“The Administration, which was so liberal in helping the Collins Line to beat the British, contracted with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, formed in 1847, for a service from Panama to Astoria, and from New York, Charleston, and New Orleans to Havana, from which port the company already had a connecting line to Chagres (Colon), thus completing the connection between the coasts.... The speed from Panama to San Francisco was more than ten miles an hour. Thus the United States had line traffic of first-class character connecting its remote coasts before it had an American line to Europe. At Panama it connected with the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, giving service to Peru and Chili, so that before the middle of the century the Pacific had at least 5000 miles continuous steam line traffic.”[77] [77] “The Ocean Carrier,” by J. Russell Smith. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in the seventy years of its existence has played an eventful part in the history of the mercantile marine. Its earliest steamers were wooden paddle-boats, and were among the best, but in spite of their excellence they experienced an extraordinary run of misfortunes, and losses by fire and wreck marred the records of the company for several years after its incorporation in 1839. Its charter has been revised and extended from time to time, one clause being that the whole of the share capital must be British owned, and the management British. In its long career it has served almost every port in the West Indies with the mails, and has had no less than fifty-three contracts. At one stage its management was subjected to some strong criticism, but under its present management the company has prospered by leaps and bounds, affording an excellent illustration of the value of well-directed energy and enterprise. The history of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company is the record of the development of the steamship connection between this country and the West Indian Colonies. In 1840 the original contract was entered into with the Admiralty Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral for the commencement of the mail service to the West India Colonies, the Spanish Main, New York, Halifax, Mexico, Cuba, &c.