U.S. Mail Steamship Company was a company formed in 1848 by George Law, Marshall Roberts and Bowes McIlvaine to assume the contract to carry the U.S. mails from New York City, with stops in New Orleans and Havana, to the Isthmus of Panama for delivery in California. The company had the SS Ohio and the SS Georgia built in 1848, and with the purchased SS Falcon in early 1849 carried the first passengers by steamship to Chagres, on the east coast of the Isthmus of Panama. Soon the rapid transit time the steamship lines and the trans isthmus passage made possible when the California Gold Rush began made it a very profitable company. The U.S. Mail Steamship Company only operated for 11 years. On the expiration of the mail contract in 1859 the company withdrew from the business. Its directors were said to be more interested in immediate financial returns than in providing a good service, so there was little public regret at its passing.