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.