Steamships and their story

by E. Keble Chatterton

LAUNCH OF THE “FORTH” (1841).

By Permission of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co.

THE “WILLIAM FAWCETT” AND H.M.S. “QUEEN” (1829).

From the Painting by Frank Murray in the possession of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

In 1851 the Royal Mail Line service to South America began, and about 1869 those steamers which had stopped short at Brazil, and served the Argentine by transfer, continued their voyage to Buenos Ayres. In the course of time it was only to be expected that the heavy subsidy should be reduced. It dwindled down to £85,000 a year, and was finally allowed to vanish altogether as recently as June, 1905. Since then the Royal Mail Company has extended its West Indian service to New York via Jamaica. During the Crimean War some of the vessels of this line did good service as transports, and even more recently still during the South African War. It was on one of the vessels of this line that, during the American Civil War, an incident occurred which was of international importance. The ship which was brought so prominently into notice was the Trent, that had been launched at Northfleet. Some readers will doubtless remember that Messrs. Slidell and Mason were forcibly taken from this vessel by a Federal man-of-war, and that Lord Palmerston, by his action in the matter, set forth that valuable doctrine, still recognised, that an individual on board a British ship is as safe from foreign interference as if he were on British soil.

It was in 1840, also, that the Pacific Steam Navigation Company was granted its charter, and its history is, so to speak, a complement of that of the Royal Mail Company.[B] After the latter had extended its service to the Isthmus of Panama, and established a means of transit across to the western coast, it was evident that the Pacific littoral was ready for the steamship, and this the Pacific Steam Navigation Company now supplied. In the olden days the sailing ship had been the only means of doing this, but that meant braving the terrors of Cape Horn, as many of the surviving sailing ships do to this day. But the enterprise of the Royal Mail Line on the one side of the narrow neck separating North from South America, and the co-operation of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company on the other, together with the intervening land-journey, brought the inhabitants of the Southern Pacific much nearer to Europe. The Panama Canal, which is promised for opening in 1915, was thus foreshadowed. Sending round its two steamers, the Chile and Peru, to the west coast, the Pacific Company opened up a new sphere of commerce, and these two steamships were the very first steam-propelled craft that ever passed through the Straits of Magellan.

[B] The Royal Mail Co. has now absorbed the Pacific Steam Navigation Co.

The foundation of the Peninsular Company dates back as far as 1837. Even a year or two before then its ships had commenced running to the Peninsula, but at the time mentioned a regular service of mail packets from London to Lisbon and Gibraltar was instituted. Here again we find the existence of a contract between the Admiralty and a steamship company for the carrying of the mails, but it was not until 1840 that the line was extended to Malta and Alexandria, and was incorporated by Royal Charter under the now well-known title of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, with a view to carrying on operations in the Far East. [The lower illustration facing page 112] shows the first steamship owned by the Peninsular Company, a little paddle vessel of only 209 tons. This was the William Fawcett, which was built in the year 1829. She measured 74 feet long, only 16 feet wide, developed 60 horse-power, and was engaged in the trade between England, Lisbon, and Gibraltar. But the first steamer which the newly incorporated company dispatched to India, via the Cape of Good Hope, was the Hindostan, a vessel of 1,800 tons, and 500 horse-power. She began her voyage from England in September, 1842, and her departure was a memorable event when we consider all that was destined to follow therefrom, and how certainly it meant the ending of the careers of those fine East India sailing ships which had been brought to such a high state of perfection ere steam had appeared on the sea. The Hindostan was a three-masted vessel with a long bowsprit, “steeved” at a big angle, setting yards on her fore-mast for fore-sail, topsail and t’gallant, while her main and mizen were fore-and-aft rigged. She is interesting as having not one but two funnels, the first being placed very far forward, just abaft the fore-mast, whilst the other was immediately in front of the main-mast. The distance between the two funnels was great, for the purpose already indicated. The Hindostan was followed by other steamers, and in 1844 the P. and O. Company undertook a mail service between England and Alexandria, and so from Suez to Ceylon, Calcutta, and China.