and superior class of vessels.
An entire change of management combined with a superior class of vessels have had a very material effect on the prosperity of the company, enabling the directors at their last meeting to declare a dividend of 10 per cent. per annum. Their fleet[280] is now a large and excellent one, and well adapted, on the whole, for the due performances of the various mail services[281] undertaken by the company. It is further only just to the company, before closing this sketch of its operations, to record the services which it rendered to the British Government in placing some of its finest ships at the disposal of the naval department for the conveyance of troops during the Crimean War, more especially as the operation was carried out with only a trifling interruption to the contract mail service.
FOOTNOTES:
[273] See articles in the Civil Engineer and Architects’ Journal, 1862, pp. 174 and 242, and other journals of the period.
[274] It should, however, be added that these figures apply to an estimate made during the time of high postage rates, when as few letters as possible were sent through the Post-office.
[275] “Our Steam Fleets,” Liverpool Journal of Commerce, October 26th, 1874.
[276] “The mail services of the company on the West India, and Brazil and River Plate lines are now (1875) carried on under arrangements with the Government, involving a still further reduced subsidy;” and the Directors in their report of the 28th April last, add:—
“Since the last Report a contract has been entered into by the Company with her Majesty’s Government to carry on the Brazil and River Plate Mail Service, from the 1st January, 1875, for a payment according to the weight of letters, etc., conveyed by the packets. The contract is terminable at six months’ notice on either side, and is for a service twice a month from Southampton; the vessels, which have for a considerable time past left on the 24th of the month, being thus placed on the same footing as those dispatched by the company under the previous contract on the 9th of the month.”
[277] Vide Times newspaper, 9th April, 1847.
[278] The dimensions of the Amazon were 300 feet in length, 41 feet in width, and 32 feet in depth; she was about 3000 tons burthen or 2256 tons register. Her engines, of 800-horse power, were constructed by Messrs. Seaward and Capel of Millwall, Poplar, the diameter of the cylinders being 96 inches each and the stroke 9 feet. The engines made fourteen revolutions of her wheels (which were 41 feet in diameter) per minute, giving a speed by log of 11 knots an hour on her trial trip, at a draught of 19 feet forward and 19 feet 9 inches aft.