Lot
152 
(New York) Mail Agent Pass on the United States Mail Steamship Company's "S.S. Empire City". In the form of an envelope and letter, envelope with embossed corner card for the "Office Of U.S. Mail Line Of Steamships For - California - Via Panama R.R. / New York / 177 West, Cor[ner] Warren St." and directed to "Bates J. Griswold E[sq], Assistant Mail Agent, Str Empire City", with August 20, 1855, letter written to the Purser on the Empire City stating that "Mr. Bates J. Griswold will go out as assistant mail agent. You will please pass him free to Aspinwall and permit him to occupy the Mail Agent Room….", Very Fine. Estimate $300 - 400.
The S.S. Empire City (1700 tons) was owned variously by Howard & Son's Empire Line; the Pacific Mail Steamship Company (PMSC), which held the mail contract on the Pacific portion of the Panama Route; and the United States Mail Steamship Company (USMSC), which held the mail contract on the Atlantic portion of the Panama Route. Howard & Son's were early competitors to the USMSC on the Atlantic side of Panama. The PMSC acquired the Empire City from Howard & Son's and became competitors on the Atlantic side after the Law's Line affair in 1850. That event led the Post Office Department to require that mail agents accompany the mails on all contract sailings by the PMSC and the USMSC. The USMSC acquired the Empire City from the PMSC after the two subsidized steamship companies agreed to confine their seafaring activities to the sides of the Isthmus corresponding to their mail contracts.
Realized: $220