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_The Evening Post_, 4 February 1925:
PACIFIC ROUTES
WHICH WAS FIRST STEAMER?
LONG DEBATED QUESTION
The records of early steam navigation in the Pacific are difficult to trace, and the question which was the first steamer to cross that ocean took some time to decide. The evidence seems to be with the paddle steamer Golden Age…
… the Golden Age and Monumental City cross[ed] in 1854 [and] some smaller paddle boats staggered across in the ’sixties, to the goldfields of Australia…
…She arrived at Liverpool from New York in 1853, and from there made a record voyage to Australia.
On her transpacific voyage she left Sydney on 11th May, 1854.… she was built of wood, and … the whole hull was diagonally braced with iron.…
…
The Golden Age was a side-wheel steamer, and was the property of the New York and Australian Steam Navigation Company, which proposed to build five more like her for trade on the route she pioneered. But her voyage was not a financial success.
…
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19250204.2.90
![Colour photo of watercolour painting: Six ships used at various times on Pacific routes. Description: A combined portrait of six ships of various periods: Golden Age (paddles) 2864 tons (1854); Mataura, 1456 tons (1863); Mararoa, 2598 tons, first U.S.S. Co.; Moana; Makura; Monowai II (1933). Citation: Watkin, Eric Arthur, 1895-1961. Watkin, E A, fl 1920-1950s: Panama then San Francisco service; scale drawings [1930s?]. Ref: C-059-019. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22769467](https://social-cdn.vivaldi.net/system/media_attachments/files/113/941/394/642/912/745/original/c958a2d34715757a.jpg "Colour photo of watercolour painting: Six ships used at various times on Pacific routes. Description: A combined portrait of six ships of various periods: Golden Age (paddles) 2864 tons (1854); Mataura, 1456 tons (1863); Mararoa, 2598 tons, first U.S.S. Co.; Moana; Makura; Monowai II (1933). Citation: Watkin, Eric Arthur, 1895-1961. Watkin, E A, fl 1920-1950s: Panama then San Francisco service; scale drawings [1930s?]. Ref: C-059-019. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22769467")