On this day, 1848, the SS California made its maiden trip from New York to San Francisco. In an odd interpretation of the Constitution, Congress said it couldn’t make any roads, canals, or other such things because it was specifically mentioned. However, the mail had to go through so one way around that was to contract with steamship companies. The plan was for a ship to go down the coast picking up mail and passengers. They would get as far as Panama where everything was transferred to canoe then mule to make the 60-mile trip across Panama. On the other side would a different ship that would take the load up to California. The gold rush caused an immediate increase in boat traffic and the “California” was to continue around the Horn so that it would be one of the western ships. Tickets sold for $200 and were scalped for twice that. A boat designed for 210 passengers ended up with 400. When they got to Panama, half got kicked off. Those continuing found that the boat ride took four months, 22 days. When the ship arrived in San Francisco the entire crew of 36 jumped ship and headed to the gold fields. I guess it beat the overland route which took 5 months in a wagon just from St. Louis. And never mind the cost of a wagon, livestock, food, tools, and the risks of disease and starvation. About 6% of those starting didn’t make it. And actually, the Indians didn’t account for that many: 372 total over about 10 years according to one source – and we killed more of them; some feel that they wouldn’t have killed any if we hadn’t started it.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 06:26:47 +0000
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