The Royal Mail Steamers of the African Steamship Co., conjointly with the steamers of the British and African Steam Navigation Co., sail from Liverpool thrice a week for the Canary Islands and the West Coast, from Hamburg and Amsterdam weekly, and from Antwerp (Cie Belge Maritime du Congo) for Teneriffe, Sierra Leone and Congo Ports every third week.
R.M.S. Tarquah. British & African Steam Navigation Co., Ltd.
Chapter III.
THE BRITISH & AFRICAN STEAM NAVIGATION
COMPANY, LIMITED (1900).
This Company was projected in 1868 by a number of gentlemen practically acquainted with the trade of the West Coast of Africa. Amongst these were Mr. Alexander Elder and Mr. John Dempster who in that year founded the firm of Elder, Dempster & Co., a firm whose ramifications during these later years, under the guidance of Sir Alfred L. Jones, K.C.M.G., and Mr. Davey, may be said to extend throughout the civilized world.
Three steamers of about 1,300 tons gross each, were specially built to the order of the new company, by Messrs. Randolph Elder & Co., of Glasgow, for the West African trade, and were named the Bonny, Roquelle, and Congo.
The Pioneer steamer, the Bonny, sailed from Liverpool in January, 1869, and thereafter a monthly service was maintained between Glasgow, Liverpool and the West Coast of Africa. After several years’ employment in this trade, the Roquelle was sold to Messrs. P. M. Tintore & Co., Barcelona, and is still sailing from the Mersey under the Spanish flag.
So successful were these steamers that in 1869 it was decided to add three more to the fleet.
The new steamers were the Liberia, Loanda and Volta, also specially built for the trade by the late Mr. John Elder, the distinguished brother of Mr. Alexander Elder, whose early death towards the end of 1869 was so much deplored by the ship-building and engineering world. The gross tonnage of these three vessels was increased to about 1,500 tons each.