The new service commenced on the 1st April, 1897, and passengers are conveyed between all parts of England and Ireland at a very high rate of speed, and perform the journey with a degree of comfort that would have been thought incredible a few years since.
The fleet of the company now consists of the following high-class powerful screw steamers, replete with everything necessary for the comfort of passengers, as well as being equipped with the most modern appliances for the safe carriage of cattle and the rapid handling of cargo:—The Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connaught, sailing twice each day from Holyhead and from Kingstown with the mails and passengers. The Carlow, Kerry, Wicklow, Louth, and Cork, sailing every evening to and from Liverpool and Dublin, with goods and passengers, as well as a morning service from both ports, with passengers and fast traffic. In the present year (1903) the Company has placed the Kilkenny on the station, a vessel of an entirely new design, one of the finest passenger and cargo steamers which has ever been built for the Irish cross-Channel trade. A service is also maintained three times a week between Dublin and Belfast by the company’s steamers.
For upwards of three-quarters of a century this grand old company has faithfully served the public, with an immunity from loss of life as remarkable as it is gratifying to those chiefly concerned.
Chapter VI.
THE BRITISH AND IRISH STEAM PACKET
COMPANY, LIMITED.
The oldest deep-sea steamship passenger trade in Europe is that between Dublin and London. The distinction of having been the first persons (other than the crew) to cross the Irish Sea by steam vessel is shared by Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Weld. Mr. Weld, who was the Secretary—or brother to the Secretary—of the Royal Society of Dublin, embarked with his wife on board the steampacket Thames, Captain Dodd, which vessel sailed from Dublin at noon on the 28th May, 1815, bound for London.
The sailing of this, the first, steamer between Dublin and London, was an event of the greatest interest to the citizens of the former city, who assembled in thousands to witness her departure. It was not intended that the Thames should ply between the two ports, and, as a matter of fact, it was not until after an interval of eleven years (1826) that a regular steampacket service was established between the Metropolis of England and that of Ireland. In the latter year, two of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co.’s steamers, the Thames (not the Thames of 1815) and the Shannon commenced to trade regularly between Dublin and London.
Amongst other famous steamers, employed on this station, may be mentioned the William Fawcett, which traded between London and Dublin during the summer of 1829. This steamer afterwards became the property of the Peninsular Steam Navigation Co., and is stated in Whitaker’s Almanac (and elsewhere) to have been the pioneer steamer of the “P. & O. Co.” In August, 1830, the steampacket City of Londonderry, built in 1827 for the Liverpool and Londonderry trade, and purchased in October, 1829, by the City of Dublin Co., was placed by her new owners on the London station. These three steamers, the Thames, Shannon and City of Londonderry, were described in the Company’s advertisement of the period as being amongst the largest steamers afloat, and all of the same capacity and power, viz., 513 tons burthen, and 160 h.p. each. These steamers maintained a regular weekly service (one of them sailing from London every Sunday, calling at Plymouth), and were due at Dublin in ordinary weather, in 80 hours after leaving London.
Lady Roberts. 1464 Tons. Speed 13 Knots.
Travelling at that period was expensive, as shown by the rates charged by these small wooden steamers, compared with those now charged by the magnificent modern steamships of the B. and I. Co. of 1,400 to 1,500 tons each.