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.
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.
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.
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.