Appendix C
Via Panama Sailings,
1849 to 1861

Select Chapter – Appendix

This appendix includes sailing information for ships carrying post office mails sent via Panama between San Francisco and New York City as well as a sample of early trips to New Orleans (pages 252 and 253). Each trip is numbered with year, direction and trip number within that year. So, trip “1851 E-5” would be the fifth mail carrying trip from San Francisco in 1851. Westbound trips are not included as arrangements for mail varied considerably depending on the port of mail departure. The general schedule for mail departures from New York, Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans and Panama from January 1850 is described in the Postmaster General notice shown on following page.

Information on the first line of each eastbound trip includes the departure date, name of ship, and date of arrival in Panama City. After carriage across the Isthmus of Panama, the mail was transferred to a ship operating in the Atlantic Ocean. The second line includes the date of departure from either Chagres or Aspinwall as specificed, the name of the ship, and the ship arrival date in New York City. When two ships are listed on a single line, it indicates that mail was transferred from the first ship listed to the second. The specifics are mentioned in the notes column.

An “x” in parenthesis after a ship name in the “notes” column means that the trip was an extra. The departure date is given. In general these extra vessels did not carry post office letter mail but, unless specifically mentioned, they may have carried some letter mail and/or newspapers. It should be remembered that these extra vessels often carried letters and other mail matter for the various express companies. If such letters entered the US mails before delivery, they bear postmarks other than San Francisco postmarks.

Abbreviations – Steamship Companies	Abbreviations – Places
A&PSS – Atlantic and Pacific Steamship Co (Vanderbilt)	ASP – Aspinwall
ECL – Empire City Line	CHA – Chagres
H&A – Howland & Aspinwall Atlantic Line	CRL – Charleston
LL – Law Line	HAV – Havana, Cuba
NASC – North Atlantic Steamship Co.	KIN – Kingston, Jamaica
PMSS – Pacific Mail Steamship Co.	NO – New Orleans
S&T – Spofford & Tileston Charleston & New York Line	NYC – New York City
USMSC – US Mail Steamship Co	PAN – Panama City
	SFC – San Francisco
	TEH – Tehuantepec, Mexico
Notes: (x) next to name of a vessel in the “notes” column means that the trip was an extra. In general these extra vessels did not carry letter mail but, unless specifically mentioned, they may have carried some letter mail and/or newspapers.

In 1849 Postmaster General Collamer published several notices to the public that detailed the new arrangements for the Pacific mails. His November 17, 1849 notice shown above oulines the schedule for both eastbound and westbound mails effective January 1850.

Below and continued on the following page is a incomplete listing of the eastbound trips from Chagres to New Orleans that delivered mail to be distributed to New Orleans and the South. The listings only include the Atlantic Ocean leg of the trip. The trip numbers correspond to the numbers used on the San Francisco to New York trips with these trips replacing the leg from Chagres to New York.