 This policy of subsidization, which was continued to at least WW II by Great Britain, aided materially not only in giving her maritime interests a start in the new type of ships, but in helping them win and hold supremacy on the ocean.The Peninsular Company, afterwards the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, was established in 1837, and the Pacific Steam Navigation Company in 1840, both subsidized.The first regular steamship service from the west to the east coast of the United States began on February 28, 1849, with the arrival of the SS California (1848)" in San Francisco Bay.