The Colorado in the drydock at Hunter’s Point in San Francisco

When the U.S. Congress advertised an annual postal subsidy of $500,000 payable for a monthly sailing from San Francisco to Honolulu, Yokohama, and Hong Kong in 1865, Pacific Mail Steamship Company emerged as the only serious contender for the route. Since 1848, when William Henry Aspinwall founded Pacific Mail, the first of APL’s predecessors, the company had become the nation’s premier shipping line.

Pacific Mail had planned to build four large wooden side-wheelers for the new service, but these ships would not be ready by the January 1, 1867, deadline. So, the steamer Colorado was removed from her West Coast run in order to make the inaugural voyage.

She was given an extra mast, her hull was strengthened, and the outer line of main deck cabins was removed. Coal bunkers were enlarged so she could take on over 1,000 tons, enough for the passage to Yokohama with very little to spare.

Colorado was almost new, built in 1864 by the New York firm of William H. Webb, which had built the steamer California 16 years earlier. Measuring 3,728 tons gross, Colorado was 340 feet in length with a beam of 46 measured inside the wide wheel boxes. Boilers were of the early flue type, using salt water and producing steam of only 20 pounds pressure.

Despite this, her engine was able to drive the large wheels at 14 revolutions per minute, enough to give the ship a speed of 12 knots in favorable seas. Her three masts were rigged for a full suit of canvas — carried not only for use in case of an engine breakdown, but to steady the vessel in bad weather.

The Great Republic, sister ship of the Colorado Click on image for vessel information.

The night before sailing, the last day of 1866, a “Grand China Mail Dinner” was held in the banquet room at the Occidental Hotel, San Francisco’s finest. Lengthy discourses by both Chinese and American businessmen marked the occasion attended by 250 state and local dignitaries, shipping officials, religious leaders, and commercial agents.

Governor Frederick Ferdinand Low presided at the head table, where a sugar model of the Colorado formed the centerpiece. Eighteen toasts punctuated the sound of lively conversation while magnums of champagne accompanied the elaborate cuisine that was standard at such affairs.

The Great Republic, sister ship of the Colorado, in Yokohama harbor. Click on image to see a larger version.

Symbolizing what was hoped would be the rich prospects of trade for the Far East, three Chinese merchants, well known in the community, sat at both sides of Governor Low and toasted a profitable future. Sailing day would have been a holiday even if it hadn’t been the first day of the New Year, and San Francisco gave Colorado a festive farewell.

The departure ceremony was described in the words of a veteran Pacific Mail skipper, W. H. McLean, who was then a petty officer on the Colorado:

“That day was a great day for San Francisco, it seemed as if half the population was at hand to witness the sailing, which was to be the first steamboat to leave these shores for the faraway land across the Pacific.

Click on image to see a larger version.

“Flags waved and bands played the national air. When the moment for the steaming arrived, the great side wheels churned the water and she backed away from the wharf. The crowds cheered wildly and the bands fluted to the high notes. Salutes were fired from guns on the steamer and on the wharves. One of the guns exploded and several people were hurt as we swung into the stream.

“All the way down the bay the Colorado was saluted until we struck the open mouth of the sea. There were 150 passengers, every stateroom was taken and it was considered something of an honor to be a passenger on the first steamer to leave the Golden Gate [of San Francisco] for China.”

In Yokohama, the Colorado was given a festive reception, and similar greetings awaited the ship in China. Once again, Pacific Mail had persevered — and succeeded — in the face of widespread criticism.

The Japan

Although the Colorado and her sister ships, the Great Republic, China, and Japan, were the last of the great side-wheelers to be built for this service, the route that Colorado inaugurated foreshadowed Pacific Mail’s growing presence in Asia. Soon, a new generation of faster, iron-hulled, screw-propelled vessels like the City of Peking would replace the side-wheelers, ushering in a new era of trade in the Pacific.

Adapted with permission from an article by Bill Kooiman, a retired maritime purser who works at the San Francisco National Maritime Museum Library.