In modern times this company has distinguished itself by its zeal for self-improvement. Every important development in steam-ship construction and engineering has been marked by the company by an addition to its fleet, one of the most recent being the Kingfisher, the first steam turbine-driven passenger steamer on the Thames.
London and Edinburgh Shipping Company
Probably on none of the British coasts was the advent of the steamer hailed with more pleasure than on the east coast. Travel between London and the east of Scotland, before railways were possible, and when the land journey had to be made by stage-coach or on horseback, or a sea journey performed in sailing smacks, was a tedious operation. The smacks were large of their sort, and as comfortable as vessels of that period usually were (which is not saying much), but the North Sea was as turbulent then as now, so that passengers who went down to that part of the sea in smacks usually had an experience which lasted them a lifetime.
The London and Leith service of the present day is maintained by a line of steamers as good as any on the coast. The existing company was not the first to trade between the two ports whence it takes its name, but its history connects it with the earliest attempts to found a regular service between the English and Scottish capitals. This was established in 1802 by the old Edinburgh and Leith Shipping Company, with six smacks. About seven years later there was established a London and Edinburgh Shipping Company, which possessed ten smacks. There had previously been a Leith and Berwick Company, so called because Berwick was a port of call between the Forth ports and London. This was the Union Company, which for fifty years previously had traded from Berwick. It was absorbed by the London and Leith Shipping Company in 1812, and this combination was joined by another in 1815. The existing company is the lineal descendant of the combination of the three.
Before steam was used “it was not an uncommon experience,” says an historical publication issued by the London and Edinburgh Shipping Company, “for a smack to lie windbound in the roads for days before venturing out of the Forth, and instances were more than traditional of a smack with a cabin full of passengers being tossed about on the North Sea for days or weeks, and then forced to come back to Leith for the replenishment of stores, without having been any nearer to London than when she set out.” On one occasion a smack in which there were seven cabin passengers was nine days at sea, the year being 1825, and the month March. Upon leaving Leith for London and getting well into the North Sea they were driven towards Norway for four days, when a “welcome change of wind set in, which drove them back towards Scotland with equal rapidity.” Having sighted the Bell Rock they continued the voyage to London, and made a good run in spite of the loss of some spars and canvas. The passengers were “unhappy” and at times were not allowed on deck for fear of being washed overboard. Another smack was three weeks endeavouring to get to London and then had to return for more stores. Prior to the smacks the voyages were usually made by brigs of anything between 160 to 200 tons, which sailed when their owners thought they had enough cargo and passengers aboard.
The “Carron” (Carron Co.).
The “Kingfisher” (General Steam Navigation Co.).
Presumably no one sailed by smack who could afford to coach between Scotland and London, but the coach fare in 1824 was £13 and the smack fare £4. Passengers by smack had a fair chance of witnessing a sea-fight, during which the ladies would be locked up in the cabin while the martially-inclined among the passengers might be called upon to assist the crew in repelling the attack of a French privateer. The smacks were superseded by the celebrated Aberdeen schooners or themselves converted to that rig, and the schooners bravely upheld the reputation of sail as long as possible against the all-conquering power of steam. But in 1850 the company introduced steam and the fine clippers were withdrawn. It is this company’s proud boast that it has never lost a passenger.