[14] Chartered Steamers belonging to the City of Dublin Co. [15] A sketch of the history of this important Firm will be found in Part II. of this Volume. CHAPTER X. Steamers on the Pacific.—The TELICA (1825).—P. S. N. Co., 1840.—Compound Engines adopted, 1856.—Service extended from West Coast, South America, to the River Plate (1865), and to Liverpool, 1868.—The P. S. N. Co. and Messrs. Anderson Anderson & Co., 1878.—Gulf Line of Steamers between Great Britain and West Coast, South America. The first steamer to trade along the Pacific Coast of South America was a small steamer, named the TELICA, in 1825. She was owned and commanded by a Spaniard bearing a Russian name, Mitrovitch. The venture proved a failure, chiefly owing to the scarcity of fuel, and the unfortunate man, in a fit of despair, fired his pistol into a barrel of gunpowder, and blew up his vessel in the harbour of Guayaquil, destroying himself and all on board, except one man. The next person to attempt to establish steamship communication along the Pacific Coast was an American citizen, Mr. William Wheelwright, born in Newburyport, Mass., U.S.A., in 1798, and appointed United States Consul at Guayaquil in 1824. Mr. Wheelwright, notwithstanding the tragic fate of the TELICA and her owner, was convinced of the importance of steam communication to the development of the rich resources of the western side of the South American Continent, spent six years in arranging plans for steam communication between the different Republics, and at last obtained from the Peruvian, Bolivian, and Chilian Governments the privilege of establishing and maintaining a steamship service along their respective coasts for a period of ten years. In pursuance of this object he came to England, and secured the co-operation of several wealthy merchants, and on the 17th February, 1840, a charter was obtained for the establishment of the undertaking known as the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, together with a small subsidy for the conveyance of the mails. It was not the intention of the founders of the company to trade elsewhere than along the Pacific Coast, and for this purpose a capital of a quarter of a million pounds was thought to be sufficient. The capital consisted of 5,000 shares, £50 each. Only the amount required to build two small steamers was called up. These steamers were the CHILI and PERU, each of about 700 tons gross register, with engines of about 150 horse-power nominal. They were brig-rigged paddle steamers, built of wood, by Charles Young and Co., Limehouse, London, and engined by Miller & Ravenhall. [Illustration: PERU. Pacific Steam Navigation Co., Ltd.]