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domingo, 8 de noviembre de 2009

Vapores del Rio Colorado, 1877

Tomado de:

ARIZONA AS IT IS; OR, THE COMING COUNTRY. COMPILED FROM NOTES OF TRAVEL DURING THE YEARS 1874, 1875, AND 1876. BY HIRAM C. HODGE. NEW YORK PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON. BOSTON: H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. Cambrige: The Riverside Press. 1877.


[page 208]

CHAPTER XVII: COLORADO STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY

THIS is the only line of steamers running to Arizona. It is intimately connected with the history and prosperity of the country, has done much to build it up, for many long years supplied most of the wants of both the citizens and the military, and is justly deserving of a longer and more extended notice than can be given in these pages.

In 1852 Captains George A. Johnson, B. M. Hartshorne, and A. H. Wilcox organized a company under the firm name of George A. Johnson & Co., for the purpose of transporting passengers and freight to and from San Francisco, Cal., and the Colorado River in Arizona, stopping at the Mexican ports of La Paz, Mazatlan, and Guaymas. They first employed sail vessels on the ocean, and in July, 1871, they put on their first ocean steamer, which was soon after increased to two. Some years subsequent to its first organization, the company was incorporated under the laws of California, under the name it now bears.

[page 209]

One of the ocean steamers leaves San Francisco every twenty days, running to the head of the Gulf of California, a distance from San Francisco of nineteen hundred miles. At the head of the gulf the passengers and freight are transshipped to four river steamers, and taken thence up the Colorado River to Yuma, one hundred and seventy-five miles, and thence portions are taken up the river to their several destinations, The river steamers make regular trips to Hardyville, three hundred and thirty-seven miles above Yuma, and five hundred and thirteen miles above the mouth of the river.

The Company have now four river steamers of four hundred tons each, and four barges of eight hundred tons.

The river steamers are the Mohave, Gila, Cocopah, and Colorado. Captains: J. A. Mellen, William Poole, S. Thorn, and A. D. Johnson. The ocean steamers were the Newbern, Capt. William Metzger, and the Montana, Capt. George M. Douglass. The Newbern was burned at sea in December last, the only serious calamity that has happened to the Company since its organization. The Newbern will be replaced with a new boat.

The officers of the Company are as follows:—

President, B. M. Hartshorne, San Francisco.
General Agent, John Birmingham, San Francisco.
Superintendent, Isaac Polhemus, Jr., Yuma.
Yuma Agent, A. J. Finlay.
Ehrenburg Agent, P. M. Fisher.
Mazatlan Agent, Señor Kelton.
La Paz Agent, Señor Vioseo.
Guaymas Agent, Señor Willard.
General office, 10 Market St., San Francisco, California.

This Company have occupied a position, in supplying the necessities of the Territory, which could not have been filled in any other manner. For many years the citizens and military of Arizona have received almost all their supplies of provisions, goods, machinery, arms, etc., etc., through the medium of this Company, and could have obtained them in no other way.

The amount of freight brought to Yuma, in the year 1875, was over four thousand five hundred tons.

The amount of freight shipped from Yuma was:—
Mineral Ores — 1,000 tons.
Wool — 60 tons.
General Merchandise — 60 tons.
No. of Hides — 6,170 tons.
No. of Pelts — 1,400 tons.
Way Freight — 1,440 tons.
Also a large amount of bullion and other articles.

The amount received and shipped during the year 1876 is not yet reported.

The Company have a good ship-yard on the Sonora side of the Gulf of California, where their river steamers were constructed, and where their repairs are made.

"Mohave"

El Vapor "Colorado" en Puerto Isabel, Sonora, Mexico


"Cocopah"

Embarcadero en Rancho Bihlers, Sonora


"Gila"

Sonora 1909: "The Delta Lands of The Yaqui Valley"
















Topolobampo 1890: "Ometepec", "Fortunato" y "Romero Rubio"

El Vapor de 89 toneladas "Manuel Romero Rubio" y el Pailebot de 13 toneladas "Fortunato" a la derecha.


La balandra de 23 toneledas "Ometepec"