APL History - Explore
The spirit
of exploration — the desire to reach beyond the horizon,
the commitment to set a course for the future — is
as much a part of APL today is it was in 1848 for the company’s
predecessor, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.
Yet, for all the promise it holds, exploration often means striking
out on one’s own in the face of considerable skepticism. And
this was the case when Pacific Mail’s founder, William
Henry Aspinwall, successfully bid on a government mail contract
extending from Panama to Oregon.
A “Harebrained Adventure” Begins
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| Wm. H. Aspinwall |
In 1848, as a
result of treaties with Mexico and Britain in the 1830s and ’40s,
the western boundary of the U.S. stretched along the Pacific Coast
from Puget Sound to San Diego. According to President Polk, “mail
facilities, so indispensable for the diffusion of information and
for building together the different portions of our extended Confederacy,
should be afforded to our citizens west of the Rocky Mountains.”
Since the goal was to achieve a fast, reliable means for delivering
the mail, the government contract mandated the use of steamships.
Steamers were to call on East Coast and Gulf ports in the U.S., then
discharge their valuable cargo on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus
of Panama. Mules and canoes would then carry the cargo to the Pacific
Coast of the Isthmus, where it would be held until the next northbound
steamer departed.
Despite the arduous route,
the plan was far superior to traditional means of transporting cargo between the
Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of the U.S. Still, the endeavor involved substantial
risk. With a tiny population base of 20,000 scattered over 2,000 miles, the West
had no coal, no means for supplying or maintaining steamers, and only rudimentary
port facilities.
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“It
is a wonder that so steady a businessman as William Henry Aspinwall would engage
in a harebrained adventure that will surely end in disaster!” asserted one
critic. But Aspinwall persevered, and he was rewarded when his steamer SS California
was the first vessel of its kind to arrive in San Francisco after the discovery
of gold at Sutter’s Mill.
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