This remarkable old San Francisco photo from 1866 shows the steamer Ajax at the Greenwich Street Wharf at San Francisco. The photo and description are courtesy of BoatingSF.com
Mark Twain took the steamer Ajax to Honolulu, to which it began providing regular service in 1866. He wrote "The Ajax is a 2,000 ton propeller, and one of the strongest bulk vessels afloat. All her timber-work is very heavy and fastened and bolted together as if to hold for a century. She was intended for a warship, and this accounts for her extraordinary strength. She has excellent cabin accommodations for sixty passengers, without crowding, and bunks for forty more. She has room for over twelve hundred tons of freight after her coal and stores for the round trip are all in; and when a coal depot is established for her hereafter at Honolulu, so that she need carry only fuel enough for half the voyage, she can take two or three hundred tons more. Her principal officers all served in the war."
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If you would like access to an extensive collection of rare photographs of early San Francisco please visit the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco at sfmuseum.org
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