SS Abyssinia was a British mail liner built in 1870, and originally operated by the Cunard Line on the Liverpool–New York route. She later served the Guion Line on the same route and the Canadian Pacific Line in the Pacific. In December 1891, Abyssinia was destroyed mid-Atlantic without loss of life by a fire that started in her cargo of cotton, highlighting the danger in carrying both cotton and passengers on the same ship.
Steamships
- Abyssinia
- Ajax
- America
- Antelope
- Aquila
- Atlantic
- Batavia
- Bermuda
- Capital
- City of Chester
- Colon
- Colorado
- Emerald Isle
- Gallia
- Golden City
- Henry Chauncey
- Holsatia
- Java
- Lively
- Montana
- Parthia
- Quaker City
- Sacramento
- San Francisco
- Scotia
- Trenton
List from Day By Volume I Index
Ajax was a wooden, propeller-driven steamship built in 1864. She provided logistical support to the Union Army on the Atlantic coast during the American Civil War. After the war she was sent to San Francisco where she provided freight and passenger services between that city and other ports on the Pacific coast. She provided the first scheduled steamship service between the United States and Hawaii.
The SS America was built at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, 1854-55. Original Owner: Great Western RR Company. Rebuilt by Samuel Sneeden, Greenpoint, 1858. New Owner: Peter A. Hargous. Name changed to Coatzocoalcos in 1859. Chartered to the Quartermaster s Department, War Department in 1861 and 1862 from $1200 to $1400 per day. Name changed to America in 1862. Operated from New York to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua for the Central American Transit Company. Her last sailing from San Francisco for the Transit Company was on February 15, 1868.
Commerce on the Sacramento – San Joaquin Rivers dominated the early history of Contra Costa County. The rivers were a favored route to and from the booming gold fields and rapidly growing towns of Stockton and Sacramento. Along the northern shore of Contra Costa County pioneering steamships made Martinez, Black Diamond, Antioch and Marsh’s Landing important ports of call. One of the most famous of the early river steamers was the Antelope, first owned by the California Steam Navigation Company and later by the Donahue Line.
SS Montana (1865–1876): Launched February 25, 1865 for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. She was used on the San Francisco to Panama City service from October 1866 through 1869. She was sold to the Colorado Steam Navigation Company in 1874. However, later that year, Montana ran aground and had to be towed back to San Francisco for 3 months of repairs. She caught fire and sank near Guaymas, on December 14, 1876.[21]: 57–59
See July 10, 1868
Mentioned as the ship Mark Twain took from Panama City to San Francisco in March of 1868. Does not appear in Google search. An SS Sacramento is listed as a US ship that grounded in 1867.
USS Quaker City was a heavy, 1,428 long tons (1,451 t) sidewheel steamship leased by the Union Navy at the start of the American Civil War. She was subsequently purchased by the navy, outfitted with a powerful 20-pounder long rifle, and assigned to help enforce the Union blockade of the ports of the Confederate States of America.