The Pacific Steam Navigation Company, which celebrated the seventieth anniversary of its foundation in February 1910, owes its inception to the enterprise of William Wheelwright, an American, who was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1794, and died in London while visiting England in September 1873. He began his business life as a printer’s apprentice, but soon went to sea, and by the time he was nineteen years old he was in command of a ship. He was captain of the _Rising Empire_ when she was wrecked in 1823 off the Plate, and then shipped as supercargo on a vessel bound from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso. The following year he was appointed United States Consul at Guayaquil and five years later removed to Valparaiso. With the view of extending American commerce and supplying better communication than then existed on the coast, he established in 1829 a line of passenger vessels between Valparaiso and Cobija, and in 1835 decided to place steamers on the west coast. It took him three years to obtain the necessary concessions from the South American countries concerned. American capitalists fought shy of his proposals, so in 1838 he came to England, where he was well received. His plan included the adoption of the route across the Isthmus of Panama, though many years passed before this portion of it was realised. The necessary capital, £250,000, was raised in 5000 shares of £50 each, and a Royal Charter was granted on February 17, 1840. The two wooden paddle-steamers, _Chili_ and _Peru_, were built for the line by Messrs. Curling, Young and Co. of London in 1839; they were sister vessels and were each about 198 feet long by about 50 feet over the paddle-boxes and were brig-rigged, of about 700 tons gross, and had side-lever engines of about 150 horse-power by Miller and Ravenhill. In 1840 they passed through the Straits of Magellan, Mr. Wheelwright being on board one of them, and received a series of national welcomes along the west coast. Coaling difficulties were serious, and at one time the boats were laid up for three months. At last, in order to secure a sufficient supply, Mr. Wheelwright began to operate mines in Chili. These vessels were not, as has often been stated, the first steamers to enter the Pacific, for in 1825 a small steamer, the _Telica_, belonging to a Spaniard, tried to trade on the coast, but was a financial failure and the owner blew up his vessel and himself with gunpowder at Guayaquil. The Pacific Steam Navigation Company came near to being a failure, but held on, and in 1852, having secured a further postal contract, the company added four larger vessels of about 1000 tons each to its fleet, all of them being employed on the purely local service.