[283] Mr. Wheelwright was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, U.S., in 1798, where his ancestors from Bilsby, in Lincolnshire, had settled so early as the year 1629. His first visit to South America was in command of one of his father’s vessels, where he was wrecked at Cape Corrientes in 1821. In the following year, he sailed as supercargo in a vessel to Valparaiso and thence proceeded viâ Peru to Guayaquil, where he established himself as a commission merchant and was, in 1824, appointed United States’ Consul. Having frequent occasion to make voyages along the Pacific coast, he saw the advantages to be derived from steam communication, which subsequently led to the formation of the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. His intimate connection with that company, as one of its most active managers and directors, continued until 1855, when he directed his attention more especially to the construction of railways in South America, his first line between Caldera and Copiago proving so great a success that “in a few years the dividends paid to its shareholders amounted to double the entire cost.” Subsequently, he, in association with Messrs. Brassey and Wythes, constructed the line between Cordoba and Rosario, which was opened in 1870, when the President, addressing him, said, “The Argentine Republic have not wherewith to acknowledge the greatness of your works.” Mr. Wheelwright died in London, 16th September, 1873. [284] “A broader and more promising field for steam operations than that which the Pacific affords, does not exist in any part of the world. The prevailing south winds, the calms, and the currents of that ocean render navigation by sailing-vessels tedious and uncertain in the extreme; while the nature of the whole country, from Valparaiso to Guayaquil—presenting a succession of mountains and deep ravines, intersected by sandy deserts—offers every imaginable obstacle to land travelling; and, yet, there are four millions of inhabitants within the proposed line of intercourse ready to participate, to a greater or less degree, in the benefits to arise from the proposed undertaking.”—Pamphlet on ‘Steam Navigation in the Pacific,’ by Mr. Wheelwright: London, 1838. [285] The four steamers supplied (at a cost of 140,000_l._), in pursuance of the company’s contract with the Admiralty, were the _Lima_, _Santiago_, _Quito_, and _Bogota_: they were to be employed in the bi-monthly service between Valparaiso and Panama. [286] The directors of the Pacific Co. by degrees applied the compound engine after 1856 to all their steam-ships, and it is worthy of record that they were not only among the first, if not the first, to adopt the compound engine for ocean-going steamers, but were almost singular in this respect for upwards of fourteen years. This description of engine has now entirely superseded all others for the purposes of steam navigation. [287] See Appendix No. 20, pp. 635-6.