Panama Mail Steamship stock certificate c1923 (mail and passenger cruises)

Shipping and passenger line! The vignette has an American Bald Eagle with wings spread, two port scenes in the background. Unissued and not cancelled. Circa 1923 from corporate records. Measures approximately 11 x 8 inches.

The Panama Mail Steamship Company was a 20th-century shipping line, particularly active in the 1920s and 1930s, known for passenger and mail service between the U.S. West Coast (San Francisco) and New York via the Panama Canal, serving Central America and the Caribbean. A subsidiary of the Grace Line (W. R. Grace & Co.), it operated luxury liners like the "Four Sisters" (SS Santa Rosa, Santa Paula, etc.) and used vibrant promotional maps and brochures to advertise its tropical cruises and mail routes.

Grace Lines was founded in 1914 to coincide with the opening of the Panama Canal. Besides mail transportation, the steamship line provided passenger service in the 1920s from New York to Los Angeles with stops in Havana Cuba, Columbia, Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

In 1916, Grace acquired a controlling interest in the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. In 1921, Pacific received five President class ships from the United States Shipping Board for transpacific operations. In 1923, the US Shipping board decided to place the five ships up for bid and Dollar Shipping Company won the bid. With no large ships for the transpacific operations, Grace sold the Pacific Mail, its registered name, and goodwill to Dollar. Now without a transpacific service, Grace did not need the six intercoastal freighters and sold them to the American Hawaiian Line.

At this time (1923), Grace formed the Panama Mail Steamship Company, to operate the smaller ships that were formerly owned and used by the Pacific Mail in the Central American trade. These ships were not involved in the sale to Dollar.

The company focused on Central American routes after selling Pacific Mail's transpacific assets to Dollar Steamship Lines. The company operated modern, comfortable passenger and cargo ships before being sold to Prudential Lines in 1969. 

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