Gordon Newell and Joe Williamson Pacific Coastal Liners, Superior Publishing Co.: Seattle, WA, (Bonanza Books, Crown Publishing: NY), 1959, 192 pp., 1870s, 1860s
p. 15 "[The Gold Rush] . . . set an unfortunate pattern for the Pacific Coast steamship service for the next half century. Shipowners who made fortunes running decrepit, overloaded old tubs up and down the coast during gold rush days saw no reason to change their tactics when gold rush hysteria gave way to solid growth and development along the new frontier. The custom of making the Pacific Coast a dumping ground for tender old hulks which had already lived out their normal life-spans on the Atlantic was to cost a great many human lives.
" . . .
p. 24 "In that same year of 1875, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, having earlier reclaimed its ships from the bankrupt Holladay, sold out to Goodall, Nelson & Perkins Steamship Company . . .
"In 1877 Goodall and Perkins reorganized their company as the Pacific Coast Steamship Company . . .
Pacific Coast Steam
p. 25 "With the strong restraining hand of Ben Holladay gone from the West Coast transportation scene, the two dominant steamship companies, the Oregon Steamship Company and Goodall & Perkins' Pacific Coast Company, started fighting for the coastal trade in an old-fashioned, knock-down-and-drag-out transportation war.
"In 1877, the Pacific Coast Steamship Company had the larger fleet, composed of the sidewheelers Ancon, Senator, Orizaba and Mahongo and the propellers, Los Angeles, San Luis, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Gypsy, Donald, Salinas, Idaho, San Vincent and Constantine . . .
p. 27 "During the period between 1870 and 1890 most seacoast communities, from San Diego and Santa Barbara to Gray's Harbor, depended (p. 33) largely on the steamships for their transportation needs. Numerous independent lines, many of them one-ship companies, were formed to serve these secondary ports, but few of them flourished for long. They were in competition with the ubiquitous steam schooners, that breed of small wooden lumber carrier peculiar to the West Coast. These little craft poked their blunt noses into every port and doghole along the coast and most of them carried passengers, usually in doghouse-sized staterooms with three bunks piled one above the other . . .