43][95] Hartford: The ship sailed from New York to San Francisco, arriving January 24, 1849.
[57][112] Queen City: The ship was built for the competitive Citizens Steam Navigation Company and launched in September 1854.
[1][74][132] Victor (sternwheel steamer): She was built in the Bay Area and launched in 1859 to compete with the company on the San Francisco - Marysville route.
