The Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company (sometimes abbreviated to O&O) was an American shipping company founded in 1874 by US railroads wishing to provide competition to the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett (American consul ...
which had not complied with its obligations to them. Chartering vessels from different companies, the most important being the British
White Star Line
The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between t ...
, the company quickly became financially successful, against the expectations of its founders.
Having succeeded in its primary objective, the O&O proved a serious competitor to the Pacific Mail, to the point that in 1900, the vice president of the latter became its president. In the following years, Pacific Mail having commissioned more powerful ships, the O&O gradually ended its chartering contracts. On October 30, 1906, the made the company's last crossing, which nevertheless continued to advertise sailings until July 1908.
History
A creation that proved to be a winning bet
The Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company (O&O) was founded in late 1874, at the initiative of George Bradbury, former president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. This company had signed agreements with several US railroads, ensuring that its passengers from Asia would use the transcontinental railway lines to travel from the West Coast to the East Coast once landed in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
. The agreement, set up at the completion of the railway line in 1869, had proved effective until 1873, when Pacific Mail, after commissioning new vessels, decided that their passengers could travel more profitably by the ithsmus of
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a List of transcontinental countries#North America and South America, transcontinental country spanning the Central America, southern ...
rather than take the transcontinental train. In order to threaten the place of the Pacific Mail on the route from
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
to San Francisco, and thus force it to respect its agreements, the
Central Pacific and the
Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
united to form the O&O with an equity capital of ten million dollars shared between them. Bradbury becoming the president of the new company.
Bradbury immediately travelled to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in search of charter contracts. He had a meeting in October 1874 with the chairman of the White Star Line,
Thomas Henry Ismay
Thomas Henry Ismay (7 January 1837 – 23 November 1899) was the founder of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, more commonly known as the White Star Line. His son J. Bruce Ismay, Joseph Bruce Ismay was managing director of the ''White Star ...
, which lead to a two-year charter agreement for three vessels: two cargo-liners, the and the ; also the , the first luxury liner of the company, which had become redundant on the North Atlantic route. This last ship providing the O&O with a prestige vessel for its service. With great pomp, the ''Oceanic'' left
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
for Hong Kong, to commence operations on its new route with a stop in
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of ...
en route to San Francisco. It set a Pacific crossing record of 16 days and 10 hours, 8 days less than the ships of the Pacific Mail. In 1876 it reduced that to 14 days and 15 hours. This success laid the foundations of a long collaboration between the two companies, White Star supplying British officers while O&O provided the Chinese crews.
The success of the first voyage of the ''Oceanic'' was enough to allow the company to achieve its goal even before the ship had docked in San Francisco, Pacific Mail recognized defeat and sign a contract with the O&O to operate a joint service on the route. In the following years, however, the managers of Pacific Mail expressed discontent with the contract and threatened to break it so O&O remained active as a precaution. The agreement with White Star continued and four more ships were chartered: the and in 1881 and the new and in 1885.
Contracts were also placed with other British and US companies, but White Star was still predominant and ''Oceanic'' remained the most prestigious ship of the company until her retirement in 1896.
Reconciliation with Pacific Mail
Transporting passengers and goods, the O&O proved to be profitable. Its founders had expected a loss of around $100,000 per year, accepting it as the price to pay to compete with the Pacific Mail, but the company exceeded their expectations and finally proved beneficial.
In the 1890s, Pacific Mail, despite their joint service, protested that the O&O carried three times more passengers and cargo than itself. Pacific Mail, for their part, diversified by adding a stop in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of H ...
, then others in
Kobe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whi ...
,
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the Na ...
and
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
. It also made agreements with the Japanese company Toyo Kisen Kaisha.
[
In 1900, the links between O&O and its rival became closer as the general manager and vice president of Pacific Mail, Schwerin, was appointed president of the O&O. At the same time, it was faced with competition from the ever-larger ships of Pacific Mail and began to divest itself of its charter contracts, curtailing that of ''Gaelic'' in 1904.][ The service of O&O was then operated by the and ''Coptic''. It was the latter that undertook, on 30 October 1906, the last voyage for the company.] Both remaining ships were sold to Pacific Mail which renamed them ''Asia'' and ''Persia'' respectively.[
Despite this, advertisements for the O&O continued to be published in San Francisco until 1908. Two days before the publication of the last advert, on 23 July 1908, the last formal board meeting of the company was held.][
]
See also
* Pacific Mail Steamship Company
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett (American consul ...
References
Bibliography
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{{Authority control
Companies based in San Francisco
Defunct shipping companies of the United States
Maritime history of California
Transport companies established in 1874
Transport companies disestablished in 1908
Union Pacific Railroad
1874 establishments in California
1908 disestablishments in California