At this period (1827) there was considerable friction between the Mersey Dock Board and the company, the managers of the latter considering greater facilities ought to be given for the working of their traffic in view of the fact that they annually spent in Liverpool £100,000 in outfits and repairs. To meet the Government opposition the company purchased the sailing brig Tyne, which they loaded fortnightly with rough goods, and towed to sea by their own tug Mars. In 1828, in addition to their daily service to Dublin, the company had a twice-weekly service to Belfast, and once a week to Drogheda. A fortnightly service between Dublin and Bordeaux was commenced on the 20th June, 1827. The Ballinasloe, built in 1829, was furnished with a powerful blast cylinder to ventilate the holds, being the first steamer to be so fitted. The same year the Manchester and the Britannia were both wrecked, but fortunately without loss of life.
The steampacket City of Londonderry, built in 1827 for a local company, was sold by auction on the 8th October, 1829, and purchased by the City of Dublin Company. Her new owners took up the station vacated by the Derry Company, and maintained a weekly service between Liverpool and Londonderry for a number of years. The Clarence Dock having been opened in September, 1830, the City of Dublin Company were allotted loading and discharging berths in it on the 25th March, 1831, which berths they have used continuously to the present date (1903), a period of over seventy years, when they were transferred to the Nelson Dock.
It will be remembered that in the early history of the company their most powerful trade competitors were the St. George Steampacket Company. One of the steamers of the latter company (the Lord Blaney), while on a voyage from Liverpool to Newry, was lost with all hands. With a chivalry unusual in commerce (ignoring the fact that the vessel belonged to a rival company) the City of Dublin Company headed a list for the benefit of the relatives of the drowned seamen and others with a subscription of one hundred pounds. Civil war had been raging in Portugal for a number of years, the leaders being Don Miguel (the usurper) and Dom Pedro, on behalf of his daughter, Donna Maria (Legitimist). Two at least of the company’s steamers, the Leeds and Birmingham, were chartered as transports to Dom Pedro; and it was the latter vessel, under the command of Captain Beazley, which, on the 16th July, 1833, brought to England the news of the complete defeat and capture of the fleet of Don Miguel. On the 6th November, 1834, the Leeds struck on Furlong Rock. No lives were lost, the crew and passengers being taken off by the company’s steamer Commerce. The Leeds having got off the rock, sank inside the jetty at Holyhead, but was subsequently raised.
In 1836 the company built four steamers to compete against the Government mail steamers. They were the Queen Victoria, Duchess of Kent, Royal Adelaide, and the famous Royal William. In June of this year (1836) a bill in Parliament for increasing the capital of the company was read three times and passed.
About this time the directors of the company had under consideration the establishing of steam communication between Liverpool and New York. A meeting was held in the company’s office in Water Street, there being present, amongst others, Sir John Tobin. Sir John had on the stocks a large steamer, and it was decided that the Transatlantic service should be established, the pioneer vessel to be the Royal William, to be followed by the Liverpool (Sir John Tobin’s new steamer) as soon as she was ready for the service. In accordance with these arrangements, the Royal William sailed from the George’s Pierhead on July 5th, 1838, for New York, and the Liverpool followed her on September 20th. These steamers have the honour of being the first passenger liners between Liverpool and New York. The Royal William proved to be too small for the Transatlantic trade, and in 1839 she resumed her sailings on the Liverpool and Kingstown station.
Royal William P. S. (1836) City of Dublin Steampacket Co.
On and from the 20th June, 1839, the Government determined that a mail steamer should be despatched every morning and evening from Liverpool to Dublin, via Kingstown, on the arrival of the respective mail trains from London. The Government steam packets were appointed to sail with the morning mails, and the City of Dublin steam packets with the evening mails. The directors of the City of Dublin Company were determined that their steamers should surpass the Government boats, and in December, 1840, they contracted for two new steamers for the mail service to be superior to any seagoing steamers afloat, and to do the passage from Liverpool to Kingstown in nine hours. Three years later (15th April, 1843) the company commenced their Liverpool and North Wales service with the new iron steamer Erin-go-Bragh. The steamer Ayrshire Lassie was placed on the station the next season (May, 1844), followed in 1845 by the Prince of Wales, and later by the Prince Arthur, which two steamers maintained a daily service throughout the summer season for many years, and until the station was transferred to the present North Wales Steampacket Company.
In conjunction with the North Lancashire Railways, the City of Dublin Company instituted, in 1844, a steamship service between Dublin and Fleetwood, the first steamer employed being the Hibernia. The Company’s trade between England and Ireland had increased so rapidly that in 1845 the directors placed orders to build eight vessels, viz., five paddle steamers and three auxiliary screw schooners.
