Ancon was an ocean-going wooden sidewheel steamship built in San Francisco in 1867. She carried both passengers and freight. In her early career she was a ferry in Panama and then ran between Panama and San Francisco. Later she began coastal runs between Sand Diego and San Francisco. Her last route was Port Townsend, Washington to Alaska. Today she is more notable for her disasters than her routine voyages. Ancon Rock in Icy Strait, Alaska is the site of her 1886 grounding. Her final wreck, in 1889 in Naha Bay, near Loring, Alaska was commemorated by Albert Bierstadt. His painting, "Wreck of the 'Ancon' in Loring Bay, Alaska" now hangs in the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.
Construction and Panama service (1867–1872) Ancon was originally built as a double-ended ferry for service in Panama for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. She replaced the company's Taboga, which was retired. Ancon was built in the Hunter's Point neighborhood of San Francisco and launched on October 12, 1867. Her displacement was 654 tons. She was propelled by a coal-fired steam engine that generated . Sea trials with invited guests aboard were held on April 29, 1868. She was towed to Panama by the company's Golden City and arrived at Panama Bay on June 22, 1868. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company had a hub at the western end of the Panama Railroad. Its ocean-going steamships carried passengers and freight from California to Panama, where they could cross the isthmus by rail. From here steamships could take them to New York or other Atlantic ports. Ancon, which drew only of water at the time, was used as a lighter to bring people and goods ashore from the deep-draft ocean-going ships when they arrived at Panama.
Rebuilding and Central American service (1872–1875) Ancon proved too large for her role in Panama and was brought back to San Francisco in late 1872. She was rebuilt as an ocean-going ship. Her hull was reused, but she was given much greater capacity for passengers, cargo, and coal. Her displacement was almost tripled to 1,541 tons, and her engine was upgraded to . Her engine had a cylinder with a stroke. Her boilers were coal-fired and she would take on as much as 400 tons of coal when refueling. Ancons staterooms had two or three berths, and she could carry 135 cabin passengers and a similar number in steerage.
By mid-1873 Ancon was sailing from San Francisco to Panama and back with many stops in between. A single one-way trip took five weeks and involved 19 port calls. Her last trip in 1874 was notable for its light load. She left Panama with only 26 cabin and 15 steerage passengers, and only 32 sacks of mail. The opening of the transcontinental railroad link in the United States in 1869 much reduced demand for coast-to-coast steamship travel via Panama. Ancon ran only one more round trip to Panama, departing San Francisco on December 24, 1874 She returned March 11, 1875. On this final trip she carried 7,982 sacks of coffee beans to San Francisco.
In January 1875, the Goodall, Nelson, and Perkins Steamship Company acquired the competing San Francisco to San Diego routes, ships, and port facilities of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, including Ancon. Goodall, Nelson, and Perkins was reorganized as the Pacific Coast Steamship Company in 1876.
California Service (1875–1887) From mid-1875 to 1887 Ancon sailed between San Francisco and San Diego, with several stops in between. She made three round trips per month. A one-way fare from San Pedro to San Francisco with a cabin was $15, and $10 for steerage. In late 1878 she was also periodically assigned to the San Francisco–Portland line with a single stop at Astoria. Starting in 1885, Ancon was periodically assigned to shuttle between San Francisco and Eureka.
Ancons cargo was as diverse as the California economy. She shipped wool, wheat, honey, hides, household goods (including a piano), cranberries, cheese, lemons, oranges, shingles, doors, castings, guns, leather, whiskey, horses, fish, seal skins, marble, machinery, sweet potatoes, olives, chickens, and sacks of mail.
Grounding of Ventura
During the evening of April 20, 1875 the Pacific Mail Steamship Company vessel Ventura ran onto a rock off Point Sur in a dense fog. A large gash in the hull suggested that the ship would likely be totally destroyed, so the 225 passengers were landed on the beach. The steamer Santa Cruz took the passengers off the beach and delivered them to nearby Monterey. Ancon was sent from San Francisco to Monterey on April 22 to pick up the stranded passengers and take them on to San Pedro. The rescue effort was successful, and there were no deaths.