Conveyance of mails to India previously to 1839.
The mode in which the mails were conveyed to and from India up to September 1840, was by means of steamers plying monthly between Bombay and Suez, and thence by Government steamers from Alexandria to Gibraltar, where they met the mails brought out by the Peninsular Company from England. As the steamers of this company had to call at Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, and Cadiz in their passages to and from Gibraltar, and as the Government packets employed between that port, Malta, and Alexandria were of inferior power and speed, the transmission of mails by this route was necessarily slow, and generally occupied from three weeks to a month between England and Alexandria.[340]
But, however imperfect this mode of transmission, it would probably have continued for many years longer had not circumstances occurred rendering an alteration imperative. In 1839, the British Government having entered into a convention with the French Government for the sending of letters to and from India through France by way of Marseilles, an Admiralty packet was stationed to ply between that port and Malta. Thence, these letters, together with the larger and heavier mails forwarded by the Peninsular and the Admiralty packets viâ Gibraltar, were conveyed from Malta to Alexandria by another of Her Majesty’s ships.
That portion of the mails forwarded through France was despatched from the post-office on the fourth of every month, while the heavier portion continued to be sent from Falmouth every fourth Saturday by the Peninsular packets. As might have been expected, this plan was soon found to work awkwardly, inasmuch as the mail sent viâ Gibraltar every four weeks was in advance of that viâ Marseilles each calendar month, and had, therefore, to await at Malta the arrival of the Marseilles packet.
Irregularities such as these, increased as they were by each successive mail, together with the fact that the British despatches then ran some risk of loss in their transit through France, led Government to consider the advisability of establishing some quicker means of conveyance, viâ Gibraltar, for the main portion of the mails.
Government applies to the Peninsular Company,
The managers of the Peninsular Company having been again applied to, submitted for the approval of Government a proposal to establish a line of superior steamers to run direct from England to Alexandria, and vice versâ, touching only at Gibraltar and Malta; the steamers to be of sufficient power to perform this voyage in not more than three days beyond the time then occupied in the conveyance of the mails viâ France, and at a cost not exceeding what was required for the maintenance of the small and inefficient Admiralty packets then similarly employed.
and accept their proposals, though reluctantly.
Their plan having met the approval of Government, public advertisements were again issued for tenders to carry it into effect, and no less than four competitors tendered for the contract at sums ranging from 34,200l. to 51,000l. per annum. As the tender of the Peninsular Company was not only the lowest, but contained, also, an offer to convey at a reduced rate all officers travelling on the public service, and bonâ fide Admiralty packages gratuitously, it was accepted by the Government.
Proposed direct line from Falmouth to Calcutta.