Founded in late 1874, the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company (also known as the O&O) was created for a simple purpose – to compete with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.
Pacific Mail had signed an agreement with a number of railroads in 1869 following the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Under the terms of the agreements, after its ships landed at San Francisco, its passengers from Asia would be placed on the transcontinental railway lines to travel from the West Coast to...