| Cabin. | Steerage. | |
| Thames, Shannon, &c. | 2 16 0 | 1 14 0 |
| Lady Roberts, Lady Wolseley, &c. | 1 5 0 | 0 11 0 |
The present British and Irish Steampacket Company was established in 1836. The list of the earliest Directors contained the names of several of the best known citizens of Dublin, the following being the names of the Directors for the year 1838, viz.:—Messrs. James Ferrier, John MacDonnell, William Williams, Francis Carleton, Joseph Boyce, John Jameson, and John Ennis. The Company’s first fleet consisted of three wooden paddle steamers, named respectively, City of Limerick, Devonshire, and Shannon.
A very ingenious robbery from the Company took place at the St. Katherine’s Docks. Two boxes of gold dust, of a gross value of £5,245, were landed at Falmouth, ex H.M. Packet Seagull, from the Brazils. From Falmouth they were shipped per B. and I. steamer City of Limerick to the Company’s Wharf, London, consigned to the Brazilian Mining Co. At noon on Monday, 29th April, 1839, a person claimed the two boxes, and presented an order for them, apparently in the same handwriting as the letter of advice received with the two boxes from Falmouth. The advice stated that the boxes were only to be delivered to a gentleman who would call on Monday with a letter in the same handwriting. The “gentleman” accurately described the marks, and took away the boxes; but two hours afterwards, another person, connected with the Brazilian Mining Co., came for the boxes, and the fraud was then discovered, for the genuine documents and letter addressed to the Company by the Falmouth Agent were produced.
Two months later, the whole of the criminals concerned were in custody, and charged with their offence at the Central Criminal Court. Two of them, Moss and Solomons, turned Queen’s evidence. Lewin Caspar (who had been for eighteen months in the service of the B. and I. Co. as General Superintendent), was detained in custody until sentence was pronounced, 3rd February, 1840, and was then acquitted, owing to a flaw in the indictment. His father, Ellis Caspar, and Emmanuel Moses, were each sentenced to be transported for 14 years, and sailed for Sydney on the 20th October, 1840, on the convict transport, Lord Lynedoch. Alice Abrahams (daughter of Emmanuel Moses) was also convicted of being an accomplice, and was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment. Mr. James Hartley (founder of the firm of James Hartley & Co., London) rendered very valuable service to the proprietors by his energy and skill in tracing and successfully prosecuting the thieves. Mr. James Hartley was elected a Director in 1838, and for his services in connection with the prosecution of the gold dust thieves, he was presented with a valuable piece of plate.
In 1842, the steamship Duke of Cornwall was built, and added to the fleet in order to meet the increased demands of the trade. Like her sister ships, she was a wooden paddle steamer, and the last of this type of craft employed in the service.
The British and Irish Steam Packet Co. were amongst the first steamship owners to recognise the advantage (now universally admitted) of the screw propeller over the paddle wheel as a means for propelling steamships, and in 1845 they introduced into the London and Dublin trade two schooner-rigged auxiliary screw steamers, one of which was called the Rose, and the other the Shamrock. Three years later the B. and I. Co. had to encounter a fierce and powerful opposition, engineered by the Messrs. Malcomson, of Waterford, but which involved nearly all the leading Steamship Companies on the East Coast of Ireland; the B. and I.; Belfast (Langtry’s); City of Dublin; Cork; and Waterford Steamship Companies all taking part in the contest. The Waterford Steamship Company placed steamers on the London and Dublin station, and the Directors of the British and Irish Steam Packet Company retaliated by placing steamers on the Waterford and London, Waterford and Liverpool, and London and St. Petersburg lines. The opposition lasted until April, 1851, when an arrangement was come to, whereby the Dublin and London traffic was divided between Messrs. Malcomson (Waterford Co.) and the B. and I., and at the same time the City of Dublin Co. withdrew from their official connection with the latter Company. In the meantime, several steamers had been built of iron (notably the Great Britain), and had proved by the severest tests the great merits of that metal as a material for shipbuilding. So convinced were the Directors of the B. and I. of the advantages to be gained by the substitution of iron for wood, that they purchased in 1850 the first iron paddle steamer of the fleet. This steamer was named the Foyle, and was one of the finest vessels afloat in her time.
The following year witnessed an extension of the Company’s operations, a regular service being established between Liverpool, South of England ports, and London; and also between Limerick and London. The latter was maintained by the auxiliary screw steamer Rose, and when this vessel was sold in 1852, the service was discontinued.
To meet the increased requirements of the trade, two large screw steamers, the Lady Eglinton and the Nile, were added to the fleet in 1852.
On the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, two of the B. and I. steamers, one of which was the new steamer Lady Eglinton, and the other the Foyle, were chartered by the Government for the conveyance of troops and stores. In consequence of the withdrawal of these two steamers from the Company’s service, and of the loss of the Nile off the Cornish Coast, the Liverpool to London sailings were abandoned.
In addition to her Government service in the Black Sea, the Lady Eglinton, in 1858, was employed for a short time as a Trans-Atlantic liner, making, in this capacity, two trips from Galway to Quebec and Montreal. In 1865, this famous steamer was placed in the hands of Messrs. Walpole, Webb & Bewley, shipbuilders, Dublin, by whom she was lengthened thirty feet.