From a small beginning, the Pacific Company has now one of the best fleets belonging to the United States, though the difficulties in forming it were probably far greater than in the case of any of the other American companies. Among these, may be mentioned the necessity of constructing large workshops and foundries for repairs, together with the creation at Bernicia of an establishment, where marine engines could be constructed; they had, also, to build their own dry dock, for that of the Government at Mare Island was not ready until 1854, the company’s dock being for some years the only accommodation of this kind in the Pacific. The company had also to form establishments at Panama, San Francisco, and Astoria, with coal depôts, at a time when labour and materials were excessively high, and when the coal itself, whether brought from the Eastern States of the American continent or from England, was invariably, and necessarily, carried round Cape Horn, seldom or never costing less than from 20 to 30 dollars, and, in one instance, 50 dollars per ton.[159] [Sidenote: Speed of its vessels.] [Sidenote: Difficulties to encounter.] But, from first to last and amid all its difficulties, the Pacific Steam-ship Company has carried on these distant services with remarkable regularity. Even in the earlier portion of its career, the steamers performed the service between Panama and San Francisco, a distance of 3300 miles, at an average speed of 254 miles per day, touching at various ports on the way; the company has also by its semi-monthly line from San Francisco to Oregon materially assisted in populating that rich and beautiful agricultural district. Nevertheless, had it not been for the discovery of the gold fields of California, the undertaking must have been a great commercial failure; indeed, even within the last few years, its history has been one of disaster, while its management has been characterized by a succession of mistakes each one graver than the last. Its most formidable rival is now the Central Pacific Railroad Company with other allied lines, which carry off a large portion of the more valuable goods previously conveyed in steamers, viâ Panama, between the northern and eastern states and California. [Sidenote: Number of its steamers.] The Pacific Steam-ship Company is, however, still by far the greatest of the American maritime undertakings, having at present in commission thirty-three very fine steamers of an aggregate capacity of 74,000 tons of cargo, exclusive of the large space assigned to passengers. It has thirty-five chief agencies on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States and in the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America, Canada, England, China, and Japan. There are altogether fifty ports where its steamers call, three of which are on the Atlantic and forty-seven on the Pacific: these figures may in some measure afford my readers an idea of the extent of its commercial operations.