Chapter XIV.
Steam communication with the West Indies.—Royal Mail Steampacket Co. incorporated 1841.—Commences with a fleet of fourteen steamers.—Heavy loss of first year’s working.—Generous concession from Government.—Rapid increase of trade.—The “Trent affair.”—First screw steamers for Company, the Tagus and Mozelle.—The Tasmanian.—Gross tonnage of present fleet.—The Imperial Direct West India Mail Service, Ltd., established 1901.
Nine months after the despatch of the first Cunarder from Liverpool to Halifax, the Admiralty accepted a contract from a newly-formed steampacket company, to convey the mails between England, the West Indies, and the Gulf of Mexico. This company, which bore the title of The Royal Mail Steam Packet Co., had an authorised capital of £1,500,000, in fifteen thousand shares of £100 each. It commenced operations on an exceptionally large scale, no less than fourteen large and powerful steamers being at once ordered to be built for the service. The steamers were to be each of 400 horse-power, and to be capable of carrying guns of the largest calibre then in use on H.M. war steamers. Like all other ocean steamers of the period, they were constructed of wood, and were propelled by paddle-wheels. Upon the complete delivery of these vessels to the Company, the contract required one of them to sail twice in each calendar month from England via Corunna and Madeira to the various islands in the West Indies, specified in the contract, and back “to such port in the British Channel as the said Commissioners of the Admiralty shall direct.” The scheme also embraced other places in the West Indies, the Spanish Main, and the United States, for which mails were to be carried. For the performance of these services, the Company was to receive a subsidy at the rate of £240,000 per annum in quarterly payments, the contract to commence on the 1st December, 1841, or if possible earlier, and to continue in force for ten years, subject to twelve months’ notice from either party for its termination. Notwithstanding this large subsidy, the operations of the Company during the first year resulted in a heavy loss, the Directors’ balance-sheet, presented at the first meeting of the shareholders, showing a deficit of £79,790 16s. 8d. Before this meeting was held, one-half of the capital had been paid up, and another call of £10 per share was sanctioned at the meeting; but as it was found that even this was insufficient for the requirements of the Company, the Directors appealed to Government for further assistance. In response to this appeal the Government generously consented to reduce the annual mileage to be traversed by the Company’s ships, which by the original contract was 684,816 miles, to 392,976 miles, without any reduction of the annual subsidy of £240,000. This liberal concession was estimated by the Directors to effect a saving to the Company of £125,000 per annum. Unfortunately during the second year of its existence, the Company lost two valuable steamers, which more than counterbalanced the bonus it had obtained from Government. Trade, however, increased so rapidly and profitably, that in the following year (1843) the Company had recouped its losses, and had a surplus of receipts over expenditure amounting to £94,210, and in 1844 to £147,749.
In 1850 the Government made a fresh contract with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. for a further term of ten years from the 1st January, 1852, the subsidy being raised to £270,000 per annum, but the Company were required to undertake the additional expense of a monthly service to the Brazils, which increased the mileage to be performed annually from 389,448 to 547,296 miles, and at the same time reduced the mileage from 12s. 3d. to 9s. 10d. per mile. The Company was also required to increase the speed of its steamers on the West Indian line from 8 knots to 10 knots per hour, and to add five new steamers to its fleet, each of 2,250 tons burden and 800 horse power. This second contract was altered in 1857, and its period of currency extended two years, one condition introduced being of an extraordinary nature. It had reference to an amalgamation with the European and Australian Mail Company, for the conveyance of the mails via Egypt, to and from Australia. This arrangement proved a great failure, owing to the complete collapse of the latter Company. A second condition required the acceleration of the mails between England and Rio de Janeiro. The Company was also required to provide three new steamers of 3,000 tons burden and 800 horse-power for the Atlantic West India service, and a fourth of smaller dimensions to ply between Rio and the River Plate.
Clyde. Royal Mail Steampacket Co.
In 1864 the second contract expired, and fresh arrangements were made, reducing the annual subsidy to £172,914. At the same time it was stipulated that the speed of the steamers in the West India Transatlantic service should be increased to 10½ knots per hour.
The postal contract was again renewed in 1874; but in consequence of adverse articles and letters which had appeared in the public press, and because several members of Parliament had insisted that the service should be thrown open to public competition, the Directors of the Royal Mail Steam-Packet Co. found themselves compelled either to abandon the service altogether, or to accept a much smaller subsidy than they had hitherto received for carrying the mails. They adopted the latter alternative, and undertook the conveyance of the West India mails for an annual payment of £84,750—being about one-third of the amount of the first subsidy. The company in addition received the sum of £2,000 per annum to cover the cost of the steamers calling at Plymouth to land the mails instead of carrying them on to Southampton, the final port of destination.
Nile. Royal Mail Steampacket Co.
On and from the 1st of January, 1875, the mails were carried on an entirely fresh basis. The contract with the Government was for a service twice a month from Southampton: payment to be according to the weight of postal matter conveyed by the steamers, and the contract was terminable by six months’ notice given by either party to the contract.
Although on the North Atlantic screw steamers had been employed in rapidly increasing numbers since 1850, it was not until twenty years later that the Directors of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. substituted screw steamers for paddle-wheel steam packets in their service.
The first fleet of the Company consisted of vessels built of wood, but so indeed were the pioneer steamers of the Cunard, P. & O., and other historical steamship companies. The course taken by the Company’s vessels was free from the dangers from ice and fogs, such as are encountered by steamers engaged in the North Atlantic trades, yet during the first eight years of the Company’s operations it lost no fewer than six of its steamers. The Isis struck on a reef off the coast of Bermuda and sank on the 8th October, 1842. The Solway was lost 20 miles west of Corunna on the 15th April, 1843. The Medina was wrecked on a coral reef near Turk’s Island on the 12th May, 1844. The Tweed was totally lost on the 12th February, 1847; and in 1849, the Forth was wrecked on the same reefs that had caused the destruction of the Tweed. The Actæon was lost in 1850 on a shoal near Carthagena; and in 1852 there was lost by fire the Amazon.
R.M.S. Port Antonio leaving Avonmouth for Kingston, Jamaica.
An event occurred on the 8th November, 1861, which occasioned considerable public excitement, both in Great Britain and in the U.S.A. It was during the struggle between the Northern and Southern States, and two of the Commissioners of the Confederate States were forcibly removed from the Royal Mail steamer Trent, while on their way to Europe, by the officers and crew of the Federal man-of-war San Jacinto. This high-handed action, which was not repudiated by the Federal Government, was inexcusable, and the tone adopted by a great portion of the press of the Northern States was ludicrous, and unworthy of a great people.
In 1871 there was launched from the yard of Messrs. John Elder & Co. two splendid screw steamers to the order of the Royal Mail Co. These steamers were the Tagus and the Mozelle, both steamers being 3,252 tons gross register and 600 nominal horse-power. On her official trial trip the Tagus attained an average mean speed of 14·878 knots per hour, a result which was slightly surpassed by her sister ship the Mozelle, the average mean speed of the latter on her trial trip being 14·929 knots per hour.
At the same time Messrs. Elder & Co. effected an extraordinary improvement in the Tasmanian, an iron screw steamer the Royal Mail Co. had purchased from the unfortunate European and Australian Steam Navigation Co. This vessel was fitted with compound engines, and on her first voyage afterwards from Southampton to St. Thomas, occupying 14 days 2 hours, she consumed 466 tons of coal, against her former consumption of 1,088 tons on a voyage occupying 14 days 13 hours.
Since that date all the additions to the Company’s fleet have been screw steamers, and it now (1903) consists of 22 ocean steamers, with a gross tonnage of 87,855 tons, in addition to 9 coast steamers employed as feeders to the mail services.
In the first year of the present century, Messrs. Elder, Dempster & Co. established a service of mail steamers between Bristol and Jamaica. A detailed account of this service, which is known as the Imperial Direct West India Mail Service, Limited, will be found in the second part of this volume.