The first regular water connection between the eastern and western coasts of the United States was provided by the clipper ships on the route around Cape Horn. These swift sailing vessels supplied the gold miners with the tools and manufactured goods necessary for their enterprises, and took back such commodities as California was able to export. Oil, soap, cement, coal, iron, nails, paper, glass, tobacco, liquors, dry goods, and the like moved west—hides, wool, canned fruits, salmon, sugar, wine, and grain went east. The business was for the most part handled by ships chartered for single voyages, not by lines of ships operating on regular schedules.[343] As early as October, 1848, however, at least one regular line, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, entered the field. The establishment of the Pacific Mail service was made possible by the grant of a government contract for the carriage of mails—its profits during the early years were largely derived from business arising out of the gold discoveries in California. The business of the Pacific Mail grew rapidly. In 1851 it operated eleven steamers varying in size from 600 to 1,300 tons, and had a capital stock of $2,000,000. Thirty years later it operated fourteen ships, large and small,[344] reported gross earnings of $3,762,083 (1882) and had $20,000,000 in stock outstanding. At first the Pacific Mail operated steamships between Panama and San Francisco. Later it extended its service to Astoria; and still later it established a line across the Pacific to China and Australia. Among its competitors by sea at one time or another, besides the clipper ships, were Mr. Vanderbilt’s Atlantic and Pacific Company, the Mexican Coast Steamship Company, and Messrs. Goodall and Perkins. At one time Jay Gould, at another Trenor W. Park, of the Panama Railroad, were dominant in its affairs. Problem of Water Competition There is much of romance in the history of ocean transportation into and out of San Francisco, and in its proper place the story should be told at length. Some aspects of the water service, indeed, will be touched on later in this book. Attention is directed to the matter at present, however, not for its own sake, but because the fact of water competition raised one of the problems with which the Southern Pacific had to deal. It seems clear that the associates were compelled to define their attitude toward water competition as soon as their through line was completed in 1869.