London, Brighton, and South Coast Rly. Co.
A considerable amount of difficulty was experienced by the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company in their preliminary attempt to open up the Newhaven-Dieppe route in 1847. As Brighton was a very unprotected departure and arrival station, and they were unable to come to terms with the Shoreham Harbour authorities, the company decided on Newhaven as the base for their cross-channel operations. The Brighton, Newhaven, and Dieppe steamers carried both passengers and cargo. As, at that time, it was illegal for railway companies to own steamboats, the South-Eastern Railway Company entered a complaint, and the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company were mulcted in a heavy fine for the cross-channel trading that had already been carried on. The service was in consequence completely stopped and the boats sold. For three years Anglo-Continental trade was left to private steamship owners, and then an arrangement was entered into with Messrs. Maples and Morris to run steamers ostensibly on their own account, but really on behalf of the company. Among the earlier steamers thus employed were the Ayrshire Lassie, Culloden, and Rothesay Castle, all built at Glasgow. The extra amount of business anticipated from the Great Exhibition of 1851 necessitated fresh arrangements being made in connection with the service, and an agreement was entered into by which Mr. Maples was to run his steamers for seven years. In the meantime the company endeavoured, but unsuccessfully, to obtain powers to own steamers themselves. At the expiration of Maples’ contract, it was extended for another four years. During the second period the powers for which the company had been asking were granted by Parliament, but Maples would not release them till his contract expired. When he did leave the service he took with him the Paris, Rouen, Dieppe, Marco, Hope—the latter an iron brig noted for having about seven feet of false keel—and another, and £38,000 in hard cash, which he subsequently lost. The three Scotch boats mentioned ran through the whole of the summer of 1851, at the end of which the Aquila was also chartered for the company. Two of Maples’ privately-owned boats on the Newhaven-Dieppe service were the screw steamers Collier and Ladybird. The latter was about 160 feet long, of 150 horse-power and steamed 11 knots. She was fitted with inverted geared engines to work the screw shaft, the ratio being 2¹⁄₂ to 1. Subsequently she went to Australia, and in 1854 carried the first Sydney to Melbourne mail. One of the most remarkable of the earlier boats employed by the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company was the Wave Queen. She was built in 1852 by Messrs. Robinson Russell and Co. for a Belgian gentleman, whom she did not suit, and was sent to Newhaven by Mr. Scott Russell until he could get the Lyons and Orleans ready for use. She was of iron with a length of 200 feet, but her breadth was little more than 13 feet. For her beam she was one of the longest boats ever constructed, and consequently attracted a considerable amount of attention. Her engines were of 80 horse-power. She had clipper bows with very fine lines even for so narrow a vessel, and she had also an exceedingly long overhanging counter. A special feature of her construction was the total absence of sheer, and she enjoyed the reputation of being a swift and dry boat. According to contemporary records she was held to be the smallest vessel then afloat capable of attaining the speed required. Her engines were of the oscillating type and made fifty revolutions per minute, and steam at 25 lb. pressure was supplied by two tubular boilers. These were 15·7 feet long, 10·5 feet wide, and 6·5 feet high, having a total grate area of 100 square feet and 2342 square feet of heating surface. The aggregate weight of engines, boilers, and water was 55¹⁄₂ tons. Her paddle-wheels, which were unusually small for her length, were 12·4 feet in diameter, and each had sixteen feathering floats 6 feet by 2 feet 6 inches, her average speed being 15¹⁄₂ knots and her load displacement 225 tons with a gross register of 196 tons. On one of her trips she ran into the West Pier fourteen feet, but although she remained fixed during one tide she did not start even a rivet, and was got off on the next tide without having admitted a drop of water.
The London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company started their Littlehampton trade in 1866. In 1875 the company acquired from Messrs. Elder the celebrated Paris, commonly spoken of as the most handsome steamer that ever crossed the Channel. Larger and faster vessels being required about this time for the Dieppe and Honfleur routes, they purchased the Honfleur from Messrs. Gurley Bros. She was 376 gross tonnage, had engines of 45 n.h.p., with two cylinders of 18 inches and 34 inches diameter and a piston stroke of 18 inches. The twin-screw Rennes, built in 1866, was sent to the Thames to be overhauled, and her engines were compounded by Messrs. J. and W. Dudgeon, the result being a great increase in speed and a reduction of somewhere about 45 per cent. in coal consumption. Two new screw steamers, the Newhaven and Dieppe, were built for the company by La Société des Forges et Chantiers at Havre, but owing to structural imperfections, a considerable amount of trouble was experienced before they could be made to meet the requirements of Lloyd’s and the Board of Trade. At their best they were very slow. A great increase in traffic being expected from the Paris Exhibition of 1878, two paddle-steamers, the Brighton and Victoria, were ordered from Messrs. Jno. Elder and Co. of Govan. Their bridges were filled with the first steam-steering gear ever seen at Newhaven. A larger type of boat than had been used heretofore was adopted in 1882, when the Normandy and Brittany were purchased from the Fairfield Company of Glasgow, and in 1885 the Lyons and Italy were obtained from Govan for the cargo trade. The vessels now employed are the Arundel, Brighton, Calvados, Dieppe, Paris, Sussex, and Trouville.