The Grand Turk was chartered in 1848 for two years to run between Alexandria, Beyrout, Tripoli, and other Mediterranean ports with passengers and mails. On her return she plied between Southampton and Morlaix for the South-Western Steam Packet Company.
The Transit, another of the old steamers of the South-Western Steam Packet Company, was running in 1836 under the ownership of the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, between Southampton and Spanish ports, carrying cattle and general cargo. She is recorded to have made the passage from Lisbon to Falmouth in three and a half days during the winter of 1836. When withdrawn from this trade she was run to the Channel Islands by the South-Western Steam Packet Company, and she, too, ended her days as a coal-hulk.
Between 1838 and 1845 the mail service between England and the Channel Islands appears to have been performed by a steam-packet service from Weymouth, of which no reliable records can be discovered. The transfer of this mail service to the steamers of the South-Western Steam Packet Company from Southampton took place on April 1, 1845. But in October 1899, when the steamers of the London and South-Western Railway Company from Southampton and the Great Western Railway Company from Weymouth were joined in the Channel Islands service the mails were once more carried via Weymouth three days a week during the winter months.
The advertisement columns of the Hampshire Advertiser of 1845 refer to the “South-Western Steam Packet Company” as the owners of the cross-channel steamers, and they seemed to have remained so until 1860, when their steamers were taken over by the London and South-Western Railway Company.
The merchants of the Channel Islands started an opposition company, called the Weymouth and Channel Islands Steam Packet Company, with the steamers Aguila, Cygnus, and Brighton. This opposition continued until 1888, when the service was taken up by the Great Western Railway Company. After keeping up a keen opposition to the London and South-Western Railway Company for eleven years an amicable arrangement was entered into for a joint service, which still continues.
In consequence of the opposition of the Weymouth and Channel Islands Steam Packet Company a South-Western Railway Company’s steamer, the Wonder, was sent to Weymouth. This ran until 1860, when the Weymouth service was given up by the London and South-Western Railway and all their energies were concentrated upon the Southampton route.
Although steamers ran from Southampton to Jersey and thence to St. Malo from 1845, the regular connection between Jersey and France was by a French company’s steamer called the Comet. This company was bought out by the London and South-Western Railway Company in 1867. The latter company then commenced running their steamer Dumfries regularly from Jersey to Granville and St. Malo in connection with the Southampton and Channel Islands service.
In 1860 a direct service was opened between Southampton and St. Malo by the new iron screw steamer St. Malo, the first of this type built for the London and South-Western Railway.
The paddle-steamer South-Western, the first iron steamer employed in the Channel Islands service, had a speed of about 12 knots. She was 131 tons net and was sold in 1863. Her floats were taken off and after being rigged for the purpose she was sailed out to Japan.
After the South-Western came the Wonder, Express, Courier, and Dispatch. They each had a speed of thirteen to fourteen knots. The Express was built and launched in six weeks. At the time she was laid down the engines put into her were in the yard ready for a Government steamer, but were used for the Express instead. This same Express was the steamer which brought Louis Philippe a fugitive from France in 1848, her commander on that occasion being Fred Paul, R.N., who had been lent by the Government to the company for that purpose. Louis Philippe, disguised as a fisherman, crossed from Honfleur to Havre in a fishing smack and was put on board the Express lying in the avant-port of Havre. As soon as his feet touched her deck, Commander Paul, who was lying under a full head of steam, slipped her moorings, steamed away and landed the fugitive at Littlehampton. A brass plate stating the facts was fastened to the sofa in the saloon, on which Louis Philippe slept. The Express was lost on September 20, 1859, on the passage from Jersey to Southampton in the Jailer Passage off the Corbière Lighthouse, Jersey.