Steam-ships : The story of their development to the present day by R. A. Fletcher

clause being that the whole of the share capital must be British owned, and the management British. In its long career it has served almost every port in the West Indies with the mails, and has had no less than fifty-three contracts. At one stage its management was subjected to some strong criticism, but under its present management the company has prospered by leaps and bounds, affording an excellent illustration of the value of well-directed energy and enterprise. The history of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company is the record of the development of the steamship connection between this country and the West Indian Colonies. In 1840 the original contract was entered into with the Admiralty Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral for the commencement of the mail service to the West India Colonies, the Spanish Main, New York, Halifax, Mexico, Cuba, &c. The conditions under which the mail contract was to be carried out were somewhat onerous. One was that the company should receive on board every vessel a naval officer or other person and his servant to take charge of the mails, and that every such person should be recognised and considered by the company as the agent of the Commissioners in charge of the mails. He was empowered to require a strict observance of the contract and “to determine every question whenever arising relative to proceeding to sea, or putting into harbour, or to the necessity of stopping to assist any vessel in distress, or to save human life.” A suitable first-class cabin was to be furnished at the company’s expense, and appropriated to the officer’s use; he was to be victualled by the company as a first-cabin passenger without charge, and should he require a servant, such servant, “and also any person appointed to take charge of the mails on board,” should also be carried at the company’s cost. From which it would appear that some very comfortable places were at the disposal of the Admiralty. The Admiralty representative was also to be allowed a properly manned four-oared boat to take him ashore whenever he felt inclined to go. Various penalties were applicable for breaches of the contract, the fines ranging from £100 for doing something of which the official did not approve to £500 for a delay of twelve hours, and a further £500 for every twelve hours “which shall elapse until such vessel shall proceed direct on her voyage in the performance of this contract,” so far as the Barbadoes mails were concerned, and of £200 for mails for other places. Another stipulation was that naval officers were to be charged only two-thirds of the ordinary fares as passengers. The company’s subsidy was to be £240,000 per annum. The company’s first steamer, the _Forth_, was launched at Leith in 1841, and on January 1, 1842, the West Indian mail service was established by the sailing of the steamer _Thames_ from Falmouth. On completion of her voyage she proceeded to Southampton, which has been the terminal port of the company ever since. The company organised transit by mules and canoes across the Isthmus of Panama in 1846, opening up the route via Colon and Panama to the Pacific ports. In the same year the Admiralty, in order to make a through mail communication between England and the West Coast of South America, contracted with the Pacific Steam Navigation Company for the carrying of mails from Panama in connection with the R.M.S.P. service to Colon, and the next year the latter company made through arrangements with the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and the Panama Railroad Company for traffic from Southampton (via Panama) to the South Pacific Ports. Enough has been written to indicate in some detail the progress made in steam-ship construction. Wood was the material chiefly used until near the middle of the nineteenth century. Iron then began to take its place and the screw-propeller to supersede the paddle-wheel. Some iron screw steamers have already been mentioned, but this was inevitable, as no hard and fast line can be drawn across the history of invention and commercial enterprise, to separate iron from wood and screw from paddle. The screw propeller had actually been tried by Stevens in 1802, and iron boats for inland waters were built as early as 1787. But the general adoption of iron for building steam-ships and of the screw for the propulsion of ocean-going ships marks a new era in the history of steam-ship building.