Houston Direct Navigation Company operated ships on Buffalo Bayou between 1866 and 1927.
[2] These included Paul Bremond, Cornelius Ennis, William J. Hutchins, and John H.
Houston Direct Navigation Company was founded on October 9, 1866, by William Marsh Rice, Thomas M. Bagby, John H. Sterrett, and several others.
[1][5] Businesses receiving and shipping goods from Houston were paying high fees for moving freight through Galveston, Texas.
[6] At first, the company's main business in the late-1860s consisted of lightering around Galveston and interlining freight through the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad; however, it expanded service, running five passenger steamers by 1870.