Notes

1 See Yrjö Kaukiainen, ‘Shrinking the world: Improvements in the speed of information transmission, c. 1820–1870’. European Review of Economic History, 5 (Cambridge, 2001), 1–28; Ian K. Steele, The English Atlantic 1675–1740. An Exploration of Communication and Community (Oxford, 1986); and Allan R. Pred, Urban Growth and the Circulation of Information: The United States System of Cities, 1790–1840 (Harvard, 1973).

2 Kaukiainen (2001), 1–28. – Westbound, the difference on the New York route would obviously have been much greater due to the prevailing winds and currents.

3 Charles K. Harley, ‘The shift from sailing ships to steamships, 1850–1890: a study in technological change and its diffusion’ in Donald N. McCloskey (ed.), Essays on a Mature Economy: Britain after 1840 (London, 1971), 215–237. Harley’s study does not cover the mail and passenger steamship services, which competed in a very different market. In accordance with Harley’s paper, it has also been argued that the huge increase in cargo carrying capacity was the end result of a century of evolution, starting from the 1860s and ending in the 1960s. The process was basically a matter of successive relatively small increments in size and speed, in carrying capacity and fuel efficiency. The two major ‘revolutions’ in technology were the interaction of metal construction and steam propulsion to produce ships capable of operating economically over long distances on regular schedules, and the introduction of containerization. See Malcolm Cooper, ‘From Agamemnon to Priam: British liner shipping in the China Seas, 1865–1965’ in Richard Harding, Adrian Jarvis & Alston Kennerley, British Ships in China Seas: 1700 to the Present Day (Liverpool, 2004), 225.

4 In addition to the above, see for example Yrjö Kaukiainen, ‘Coal and Canvas: Aspects of the Competition between Steam and Sail, c. 1870–1914’ in Lars U. Scholl and Merja-Liisa Hinkkanen (eds), Sail and Steam. Selected Maritime Writings of Yrjö Kaukiainen. Research in Maritime History No. 27 (St. John’s, 2004), 113–128. For the investment cycles and development of capital and labour costs, see also Yrjö Kaukiainen, Sailing into Twilight. Finnish Shipping in an Age of Transport Revolution, 1860–1914. (Helsinki, 1991), 73–128.

5 A good overview to the financial management of a government-sponsored joint-stock company can be found in Francis E. Hyde, Cunard and the North Atlantic, 1840–1973. A history of shipping and financial management (London, 1975).

6 Jari Ojala, ‘The Principal Agent Problem Revisited: Entrepreneurial networks between Finland and ‘world markets’ during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries’ in Margrit Schulte Beerbühl and Jörg Vögele (eds.) Spinning the Commercial Web. International Trade, Merchants, and Commercial Cities, c. 1640–1939 (Frankfurt-am-Main, 2004).

7 A quote from Sir Charles Wood by Michael Pearson in The Indian Ocean (London, 2003), 203.

8 Angus Maddison, Monitoring the World Economy 1820–1992. OECD Development Centre Studies, (Paris, 1995), 236–237.

9 Maddison, 39. See also James Foreman-Peck, A History of the World Economy. International Economic relations since 1850 (Sussex, 1983), 18–21.

10 See A.G. Kenwood and A.L. Lougheed, The Growth of the International Economy 1820–1980 (London, 1985), 40–45.

11 Maddison, 39.

12 E.g. in the 1860s, the average wages of able-bodied seamen were 3.1 pounds sterling per month in England, compared with 6.0 in British North America. The average in Europe was 2.8. but for example in Finland and Norway less than 2.0. See Yrjö Kaukiainen, ‘Finnish sailors, 1750–1870’ in Lars U. Scholl and Merja-Liisa Hinkkanen (eds), Sail and Steam. Selected Maritime Writings of Yrjö Kaukiainen. Research in Maritime History No. 27 (St. John’s, 2004), 19.

13 Postal historical research focuses on the postal markings and handstamps of the letters instead of their contents. In a few cases, some attention has also been paid to the contents to shed more light on the circumstances in which the information was transmitted. As will be explained in Chapter II, this study is not about mercantile networks but about how the systems of business information transmission developed during the chosen period.

14 John J. McCusker, ‘The Demise of Distance: The Business Press and the Origins of the Information Revolution in the Early Modern Atlantic World’ In The American Historical Review, Vol. 110, Number 2, April 2005, 295–321.

15 There are several distinguished postal historical studies of the postage rates of the period. See George E. Hargest, History of Letter Post Communication Between the United States and Europe 1845–1875 (Massachusetts, 1975); Jane Moubray & Michael Moubray, British Letter Mail to Overseas Destinations 1840–1875 (London, 1992); Richard Winter, Understanding Transatlantic Mail, Vol. 1. (Bellefonte, PA, 2006).

16 Walter Hubbard & Richard F. Winter, North Atlantic Mail Sailings 1840–1875 (Ohio, 1988), passim.

17 Robert Greenhalgh Albion, Square-Riggers on Schedule. The New York Sailing Packets to England, France, and the Cotton Ports (Princeton, 1938).

18 Liverpool, being the European port of three American sailing packet lines with weekly transatlantic service, as well as of the most important transatlantic mail steamship companies (Cunard Line, Collins Line, Inman Line, White Star Line, etc.), was the most important information hub in the North Atlantic communications ca. 1820–1870 and the second trade port of England after London only, when it comes to business with e.g. the West Indies, South America or East India. The merchant correspondences have been chosen here mainly from the philatelic point of view: there had to be postal markings on the covers received. For example, the letter copy books of senders (which normally form a great part of the correspondence examined in network studies) are not at all useful from this point of view. In earlier times, letters were not put into covers but just folded and sealed. In these cases, the postal markings have been saved on the backside of the received documents. Later, only the contents were often saved while the merchant houses threw away the unnecessary covers or they have later been sold to philatelic markets by the descendants of the merchant families, or other persons involved in the business. Much material has been destroyed in wars, fires, mergers, etc. All this limits the possibilities to find relevant merchant correspondence especially for postal historical studies. In the case of the East India Company, their letters were carried in bundles with no Post Office markings. However, the clerks of the India House have carefully documented the date of arrival of each letter as well as by which ship the letter has arrived. By using this information, it is possible to find out from the sailing data published by Lloyd’s List, how long time the sea journey took in each case from the entire duration of the information transmission. All the letters of these merchant correspondences have been compared with the existing sailing data from other sources to ascertain how the existing services were used in practice.

19 Graeme J. Milne, ‘Knowledge, Communications and the Information Order in Nineteenth-Century Liverpool’, Forum: Information and Marine History, International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. XIV No.1 (2002), 209–224.

20 Milne (2002), 224.

21 Sheryllynne Haggerty, ‘A Link in the Chain: Trade and the Transhipment of Knowledge in the Late Eighteenth Century’, Forum: Information and Marine History, International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. XIV No.1 (2002), 157–172.

22 Gordon Boyce, Information, mediation and institutional development. The rise of large-scale enterprise in British shipping, 1870–1919 (Manchester, 1995), 32–39.

23 Mika Kallioinen, Verkostoitu tieto. Informaatio ja ulkomaiset markkinat Dahlströmin kauppahuoneen liiketoiminnassa 1800-luvulla (Helsinki, 2002), 90–96, 113–115, 200.

24 For the latter, see Jari Ojala, Tehokasta liiketoimintaa Pohjanmaan pikkukaupungeissa. Purjemerenkulun kannattavuus ja tuottavuus 1700- ja 1800-luvulla (Helsinki, 1999), especially 311–332, 440–441.

25 Graeme J. Milne, Trade and Traders in Mid-Victorian Liverpool. Mercantile business and the making of a world port (Liverpool, 2000), passim.

26 See Kalevi Ahonen, From Sugar Triangle to Cotton Triangle. Trade and Shipping between America and Baltic Russia, 1783–1860 (Jyväskylä, 2005), 163–168.

27 See Kallioinen, 20.

28 Steele (1986), passim.

29 Pred, passim.

30 Pred, 189.

31 See John J. McCusker, ‘The Italian Business Press in Early Modern Europe’ and ‘The Business Press in England before 1775’, in McCusker, Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic World (London, 1997), 117–176.

32 See McCusker, 149–172.

33 See McCusker, 138–139; Charles Wright & C. Ernest Fayle, A History of Lloyds, from the Founding of Lloyd’s Coffee House to the Present Day (London, 1928), 73–74.

34 McCusker, 139.

35 See Pred, 221.

36 Kaukiainen (2001), 21–22.

37 Pred, 222–223.

38 Foreman-Peck, 68–69. Kalevi Ahonen describes in his doctor’s thesis different means of financing trade between America and Russia. While bills of exchange, based on sterling dominated international trade, and were especially popular in Anglo-American trade, the Americans often operated with Russia on credit accounts arranged by the ‘American houses’ in London, and ‘as London was the centre of world trade an importer of any kind of product could manage his payments using bills drawn on his London banker’. Ahonen also describes how direct barter trade was used in the Havana sugar trade, as well as the use of Spanish silver dollars, where the right moment to buy and use specie was always a topical question for shippers interested in Cuba. See Ahonen, 257–282.

39 Ernst Samhaber, Merchants make history (New York, 1964) 279. Graeme J. Milne describes the use of bills of exchange by Liverpool merchants in the mid-19th century, see Milne (2000), 114, 154–155. For more about the credit systems in the international trade in 1850–1875, see Foreman-Peck, 67–70.

40 Nigel Hall, ‘The Liverpool Cotton Market’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Vol 149 (1999), 105.

41 P.J. Cain & A.G. Hopkins, British Imperialism, 1688–2000 (London, 2002), 68.

42 See Foreman-Peck, 67–68.

43 See Kaukiainen (2001), 1–28.

44 John J. McCusker, ‘New York City and the Bristol Packet. A chapter in eighteenth-century postal history’, in John J. McCusker, Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic World (London, 1997), 177–189.

45 McCusker (1997), 189.

46 A ship letter from Richmond, Virginia, 2.9.1796 to Duncan Davidson Esq., London. In Seija-Riitta Laakso, Development of Transatlantic Mail Services from Sail to Steam (2005). Postal historical collection. (SRLC).

47 Lloyd’s List 6.1.1797.

48 The Countess of Leicester was also captured by a French privateer in December 1797 and the Princess of Wales in May 1798. See Howard Robinson, Carrying British Mails Overseas (London, 1964), 312.

49 Pred, 91.

50 A letter to Messrs Magowe & Son, Boston, from Calcutta 6.12.1851. (SRLC)

51 Reg Kirk, The P&O Lines to the Far East. British Maritime Postal History, Vol. 2 (printing data missing), 30; Colin Tabeart, Admiralty Mediterranean Steam Packets 1830 to 1857 (Limassol, Cyprus 2002), 212. For the Overland trip, see Boyd Cable, A Hundred Year History of the P&O, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, 1837–1937 (London, 1937), 85–93.

52 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 30.

53 J.C. Arnell, Atlantic Mails. A History of the Mail Service between Great Britain and Canada to 1889, National Postal Museum (Ottawa, 1980), 311.

54 Päiviö Tommila, ‘Havaintoja uutisten leviämisnopeudesta ulkomailta Suomeen 1800-luvun alkupuolella’, Historiallinen Aikakauskirja, vol. 81(1960), no. 1, 83–84.

55 Steele (1986), 158–159, 302; Pred, 35–57.

56 Kaukiainen (2001), 1–28.

57 Lloyd’s List 25.10.1845.

58 Pred, 115–126.

59 Steele (1986), 283.

60 An extreme example from the 1840s: ‘Liverpool, put back: 14 Aug, Thomas Bennett, late Halsey, for Charleston, the Master having been killed by the Cook, 8th inst.’ Lloyd’s List 15.8.1844.

61 Calculated from the Liverpool Customs Bills of Entry, 1825; Lloyd’s List 1825.

62 Carl C. Cutler, Greyhounds of the Sea. The story of the American clipper ship (Maryland, 1930), 475.

63 Tabeart (2002), x–xi.

64 See e.g. N.R.P. Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway (New York, 1975), vol. 1, 203–205, 230–237; Jack C. Arnell, Steam and the North Atlantic Mails: The impact of the Cunard Line and subsequent steamship companies on the carriage of transatlantic mails (Toronto, 1986), 241, 248, 254.

65 There are exceptions. E.g. the Cunard Papers (CP) in the Sydney Jones Library Archives (SJ) at the University of Liverpool include record books of the Cunard ship departures and arrivals. The precision of the record keeping varies but the sailing and arrival times are normally given in an accurate form. A considerable problem is, however, that the time difference between Europe and North America has been calculated in different ways on the voyages, or totally ignored, in each direction. The use of the Passage Books for the Cunard voyages would mislead the study, as there are no similar sources available from all shipping companies included. Cunard Passage Books 1–4 cover the years 1848–1881. CP, GM2/1–4 (SJ). About problems in using these records as sources for measuring the duration of the voyages, see also N.R.P. Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway (New York, 1980), vol. 5, 1868–1870.

66 The issues of Lloyd’s List used in this study have been reprinted up to 1826 and microfilmed from 1827 onwards. They are kept e.g. in the Merseyside Maritime Museum Library and Archives (MMM) in Liverpool.

67 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 17–21; ‘Tenders and Contracts for Carrying the Mails by Steam to and from North America. N:o 10. Return of the Dates of Sailing and Arrival of the Steamers Employed in Performing the Contract’, 28–29. CP, PR 3/1/12. (SJ)

68 Steele (1986), 124; and Pred, 80, 96–101.

69 Pred, 94.

70 In Britain, the first ports to use this type of handstamps were Liverpool 1757; London 1760; Cork 1761; Londonderry 1762; Greenock 1763; Dover 1765; and Deal, Plymouth, Poole and Portsmouth 1766. See Colin Tabeart, Robertson Revisited. A study of the Maritime Postal Markings of the British Isles based on the work of Alan W. Robertson (Cyprus, 1997), passim. – According to Tabeart, the first ship letter handstamp of Deal is from 1767, but a letter in the writer’s collection, dated 26 June and arrived in London 30 July 1766, verifies an earlier date. (SRLC). – In France, the first ship letter arrival handstamps of this type were introduced in Marseille 1757, Brest and Rouen 1760, Bayonne and Port-Louis 1761, Bordeaux and Havre 1763, Ile de Rhé 1764 and La Rochelle 1764 and Nantes 1766. See Raymond Salles, La Poste Maritime Française. Tome 1, Les Entrées Maritimes et les Bateaux a Vapeurs (Cyprus, 1992), 7–9, Addendum, 1–4.

71 Alan W. Robertson, A History of the Ship Letters of the British Isles. An Encyclopaedia of Maritime Postal History (Bournemouth, 1955), A 1, A 3.

72 Frank Staff, The Transatlantic Mail (Massachusetts, 1956), 46, 54; Robinson (1964), 114–115.

73 Robertson, A 3; See also Tony Pawlyn, The Falmouth Packets, 1689–1851 (Truran, 2003), 6. Despite its name, the latter study is mainly focused on the 18th century.

74 See L.E. Britnor, The History of the Sailing Packets to the West Indies. British West Indies Study Circle (1973), 3–17; Steele (1986), 168–188; Staff, 27–31; Robinson (1964), 35–39.

75 Robinson (1964), 38–39. See also John McCusker, ‘New York City and the Bristol Packet…’, 177–189.

76 Robinson (1964), 93; Britnor, 39–43, 55–58.

77 Arnell (1980), 7–11, 17–18, 27; J.C. Arnell & M.H. Ludington, The Bermuda Packet Mails and the Halifax–Bermuda Mail Service 1806 to 1886 (Great Britain, 1989), 15–17.

78 Arnell & Ludington,v–vi; J.N.T. Howat, South American Packets. The British Packet Service to Brazil, the River Plate, the West Coast (via the Straits of Magellan) and the Falkland Islands. 1808–1880 (York, 1984), 1–4; Robinson (1964), 111.

79 Robertson, B 29, B 30; Staff, 58.

80 For early hydrographic work by the French Dessiou family in 1770–1851, see Paul Hughes & Alan D. Wall, ‘The Dessiou Hydrographic Work: Its Authorship and Place’ in International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. XVII, No. 2 (St. John’s, 2005), 167–192. In the 1840s, the American hydrographer, Lieutenant M.F. Maury published sailing instructions which covered widely the sea routes of the whole world.

81 Daniel R. Headrick, When Information Came of Age. Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700–1850 (Oxford, 2000), 108–115.

82 See Steele (1986), 44; Britnor, 40.

83 See Richard C. McKay, Some Famous Sailing Ships and Their Builder Donald Mc Kay (New York, 1928), passim.; and David R. MacGregor, The Tea Clippers (London, 1952), passim.

84 Albion (1938 ), 9.

85 Lloyd’s List 27.6.1800.

86 Gerald S. Graham, Empire of the North Atlantic. The Maritime Struggle for North America (Great Britain, 1958), 232–235.

87 Pawlyn, 84. For complete lists of captured Post Office packets during the wars of 1777–1782 and 1793–1815, see Robinson (1964), 308–314. There are several descriptions of the actions between the Falmouth packets and privateers, see e.g. Robertson, B 8, B 8 A–H; Robinson (1964), 69–74, 96–104; Pawlyn, 69–84. – For a complete list of the packets, see Robertson, B 2–B 7.

88 Robertson, B 1; Robinson (1964), 83.

89 Britnor, 9.

90 Calculated from ‘Sailings and arrivals of Jamaica Packets, 1795, ‘96 and ‘97’, Britnor, 75.

91 About the war time arrangements for shipping in the North Atlantic region, see Graham, 237–261.

92 See Robinson (1964), 314.

93 Arnell (1980), 63.

94 See the sailing lists of Arnell & Ludington, 15–19.

95 The winter sailings via Bermuda were even longer and more unpredictable. The trip from Falmouth to Bermuda took 28 to 54 days, the stay at Bermuda three to four days and the trip from Bermuda to New York six to 18 days. Calculated from the sailing lists of Arnell & Ludington, 21.

96 Falmouth is located on the southwest coast of England, some 270 miles from London. The ‘Great Post Road’ from Cornwall to London was not much more than an old ridgeway keeping to the drier high ground whenever possible. Despite the mostly poor condition of the road, ‘strategic staging’ had reduced the duration of mail transport between Falmouth and London to three or four days by the mid-18th century, and by 1798 to 2.5 days, which remained the norm for several decades. See Pawlyn, 9–16. Before the railways were built, about two more days had to be added for the mail service to places like Liverpool in northwest England.

97 For example the June packet arrived in Halifax on 26 July while the packet to England had left four days earlier. The September packet arrived on 21 October, while the packet to England had left three days earlier. See the sailing lists of Arnell & Ludington, 21.

98 Calculated from the sailing lists of Arnell & Ludington, 21–29.

99 Pawlyn, 9–10.

100 Robert Greenhalgh Albion, The Rise of New York Port 1815–1860 (New York, 1939), 10–12.

101 Albion (1939), 3–15, 95–121; Albion (1938), 50–52. – Part of this cargo was transported forward to the Baltic. See Ahonen, 318, 328.

102 Albion (1939), 10. – According to Ahonen, perhaps a half of the re-exports were traded via New York and a fifth via Boston in 1821–1860. Britain was the major trading partner of both the United States and Russia over the whole period discussed. Its central role in Atlantic trade can be illustrated by the fact that around 1830 it produced about 45% of European pig iron and consumed 66% of its cotton wool. In the years 1821–1860 between 41% and 53% in value of U.S. domestic exports went to Britain. See Ahonen, 40–41.

103 Albion (1939), 419. – According to Pred, there were over 100,000 inhabitants in New York and 87,000 in Philadelphia in 1810. Philadelphia’s population equaled the size of Boston’s and Baltimore’s population together. See Pred (1973), 5.

104 Pred (1973), 43, 203, 223, 270.

105 Liverpool had over 94,000 inhabitants in 1811, an increase of almost 17,000 in the previous ten years. Liverpool Street Directories, 1818, Appendix, 160.

106 Liverpool Street Directories, 1818, Appendix, 161.

107 Williams, David M. ‘Abolition and the Re-Deployment on the Slave Fleet, 1807–1811’ in Merchants and Mariners: Selected Maritime Writings of David M. Williams. Research in Maritime History No. 18 (St. John’s, 2000), 1. – A detailed analysis of the volume and tonnage of the Liverpool slave trade, including annual clearing ratios etc. can be found in D.P. Lamb’s ‘Volume and tonnage of the Liverpool slave trade 1772–1807’ in Roger Anstey & P.E.H. Hair (ed.), Liverpool, the African Slave Trade, and Abolition. Essays to illustrate current knowledge and research. (Chippenham, 1989), 91–112.

108 See Williams, ‘Abolition and the Re-Deployment…’, 6–11.

109 Francis E. Hyde, Liverpool and the Mersey. The Development of a Port (An Economic History of a Port) 1700–1970 (Devon, 1971), 41.

110 Gail Cameron & Stan Crooke, Liverpool – Capital of the Slave Trade (Liverpool, 1992), 31. In addition to the transatlantic trade, Liverpool quickly took its part from the East India sailings after the abolition of the EIC monopoly in 1813, and instead of the former triangular slave trade, started direct imports of gum, ivory and palm oil from West Africa. See Cameron & Crooke, 33; Williams, ‘Abolition and the Re-Deployment…’,10–11.

111 Hyde (1971), 29–30, 41. See also Adrian Vaughan, Railwaymen, Politics & Money. The Great Age of Railways in Britain (Cambridge, 1997), 44–47.

112 Albion (1938), 30.

113 Albion (1938), 37.

114 Albion (1938), 37.

115 Albion (1938), 39; A. Andréadès, History of the Bank of England 1640–1903. (London, 1909), 224–225, 320–327.

116 Albion (1938), 37–38.

117 See Basil Lubbock, The Western Ocean Packets (Boston 1925).

118 See Hyde (1971), passim.

119 Staff, 59; Albion (1938), 79; Carl C. Cutler, Queens of the Western Ocean. The Story of America’s Mail and Passenger Sailing Lines (Annapolis, Maryland, 1967), 99–100.

120 Albion (1938), 112–114; Cutler (1967), 99.

121 Albion (1938), 112. – This was not always positive, however. In 1828, cotton speculations caused Jeremias Thompson’s crash and bankruptcy, and he had to sell his share in the Black Ball Line to his brother Francis. See Albion (1938), 114.

122 Albion (1938), 20.

123 A full list of the American sailing packets, 1818–1858, including their names, measurements, builders, years of launching and starting the service, years when service ended, total packet service years, each ship’s average westbound sailings and longest and shortest trips, and remarks on each ship’s subsequent service or faith at sea, is given by Albion (1938), 276–287. He also lists the respective coastal line ships. See Albion (1938), 288–295. For other, less regular and often short-lived sailing lines, see Cutler (1967), 371–413 for the transatlantic lines, and 414–548 for the coastal lines.

124 Albion (1938), 20–22.

125 Cutler (1967), 101; Albion (1938), 237; and the data collected for this study.

126 Lloyd’s List respectively. – For the James Monroe, see Lloyd’s List 10.3.1818; 5.6.1818.

127 Lloyd’s List 12.6.1818.

128 Lloyd’s List 1818. According to Cutler, who has used American sources, there were two 18-day sailings eastwards in 1818. This can not be verified by Lloyd’s List maritime intelligence but it is not impossible as three departure dates from New York are missing from the data. See Cutler (1967), 105.

129 Cutler (1967), 105; Albion calculated for his book Square-Riggers on Schedule the durations of all westbound journeys using the maritime intelligence of New York daily newspapers 1818–1857, but never published the exact sailing dates. See Albion (1938), 318–323, 349.

130 Sailing lists of Arnell & Ludington, 25.

131 Staff, 61.

132 This was no wonder, as the sailing lists of Liverpool port were sent to Lloyd’s in London by the Liverpool underwriters’ agents who were soon deeply involved in the American sailing packet business. The Liverpool underwriters had started an agency system of their own in 1815, but whenever possible they appointed as their agents men who were already acting as Lloyd’s agents. About the cooperation between Lloyd’s and the Liverpool underwriters, see Wright & Fayle, 285, 340.

133 The maritime intelligence regarding arrivals and departures 15–27.7.1818 at the port of New York was sent to England by the merchantman Carolina Ann. The ship departed from New York on 29 July, 1818, and arrived in Liverpool 30 days later, on 28 August. The sailing lists were published in Lloyd’s List 1.9.1818. – The maritime intelligence regarding the period 29.7–3.8.1818 was sent by the merchantman Fair Cambrian, which departed from New York on 7.8.1818 and arrived in Liverpool 28 days later, on 4 September. The sailing lists were published in Lloyd’s List 8.9.1818.

134 The inland mail from Liverpool to London by daily mail coach before the opening of the railway took about 24 hours in the mid-1820s (Wright & Fayle, 340).or 30 hours ‘by the new stage coach’ which ‘carries but four insides, and only one night on the road’ (‘Coaches’ in Post Office, Liverpool Street Directories, 1818, Appendix, 85). As Lloyd’s List was published only twice a week before 1837, there were at least two obvious causes of delay between the ship arrival and the publishing of the intelligence.

135 These sailing lists were published in Lloyd’s List 6.11.1818; 4.12.1818; 8.1.1819.

136 Lloyd’s List 20.11.1818; 27.11.1818; 1.12.1818. According to the sailing lists of Arnell & Ludington, the Francis Freeling departed from New York 9.11. instead of 8.11. as reported by Lloyd’s List, thus making the trip in seventeen days. (Arnell & Ludington, 25)

137 See the records of Albion (1938), 318–319.

138 There was a red star on the company’s house flag to distinguish it from the Black Ball.

139 Albion (1938), 30–31; Cutler (1967), 149–150, 377.

140 Of the 54 people on board, 46 perished. In addition to the April mail, the ship carried a considerable amount of gold and silver, as well as normal freight. One box of £5,000 in specie was recovered, and the shores were strewn with commercial letters in large amounts from the mailbags. See Albion (1938), 202–208.

141 Albion (1938), 31.

142 The names of the lines are somewhat confusing and mixed, as their organizations and owners changed during the years. The classification above is adequate for what has been used by Albion and Staff, while Cutler’s is slightly different. See Albion (1938), 276–286; Staff 121–126; and Cutler (1967), 376–380, 389–391, 394–396.

143 Albion (1938), 27.

144 The dates in Table 6 do not cover exactly the two calendar years, but for technical reasons the intelligence published by Lloyd’s List during those years. – There are normally two reasons for a missing date: it was not reported by Lloyd’s List, or the particular issue is missing from the microfilm available.

145 Albion notes that ‘had it not been for the high reputation of the Black Ball owners and their natural desire to preserve the prestige of the line after the loss of the Albion and Liverpool two years before, there might be grounds for suspecting an attempted marine insurance fraud in thus bringing in a new captain who disposed of their two oldest vessels, wrecking both of them at low tide where they would be constantly awash and consequently much more difficult to salvage’. See Albion (1938), 220.

146 Staff, 123; Cutler (1967), 378.

147 The Liverpool sailing dates of 1824 are not available. Lloyd’s List did not publish them and the issues of the Liverpool Customs Bills of Entry of that year are missing from the MMM archives.

148 Liverpool Customs Bill of Entry 1825, 1834, 1835.

149 Calculated from 37 trips of which enough data has been available.

150 Even if the mails had been carried from New York by the Rinaldo, which departed on 10.3 (see Table 9) the next packet from Falmouth would have been the same Lord Melville, which departed on 21.5.1825.

151 See the list of mail-carrying packets in Staff, 125.

152 Albion (1938), 197, 317. The averages are rounded here into full figures. – The London line mails were landed at Portsmouth, from where they were taken to the City by mail coach, a one day’s voyage.

153 For example, a letter was sent from New York on 22.11.1823 to the Fredrick Huth banking house in London by the Red Star Line packet John Wells, which sailed from New York precisely on schedule on 24.11.1823 and entered Liverpool on 15.12.1823. The letter arrived in London on 17.12.1823 – only 25 days after leaving the sender. Johan Snellman, North Atlantic Mail (2004). Postal historical collection. (JSC).

154 See Arnell & Ludington, viii; 43; Staff, 62.

155 Staff, 54; Robinson (1964), 114–115. – Even the arriving letters were often delivered directly to the merchants without going through the Post Office. The Secretary of the Treasury wrote a letter to the American Chamber of Commerce in Liverpool 8.4.1837 to remind the merchants about the fact that it was required by law to send the arriving letters via the Post Office. Between 14.2.1836 and 28.2.1837 no less than 2,371 letters and packages ‘beyond the privilege allowed to consignees’ had been found by the Liverpool Customs and sent to the Post Office. In one instance alone, 530 letters were discovered, and out of 111 packages of newspapers opened between 29.9.1836 and 20.2.1837, containing 822 newspapers, there were also found concealed 648 letters. – In the ACC Minute Book, February 1842 – December 1866, related to the meeting on 13.4.1837. 380 AME/2. Liverpool Public Record Office (LPRO).

156 See Staff, 54.

157 A letter to Joseph Jarn, Esq. in London, dated in Montreal 8.10.1829. Published in the catalogue of Charles G. Firby Auctions, British North America Stamps and Postal History. Dr. Kenneth M. Rosenfeld Collection, June 18, 2005 (Waterford, MI, 2005), lot 722.

158 Albion (1938), 200, 244.

159 Albion (1938), 187.

160 In 1838, this happened at least on 5.1.1838, 19.3.1838, 16.4.1838, 12.5.1838, 22.10.1838, and 30.11.1838 in New York; and on 27.1.1838, 24.4.1838, 20.6.1838, 21.7.1838, and 19.10.1838 in Liverpool. See Lloyd’s List 1838, respectively.

161 Albion (1938), 52.

162 See the records of Albion (1938), 320–321.

163 For the monthly averages of 1818–1827, see the records by Albion (1938), 322.

164 Records of the number of personnel on board when the ship cleared outwards, Liverpool Customs Bills of Entry, 1834. – The ship weights are from Staff’s packet lists, 121–123.

165 According to Cutler, the Dramatic Line’s sailing dates were ‘eventually’ fixed at the 25th from New York and the 12th from Liverpool, but this system did not work for a long time. At least from the beginning of 1838, the Dramatic Line sailed from both ports on the same day as the Black Ball Line. See Cutler (1967), 377, 380; Lloyd’s List 1838, passim.

166 Ship letter from Liverpool on 17.3. and 18.3.1837 to Messrs John & Dan K. Stewart, Richmond, Virginia. (JSC); Lloyd’s List 21.3.1837; 9.5.1837.

167 Peter Allington & Basil Greenhill, The First Atlantic Liners. Seamanship in the Age of Paddle Wheel, Sail and Screw (London, 1997), 12.

168 Robinson (1964), 120–121.

169 Robinson (1964), 121.

170 Robinson (1964), 118–122.

171 Robinson (1964), 122.

172 Roland Hill, Secretary of the Post Office, published his well-known pamphlet Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability in 1837. Hill’s calculations about the benefits of reducing the high inland postage rates to a uniform one penny rate caused a furious debate in public and in the Parliament. The uniform inland rate was introduced in 1840, together with the first prepaid postage stamp in the world, the Penny Black, as well as the prepaid stationery covers, known as Mulready covers according to their designer. These inventions supported the decision to adopt the one penny postage, as the stamps and stationery covers could be bought in quantities before use, and prepaid letters were easier and quicker to handle in the Post Office. See Robinson (1948), 258–320; Gavin Fryer & Clive Akerman (ed.), The Reform of the Post Office in the Victorian Era, Vol. 1 (London, 2000), 79–139. For the pamphlet, see Fryer & Akerman, 1–46. For the parliamentary debate, see the Reports of the Select Committee on Postage in BPP, Transport and Communications, Posts and Telegraphs, 1 and 2, passim.

173 Robinson (1964), 123; Moubray & Moubray, 105–106.

174 Allington & Greenhill, 12. For the early French Mediterranean service, see Raymond Salles, La Poste Maritime Française, Historique et Catalogue, Tome II, Les Paquebots de la Méditerranée de 1837 à 1935 (Limassol, Cyprus, 1992), 9–34.

175 About Savannah’s trip, see Albion (1939) 314; John A. Butler, Atlantic Kingdom: America’s Contest with Cunard in the Age of Sail and Steam (Washington D.C., 2001), 41–44; Arnold Kludas, Record Breakers of the North Atlantic. Blue Riband Liners 1838–1952 (London, 2000), 33–36; Staff, 63; and Tyler, 1–17.

176 Lawrence Babcock, Spanning the Atlantic. A History of the Cunard Line (New York 1931), 24–29; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 51–52; Kludas, 35–36; Robinson (1964), 125–126; David Tyler, Steam Conquers the Atlantic (New York, 1939), 25–27.

177 Albion (1939), 316; Allington & Greenhill, 14; Babcock, 24; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 45–46; Stuart Nicol, Macqueen’s Legacy. A History of the Royal Mail Line, vol. 1 (Gloucestershire, 2001), 31; Robinson (1964), 125; Tyler, 22–23. Some transatlantic voyages were obviously made also by the Royal Navy at least partly under steam. See Allington & Greenhill, 14; Tyler, 23–25.

178 Robinson (1964), 126; Tyler, 39–41. Both refer to Dr. Dionysius Lardner’s article in Edinburgh Review of April 1837.

179 Kludas, 36–37; E. Le Roy Pond, Junius Smith: A Biography of the Father of the Atlantic Liner (New York, 1927), 100.

180 Stephen Fox, The Ocean Railway (London, 2003), 78. – Bernard Edwards describes the risks of the Sirius voyage in The Grey Widow Maker. The true stories of twenty-four disasters at sea (London, 1995), 27–33.

181 For its origins, see e.g. Pond, 98; Robinson (1964), 127; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 60; Butler, 45. For the Great Western Railway, see Vaughan, 178–192.

182 A comparison of the ships’ logs has been published by Tyler, 384–387.

183 Bonsor (1975), vol.1., 60–61; Kludas, 37; Nicholas Fogg, The Voyages of the Great Britain. Life at Sea in the World’s First Liner (Wilts, Great Britain, 2002), 9; Staff, 68.

184 Butler, 45–46; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 55.

185 Allington-Greenhill, 9.

186 The story about the Sirius coal varies in different sources. See Albion (1939), 318; Butler, 46; Babcock, 32; Tabeart, 16; and Pond, 113; Robinson (1964), 127; Tyler, 58–59, 384–386.

187 Robertson shows a very early cover sent as private ship letter by the Savannah in 1819. It is the only one known from the experimental period. See Robertson, B.48/C.

188 Pond, 113; Staff, 68; Robinson (1964), 127.

189 Staff, 155.

190 Tyler, 56.

191 Robinson, 128; Staff, 155–156.

192 Tabeart (1997), 16–19; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 60–66.

193 Tabeart (1997), 16–17. The Royal William should not to be confused with the earlier Canadian namesake.

194 Albion (1938), 317.

195 Calculated from the sailing lists of Tabeart (1997), 17.

196 Tabeart (1997), 18. For the loss of the President, see e.g. Pond, 210–222; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 56–58; Staff, 77–78; Robinson (1964), 129–131; Butler, 46–47; Albion (1939), 320; Fox 99–101. – The shipowning company B&A announced to their shareholders in December 1841 that the total receipts for the nine voyages of the British Queen had been £82,000 and the total expenses less than £71,000. This would have meant an average profit of over £1,200 per voyage, compared with £1,350 of the ill-fated President. Bonsor notes that the figures most probably did not take into account interest charges, depreciation, insurance or management expenses, which turned the profit into a substantial loss and forced the company into liquidation. Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 58. In 1837, the company’s prospectus had optimistically estimated that the profits of the British Queen would be over £4,500 per round trip or about £27,000 for a whole year. See Tyler, 44.

197 See sailing lists of Tabeart (1997), 19. – The Great Western changed her home port from Bristol to Liverpool in 1843, but this was not the reason for the longer trips during the later period. The vessel was able to make 13-day voyages from New York to both ports in 1842 when she sailed a triangle while testing the port of Liverpool.

198 E.g. Kludas, 38; Talbot, 133; Pond; 1–3; Babcock, 80.

199 Her actual sailing dates in 1838 were 8.4., 2.6., 21.7., 8.9. and 27.10. from Bristol; and 7.5., 25.6., 16.8., 4.10., and 23.11. from New York. See Tabeart (1997), 17–19.

200 See Table 10.

201 See Fox, 82–83; Pond, 180–181.

202 See the sailing lists of Tabeart (1997), 17.

203 Howat, 30; Staff, 62.

204 Howat, 27–28; Staff, 61. For details of the transfer, see Britnor, 141–146.

205 Howat, 29.

206 Howat, 30. The quotations are from The Times 1824–1834, picked out by Howat. – Some details of the packet losses are described by Arnell (1980), 89–90. – The Falmouth packets had larger crews than the American sailing packets as they were Admiralty-governed ten-gun brigs instead of trade ships.

207 Staff, 62. The quotation is from London Courier of 1834, cited by Staff. – In fact, foreigners were not permitted by American law to participate in the ownership of American vessels. (Albion 1938, 130)

208 Arnell, 21–23; Arnell & Ludington, viii–xi.

209 See Robinson, 131–132; Hyde (1975), 4. Some authors give the honour of being fathers of the idea also to Sir Thomas Chandler Haliburton, better known under his pen-name Sam Slick, and William Crane, both ‘prominent citizens of the Maritime Provinces’. All three men were on board the Tyrian, when she met the Sirius at sea. See Tyler, 71; Staff, 69; Pond 116–117; Babcock, 33.

210 Tyler, 75–77; Fox, 88.

211 Robinson (1964), 132; Hyde (1975), 5; Tabeart (1997), 16; Babcock, 34.

212 Hyde (1975), 5; Robinson (1964), 132; Staff, 70; Tyler, 77–78.

213 See Hyde (1975), 5; Staff, 69.

214 For Samuel Cunard’s family background and early businesses, see Babcock, 3–14; Hyde (1975), 1–4; Butler, 71–74; Fox, 39–49.

215 Hyde (1975), 3; Tyler, 78–80. Coal supplies were a key element in the steamship traffic. The coal problem was not that easily solved, however. According to Tyler, Cunard mainly used Welsh coal as the American quality was not good enough, and the anthracite was not easily obtainable before the railways and canals had been built in the interior of Pennsylvania. The owners of the Great Western tried Nova Scotian coal but found it ‘soft and full of dirt’. As a result they continued to send a supply of English coal to New York, even though they had to pay duty on it. See Tyler, 27–128, 187–188.

216 For the foundation, capital structure and control of the Cunard Line, see Hyde (1975), 7–15.

217 For the whole contract, see Arnell (1986), 265–273. Copies of several contract versions are held by the Sydney Jones Library Archives in Liverpool. See CP, PR 3/1/12a (SJ).

218 Babcock, 42–43; Hyde (1975), 8; Robinson (1964), 133; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 72–73.

219 Babcock, 45–46; Hyde (1975), 10.

220 Babcock, 46.

221 Babcock, 49; Hyde (1975), 10–12.

222 Arnell (1980), 94.

223 See Arnell (1986), 265–273. In 1841, the subsidy was increased to £80,000 due to the need for a fifth vessel. See Robinson (1964), 134.

224 Robinson (1964), 148–149, 165; Nicol, vol. 1, 44–45; Tyler, 98–99. The first P&O contract was made for mail service between Britain and the Iberian Peninsula in 1837. See Cable, 6; Kirk (1987), 5–8.

225 See Philip Cattell, The Union Castle Ocean Post Office. British Maritime Postal History, Vol. 3 (Heathfield), 11.

226 Hubbard & Winter, 17; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 73–74.

227 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 17–18.

228 Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 140–141. Kludas, 40–42. Robinson (1964), 134.

229 The Columbia entered the service as the last vessel in January 1841.

230 Calculated from the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 17–18. For the data on calls at Halifax, see Arnell (1980), 287.

231 Hubbard & Winter, 12, 17–18. – As the London Post Office did not make the mails on a Sunday, the departures were in these cases postponed to the following day. ‘Tenders and Contracts for Carrying the Mails…N:o 10. Return of the Dates of Sailing…’, 28–29. CP, PR 3/1/12. (SJ).

232 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 17–18.

233 See the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 17.

234 For the development of the Liverpool Dock system, see Adrian Jarvis, Liverpool Central Docks 1799–1905. An Illustrated History (Bath, Avon, 1991), passim. A brief introduction to the early steamship period docks can be found on pages 8–9, 144–145. See also Hyde (1971), 79. For the Great Western, see Bonsor (1975) vol. 1, 61–62.

235 Hyde (1975), 9. This was probably not always the practice, as coal took space from the freight carried. Yet the Cunard ships were seldom obliged to make extra calls for coaling. The examples known are mainly from the time Cunard served on the Liverpool–New York route non-stop and the ships sometimes had to make an extra call at Halifax due to lengthened trips in heavy gales, or during the American Civil War. See Arnell (1980), 310–311, 318, 320. – According to the Cunard coaling records, the ships normally had about 100 tons of coal left from the previous trip when they arrived for the next coaling. See Cunard Passage Book I, in CP, GM2/1–4 (SJ).

236 Hyde (1975), 80.

237 Fox, 102–105.

238 See Allington & Greenhill, 17; Robinson (1964) 137–138; Fogg, 20; Hyde (1975), 34–36; Milne (2000), 170–174; Jeffrey J. Safford, ‘The decline of the American merchant marine, 1850–1914. An historiographical appraisal’. In Lewis R. Fischer & Gerald E. Panting (ed.) Change and Adaption in Maritime History. The North Atlantic Fleets in the Nineteenth Century (Newfoundland, 1985), 73.

239 This was later admitted even by Alfred Holt of Liverpool, who was one of the bitter competitors concurring with subsidized ships on different trade routes, mainly in the West Indies and China: ‘Postal subsidies were originally granted in aid of lines of communication which, it was supposed, could not live, or at any rate be maintained with regularity, without them. No doubt the ends aimed at were realised. Communication was opened at an earlier date, and maintained more regularly, than it would have been without subsidies; and some most imposing fleets have come into existence under the system.’ Alfred Holt, Review of the Progress of Steam Shipping during the last Quarter of a Century. Institute of Civil Engineers. Minutes of Proceedings, vol. 51. (Liverpool, 1877), 9–10.

240 The American Chamber of Commerce (ACC), Liverpool, Minutes of the Committee meeting on 22.11.1842. 380 AME/2. (LRO).

241 The ACC to the Postmaster General 23.11.1842. (380 AME/2, LRO)

242 The ACC to the Postmaster General 23.11.1842. (380 AME/2, LRO). – The British Queen had been sold to Belgium in September 1841, but she completed three more transatlantic voyages under the Belgian flag. She had departed from New York for the last of these voyages on 8 October 1842, made an extra call at the Azores for coal and arrived at Southampton after a 26-day journey on 3 November. See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 58–59.

243 The ACC to the Postmaster General 23.11.1842. (380 AME/2, LRO)

244 The ACC to the Postmaster General 7.9.1840 and 11.9.1840. (380 AME/1, LRO)

245 Resolved at the General Meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce, Liverpool, 12.2.1846 that a memorial would be prepared for the Postmaster General. (380 AME/2, LRO)

246 See the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 19.

247 The next sailing packet, Dramatic Line’s Sheridan, would have departed from Liverpool on 15.11.1842. She arrived in New York on 25.12.1842. (Lloyd’s List 17.1.1843) By this means, the New York letters of 8 October would have received an answer even more slowly, in 78 days.

248 The departure date 1.8. was mainly possible if the recipient was in Boston and not in New York. The Cambria arrived in Boston on 30.7. at 5.10 p.m. and the Britannia departed from there on 1.8. at 2.10 p.m. (‘Tenders and contracts for carrying…’, 28–29. CP, SJ) The Great Western sailed from New York on 31.7., being another uncertain option for a New York business partner to answer the English mail. If the letters had been late for these ships, they would have been carried by the Cambria on 16.8. and arrived in Liverpool on 28.8. The rest of the circle would have been changed as follows: Britannia, CL, 4.9. from Liverpool, arrived in Boston 19.9., departure by the same ship 1.10. (the Great Western sailed from New York 18.9.), arriving in Liverpool 14.10. Departure from Liverpool by the Caledonia, CL, 19.10. and arrival in Boston 3.11., departure by the Great Western from New York 6.11. and arrival in Liverpool 21.11. – two days after the Cunard steamer Cambria had departed. The letter would have then been carried by the Acadia, CL, which sailed from Liverpool on 4.12. and arrived in Boston on 19.12. She departed on 1.1. and arrived in Liverpool on 15.1.1846. Thus there was very little help from the other steamships in traffic as there was no cooperation between the sailings. Sometimes a delay of a few hours could make a two-week delay in the information transmission with a chain effect for the rest of the year. See the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 20–21; Tabeart 19.

249 See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 62–64; Fogg, 12–20.

250 Robinson (1964), 138; Hyde (1975), 35; Babcock, 88–90; Tyler, 161–164.

251 Until September 1850, the New York ship also made a call to Halifax, in both directions. The trip between New York and Halifax took approximately 48 hours. See Arnell (1980), 308–310; Hubbard & Winter, 23. In 1852 the service was made weekly throughout the year, the ships leaving from Liverpool on Saturday of each week alternately for the two American ports. Hyde (1975), 35. – For the timing of the contract, see Fox, 114–115.

252 See Fox, 115, 121.

253 Albion (1939), 325.

254 Robinson (1964), 138; Tyler, 165–166. The Great Britain made 32 round trips to Australia between 1852 and 1876. Later on she was sold, her engines were removed and she became a full-rigged sailing ship. She was beached at the Falkland Islands in 1937 and was towed back to Britain for restoration in the 1970s. The ship can now be visited in the old Great Western Dock in Bristol as a historical monument. See Fogg, 29, 177, 182–186; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 64–65.

255 Albion (1938), 253.

256 Albion (1938), 258.

257 Staff, 121–127; Cutler (1967), 377–392.

258 In 1825, 11 dates are missing from 48 sailings; in 1835 one date is missing from 48 sailings; and in 1845 four dates are missing from 70 sailings.

259 Liverpool Mercury 24.1.1845.

260 Liverpool Mercury 24.1.1845.

261 Albion (1938), 43–44.

262 Liverpool Mercury 24.1.1845. Italics are in the original text. – It should be noted that none of the American sailing packet lines used their well-known nick names (Black Ball Line, etc.) in their advertisements in 1845, but the names Old Line; New Line; New York Line; Line of Packets for New York, etc. Only in the 1850s would the corporate identity, built on easily recognizable symbols of the company flags, become marketable commodities and give ‘an air of solidity and reliability to what were often ad hoc arrangements’, especially in the emigrant business. See Milne (2000), 165.

263 Liverpool Mercury 24.1.1845.

264 According to Babcock: ‘The officers were picked from men of long experience at sea. Mates generally had to have served before as masters of other ships. The later captains had to have served as mates on Cunarders. The engineers were experienced in the profession and their assistants were bred in the trade. In short, the primary injunction of safety was carried out with a thoroughness hitherto unknown to the sea.’ (Babcock, 54)

265 Liverpool Mercury 24.1.1845.

266 Lloyd’s List 3.2.1845; 10.4.1845. Missing ships were always awaited for several months as their voyages could have been seriously lengthened by bad weather or other difficulties.

267 Liverpool Mercury, January–March, 1845.

268 See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 75; Babcock, 73–74.

269 Liverpool Mercury 24.1.1845.

270 See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 75; Babcock, 75.

271 See Table 14.

272 Albion (1938), 276–281, 318–319.

273 The arrival of the Independence off Liverpool on 2 September 1844 was reported in Lloyd’s List 3.9.1844; arrival at port 4.9.1844.

274 The Independence actually took back her own place in the schedule in the spring of 1845, having lost it due to repairs after storm damage in December 1844.

275 Albion (1938), 278–279.

276 Albion (1938), 202.

277 See Staff, 121–128; Bonsor (1980), vol. V, 1888–1897; Pawlyn, 132–133. – In total, more than 600 British ships, including all kinds of coastal vessels, were lost each year in 1833–1835 and 1841–1842. The loss of lives varied between 1,450 and 1,560. See BPP, Shipping Safety 3, First and Second Reports of the Select Committee on Shipwrecks in 1843, Appendix 4, 52.

278 Other well-known company names of this period in philatelic collections are e.g. Morrison, Cryder & Co. in London, Rothschild & Sons in London and Paris, Louis Roederer in Reims, August Martell in Cognac, Abraham Bell & Co. in New York and Daniel Gibb in San Francisco.

279 This sample is compiled from letters exhibited in five philatelic collections: SRLC; JSC; JAC; Seppo Talvio, North Atlantic Mail (2006) (STC); and Richard F. Winter, Transatlantic Mails. Steamship (1988) (RWC). Photocopies of each cover with relevant postal historical descriptions are held by the writer.

280 The London–Birmingham railway was opened in 1837, while the Birmingham–Liverpool connection already existed. After finalizing the work the trains were able to run to their permanent terminus in Birmingham in late 1838. See J.H. Clapham, An Economic History of Modern Britain. The Early Railway Age 1820–1850. (Cambridge, 1930), 387; Vaughan, 89–90.

281 Arrival postmarks of the letters in the Huth correspondence.

282 There was one Falmouth packet connection in the sample from the Mexico route: a duplicate letter sent from Tampico on 26.7.1836 via New Orleans, New York and Liverpool to London.It arrived in 69 days. The original was sent by the Falmouth packet Seagull, which sailed from Vera Cruz on 7.8. and from Havana on 26.8.1836, arriving at Falmouth on 26.9.1836. This letter arrived in London in 64 or 65 days. For the sailing dates of the Seagull, see Lloyd’s List 30.9.1836.

283 A German language merchant letter from Havana 23.11. & 2.12.1850 via New York and Boston to Fredrick Huth & Co., London (STC); Phil J. Kenton & Harry G. Parsons, Early Routing of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company 1842–1879 (Surrey, England, 1999), 122, 126; Theron J. Wierenga (ed. Richard F. Winter), United States Incoming Steamship Mail 1847–1875 (Austin, TX, 2000), 341; Hubbard & Winter, 28.

284 For the forwarding system, see Kenneth Rowe, The Postal History of the Forwarding Agents (Kentucky, 1984), 1–22. A useful Internet link related to this source can be found (summer 2006) at the address http://www.pbbooks.com/webfa.htm

285 Frederich Huth Co.’s correspondence 1836–1850 in JAC.

286 Letters to Rathbone Bros & Co., Liverpool, 1841–1849 in Rathbone Collection (RP XXIV.2, SJ). – Rathbone Bros & Co. was a well-known merchant house, at that time especially engaged in cotton imports from America. See Williams, David M., ‘Liverpool Merchants and the Cotton Trade 1820–1850’. In Merchants and Mariners: Selected writings of David M. Williams, 42–51. In Research of Maritime History No. 18. (Newfoundland, 2000).

287 William Rathbone Jr. to Rathbone Esq., Liverpool, from New York 30.4.1841. (RP XXIV.2, SJ).

288 William Rathbone Jr. in a letter addressed to Rathbone Esq., Liverpool, from New York 7.7.1841. Arrival marking of the recipient 28 July. (RP XXIV.2, SJ). – The Britannia’s sailing dates, see Hubbard & Winter, 18. – Some of the Rathbone letters were forwarded by an agent: two by T.W. Ward in Boston and one by the Gilpin’s Exchange, Reading Room and Foreign Letter Office in New York.

289 Hargest notes that the ‘Cunarders’ made additional savings possible: ‘Their relatively fast crossings, together with the regularity and certainty of their sailings, were obviating the necessity for sending many duplicate copies of the same letter by different ships in order to be certain that a copy would arrive as early as possible, or would arrive at all.’ See Hargest, 2. – Duplicates played no further role in Rathbone’s correspondence in the 1850s.

290 In addition to the Dramatic Line, there was also another later established packet company on the New York – Liverpool route: the Red Cross Line, established in 1844. A well-known mail-carrying packet company on the Boston – Liverpool route was also Enoch Train’s White Diamond Line, which began operations in the same year. See Staff, 127; and Cutler (1967), 371–373.

291 Liverpool Mercury 31.1.1845.

292 Cutler (1967), 381

293 The Queen of the West was one of the finest sailing packets of the time. She was a new 1,160-ton vessel (the Cunarders were 1,150 tons) that had sailed from New York to Liverpool in 15 days in February of the same year. According to Cutler, packets of that size and finish – ‘floating palaces’ – cost $100,000 and upwards, which was nearly double the cost of the average packets of the thirties. See Cutler (1967), 254–257, 378.

294 The Great Western was in non-regular North Atlantic service up to December 1846; the American ship Massachusetts made two round trips in 1846; and the Sarah Sands was in traffic 1847–1849, making three more round-trips in 1852. See Tabeart (1997), 19–20. The Sarah Sands was the second ocean-going iron screw steamer after the Great Britain, and was chartered by the Red Cross Line, one of the New York packet lines of the later period. According to Bonsor, ‘it can certainly be said that they [her trips] were a success as nearly all her passages were considerably faster than those of contemporary sailing packets, which were what she was intended to compete with rather than with the Cunard wooden paddle-steamers’. The Sarah Sands was also the first steamer to carry emigrants. For example, in August 1848, she was reported to have departed from Liverpool with 60 first class, 46 second class and 200 steerage passengers. In 1852 she arrived in New York with 124 cabin and 238 steerage passengers. See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 184–185; and Arnell (1986), 205.

295 Marthe Barbance, Histoire de la Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. Un Siècle d’Exploitation Maritime (Paris, 1955), 30.

296 See Barbance, 30; Staff, 85.

297 Staff, 85; see also Barbance, 30.

298 Albion (1939), 324. For more stories about the line’s performance, see Tyler, 149; Barbance, 30.

299 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 93. Tyler has come to similar averages in his calculations. (Tyler, 149)

300 Hubbard & Winter, 91; Barbance, 30–31.

301 Hubbard & Winter, 81–84; Butler, 99–100; Albion (1939), 323–324; and Tyler, 143–144.

302 Hubbard & Winter, 109–111; Albion (1939), 325.

303 The history of the rise and fall of the Collins Line has been told by dozens of maritime historians. See for example Tyler, 181–246; Albion (1939), 325–330; Arnell (1986), 191–204; Staff, 86–90; Kludas, 44–46; Babcock, 91–106; Hubbard & Winter, 95–108; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 201–208; Butler, 89–103, 199–224; Fox 116–139; and Hyde (1975), 37–39. About the Dramatic Line, see Butler, 95–97; Cutler (1967), 198, 210–211, 380; and Staff, 123–124. About the Vera Cruz Line, see Cutler (1967) 401, and about the New Orleans Line, Cutler (1967), 500. Even a fictitious story about the company, based on historical events, has been written by Warren Armstrong, The Collins Story (London 1957).

304 Hubbard & Winter, 95–96.

305 The Collins Line’s contract was a political question from the very beginning. In the U.S. Congress it was strongly opposed by Senators from Ohio and Missouri as being only a waste of money, but warmly supported by Senators from New England, and especially from New York. One of the strongest arguments for the contract was borrowed from the British: government-controlled vessels could be transformed into warships if needed. At the time of the discussion, the United States was at war with Mexico, and the relationship with Britain had its critical moments in the 1840s. (Tyler, 136–138, 145–146) There was a new discussion in the Congress about the Collins contract in 1852 and once more in 1855. See Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds, of Ohio, on the Collins Line of Steamers, delivered in the House of Representatives, February 15, 1855 (Washington, 1855), passim. – Edson B. Olds was the Chairman of Committee on Post Office and Post Roads in the U.S. Congress.

306 See e.g. Albion (1939), 325–326; Kludas, 45; Butler, 99; Babcock, 92; and Hyde (1975), 37.

307 Hubbard & Winter, 28.

308 For further descriptions, see Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 202; Bonsor (1980), vol. 5, 1859; Staff, 86; and Tyler, 182.

309 Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 202–207; Hubbard & Winter, 98.

310 Calculated from the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 28–30; 98–99.

311 Babcock, 93.

312 See Albion (1939), 326–328; Babcock, 94–95; Butler, 202; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 204. – For background on the Collins Line’s captains, see Albion (1938), 170–171.

313 For the Ocean Line and the Havre Line, see under the sub title ‘Ocean Line and Havre Line – the forgotten contract companies’.

314 See the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 24–25.

315 Until September 1850, the Cunard Line’s ships also made a call at Halifax on the way to and from New York. See Arnell (1980), sailing lists, 308–310.

316 See Hyde (1975), 73; Fox 106–109, 113, 138, 187, 276. Several innovations for safety at sea were taken in use by the Cunard Line, e.g. the white light at the masthead at night, the green light on the starboard side and the red light on the port. Another remarkable innovation was the use of safe tracks for the ships to avoid ice and icebergs or collisions with other vessels. See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 78; Hyde (1975), 45–47.

317 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 28.

318 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 28–29.

319 Albion (1939), 327–328. An opposing Congressman declared that the Collins application was sustained ‘by the most powerful and determined outside pressure I have ever seen brought to bear upon a legislative body’. (Tyler, 210)

320 In 1852, the Ocean Line and the Havre Line made only 11 round trips each. See the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 87, 111–113.

321 Tyler, 215. The only competitors on the Havre route were the American sailing packets. On the Bremen route there were no competitors at all, excluding merchant ships.

322 Albion (1939), 328.

323 Butler, 202–206; Albion (1939), 328; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 204; William Henry Flayhart III, Perils of the Atlantic. Steamship Disasters 1850 to the Present. (New York, 2003), 19–38. Descriptions of the disaster were widely published by the contemporary newspapers, including Lloyd’s List 12.10.1854 and Liverpool Mercury 13.10.1854.

324 Butler, 206; Albion (1939), 328; and Fox, 128–132.

325 Hubbard & Winter, 13.

326 Hubbard & Winter, 107; Albion (1939) 329–330; Butler, 217–218; Bowen, 192. See also Fox 135–136.

327 According to Staff, the Adriatic was 3,670 tons. (Staff, 131)

328 Albion (1939), 330; Hyde (1975), 39; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 205. For the Congress debate, see Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds…, 3–56.

329 The discussion about the decline of the American merchant marine has been described and analyzed by Safford in ‘The decline of the American merchant marine….’, 60–79.

330 See Hubbard & Winter, 108; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 205.

331 Delayed mails also caused Collins Line extra troubles in the form of penalties. See Tyler, 237.

332 Bonsor (1980), vol. 5, 1888–1889; Hubbard & Winter, 113–115; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 213–215, 220, 238; Liverpool Mercury 9.5.1854. – It was also stated that the Collins Line’s Pacific was racing with Cunard’s Persia when she went missing. (Butler, 217). The Persia, having sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool three days later than the Pacific, also hit an iceberg during her voyage, but managed to limp to New York in 14 days from Liverpool. Yet the Persia departed from New York on schedule 11 days later, which indicates that her damage was rather easy to repair. See Fox, 163; sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 37.

333 See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 85.

334 Hyde (1975), 47–49.

335 Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds..., 3 and 10; Robinson (1964), 139–141.

336 Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds..., 30, 47–49.

337 Tyler, 178.

338 Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds..., 16.

339 Letter from Edward K. Collins, January 19, 1855. In Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds..., 26.

340 Statement of Daniel B. Martin, Engineer in Chief, United States Navy, 12.1.1855, included in Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds..., 28. In fact, at that time the Cunard Line had not made a scheduled call at Halifax on the way to New York for over four years. On four occasions during 1851–1853, a Cunard vessel had put into Halifax for coal after an extra long voyage due to westerly gales. (See sailing lists of Arnell (1980), 310–312) – Regarding the Boston route, what was said was principally correct. – On the whole, these calculations regarding coal consumption should perhaps not be taken too literally. The Cunard Line’s Asia coaled 850 tons on average for a westward trip in 1851–1853, normally having an average 125 tons left from the eastbound passage. Thus a trip to New York was started with an average amount of 975 tons of coal. The Asia was 600 tons smaller than the Collins vessels and made her westbound trips in about 12 days on average. (Calculated from Cunard Passage Book 1, years 1851–1853, in CP, GM 2/1, SJ)

341 Tyler, 209. The Collins Line’s own figures for the round trip cost were even higher, from $63,000 to over $65,000. (Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds.., 16; Tyler, 209) – There is no evidence that the figures of the two companies are strictly comparable, but the Cunard Line could certainly manage their operations with less expense than the Collins Line.

342 Staff, 82. For a detailed explanation of the rather complicated system of postage rates under different postal treaties, see Hargest, 27–39.

343 Staff, 82–83.

344 Calculated from the records published in Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds.., 18–19.

345 Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds..., 18–19. For the Prussian closed-mail, see Hargest, 85–98.

346 Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds..., 21.

347 For details of the arrangement and how it worked, see Hyde (1975), 39–45. For background, see Edward W. Sloan, ‘The First (and Very Secret) International Steamship Cartel, 1850–1856’, in David J. Starkey & Gelina Harlaftis (ed.), Global Markets: the Internalization of the Sea Transport Industries since 1850. Research in Maritime History, No. 14 (St. John’s, 1998), 29–52. See also Fox, 121–123.

348 Percentages are used in the comparison of crossings in 1850–1857 as the numbers of sailings were rather different. The Collins Line made 370 Atlantic crossings in total while the Cunard Line made 336 voyages between Liverpool and New York during this period. In 1855 the Cunard Line did not have a service to New York as several of the ships had been conscripted as troop carriers in the Crimean War. See the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 28–41, 98–108.

349 Kludas, 146, 148. – The Blue Riband holder was the record keeper of the fastest westbound Atlantic crossing.

350 Excluding the worst winter months during the first years, but since 1851 all the year round. See Hubbard & Winter, 82.

351 See Edwin Drechsel, Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen, 1857–1875, volume 1, (Vancouver, 1994), 3–4; Lars U. Scholl, ‘New York’s German Suburb: The Creation of the Port of Bremerhaven, 1827–1918’ in Lewis R. Fischer & Adrian Jarvis, (ed.) Harbours and Havens: Essays in Port History in Honour of Gordon Jackson. Research of Maritime History No 16 (1999), 201–205; Butler, 99–101.

352 Drechsel, 5. Hubbard & Winter, 126.

353 Staff, 80; Tyler 154–156; Drechsel, 4. There was also a German company carrying mails between Bremen and New York during 1853–1857, W.A. Fritze & Company, with two wooden paddle steamers, Hansa and Germania. The vessels should have run alternately with the Ocean Line steamers to achieve semi-monthly trips throughout the year. However, only eight voyages were made during 1853–1854 and one final voyage in 1857 after the Crimean War. See Hubbard & Winter, 125–128.

354 Hubbard & Winter, 82–84; Butler, 100–101; Tyler, 155–156; Drechsel, 4.

355 Hargest, 23–28.

356 Hubbard & Winter, 84–90. The performance of W.A. Fritze & Company’s ships was even inferior. Their average sailing from Bremen to New York took 21.9 days and the return voyage took 19.9 days. Although the sailings were meant to be direct, the ships had to put in at other ports for coaling three times (once at Halifax, twice at Boston) and they also called at Southampton twice for reasons not given. See sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 127.

357 Scholl , ‘New York’s German Suburb…’, 206.

358 See Hubbard & Winter, 409–414.

359 Hubbard & Winter, 110; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 213–214.

360 Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 214.

361 The Times 3.1.1867, cited by Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 214.

362 Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 213–214. Hubbard & Winter, 109–110.

363 About their sailing packet business, see Albion (1938), 126–127, and Cutler (1967), 394–396. For a list of their ships, see Albion (1938), 284; Staff, 125–126.

364 Bonsor (1975), vol.1, 212.

365 Hubbard & Winter, 110.

366 Hubbard & Winter, 120.

367 Albion (1939), 328.

368 Speech of Mr. Edson B. Olds…, 19.

369 See Sheila Marriner, Rathbones of Liverpool, 1845–73 (Liverpool, 1961), 14.

370 Letters to Rathbone Bros & Co., Liverpool, 1853. In Rathbone Collection, RP XXIV.2. (SJ). – H.W. Gair was related to Rathbones by marriage. (Marriner, 6).

371 The averages of the Havre Line and the Ocean Line may be somewhat too positive due to the small number of cases and the fact that all the letters involved were written on the day before or even on the same day as the ship departed, while the averages of the Cunard Line and the Collins Line include cases where the letters had been written earlier and stayed in port for several days before the actual sailing.

372 One of the urgent letters for a next-day departure had been marked ‘Express New York’ to Boston. Letter to Rathbone Bros Co. 20.12.1853. (Rathbone Collection, RP XXIV.2., SJ).

373 Hubbard & Winter, 161–162; Butler, 211. – The line was called the Vanderbilt European Line to differentiate it from the Vanderbilt Line on the Nicaragua route, see Chapter VI.3. – For details of Vanderbilt’s earlier life and career, see Butler, 121–134.

374 An average Vanderbilt voyage between New York and Southampton took 13.1 days westbound and 12.5 days eastbound during 1855 and 1857, while the corresponding figures for the Ocean Line were 15.1 days and 14.5 days respectively. Calculated from the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 89–90, 163–165.

375 Hubbard & Winter, 161–162. For the change from subsidized mail steamship lines to compensation in the form of sea postage only, see Hargest, 113–115.

376 Hubbard & Winter, 83, 161.

377 Tyler, 242.

378 Hubbard & Winter, 161.

379 Robinson (1964), 141.

380 Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 330.

381 See Hargest, 117.

382 The remark also includes the Vanderbilt’s performance in 1860. See the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 165.

383 The company’s service was ceased in 1858 for months due to problems with two vessels, the Ariel and the North Star. Two mail sailings were cancelled and a third was taken care of by the Inman Line. (Hargest, 116; Hubbard & Winter, 163–164.)

384 Hubbard & Winter, 162; Butler, 241.

385 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 163–165.

386 Kludas, 45, 49.

387 The Great Eastern, of 18,915 tons, was Isambard Brunel’s masterpiece, originally built for the Eastern route in 1860 but transformed for the North Atlantic service. She was about five times larger than any other ship in the world but never became an economic success. The technology of the time could not meet the challenges caused by the enormous size of the vessel – she was the largest ship in the world for the next four decades. The Great Eastern is best remembered for laying the Atlantic cable. See N.R.P. Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway (New York, 1978), vol. 2, 579–585; John Steele Gordon, A Thread Across the Ocean. The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable (London, 2002), 153–208. The Great Eastern never had a mail contract, although she may have carried letters privately like any merchant ship.

388 Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 214.

389 Safford, 72–73. Tyler, ix.

390 Later on, the figure was 16% in 1881 and less than 9% in 1910. See Safford, 53. Tyler gives different statistics, but a similar trend. See Tyler, 377.

391 This is one of the main conclusions made by Tyler, 226–229. See also Safford, 64, 74. – Junius Smith, whose pioneering steamer Sirius made the first transatlantic crossing in 1838, was mortally assaulted on his tea plantation in South Carolina in 1852 due to his anti-slavery opinions. See Pond, 266–279.

392 About the decline of the American merchant marine, see Safford, 53–81.

393 See Fox, 168–169; Kenwood & Lougheed, 63–64.

394 Maldwyn A. Jones: Destination America (New York, 1976), 16–17. – A useful analysis of the economic reasons for emigration and its effects on the labour markets on both sides of the Atlantic can be found in Kevin H. O’Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson, Globalization and History. The Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Economy (Massachusetts, 2000), 119–206. See also Kenwood & Lougheed, 66–69.

395 Several shipping lines were established for emigrant transport in the late 1840s. There were more than a dozen of them operating between Britain and New York or Boston, often by chartered sailing ships of varying quality, in addition to the American sailing packets, which also started to carry emigrants at that time. See Cutler (1967), 371–392. – HAPAG was established for this purpose in 1847. The company carried German emigrants to America on sailing vessels for the first ten years and started their steamship service in 1856. For the sailing packet period, see Kurt Himer, 75 Jahre Hamburg-Amerika Linie. I Teil: Adolph Godeffroy und Seine Nachfolger bis 1886. (Hamburg, 1922), 7–23.

396 Albion (1938), 247–251. – About the life on board, see Jones, 28–39.

397 About technical developments, see Fox, 140–167, 172–178.

398 The first iron screw steamer, the Great Britain, built in 1845, did not carry steerage passengers, but the second one, Sarah Sands, built in 1847, could carry 200. See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 63, 184–185. About William Inman and his business concept, see Fox, 178–181.

399 Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 218–220; Fox, 182–185.

400 Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 218–221, 238–239; Fox 181–185; Hubbard & Winter, 195–198.

401 Hubbard & Winter, 129–130, 161–162, 167–168, 235–236; Arnell (1980), 159–161. For the mail conventions between the United States and Hamburg & Bremen, see Hargest, 119–125.

402 There were also several other emigrant steamship lines established during these years: the Anchor Line between Glasgow and New York in 1856, the National Line between Liverpool and New York as well as London and New York in 1864, and the Guion Line between Liverpool & New York in 1866. These ships did not have mail contracts and are therefore excluded from this study. For these lines, see C.R. Vernon Gibbs, British Passenger Liners of the Five Oceans. (London, 1963), 222–232, 238–247; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 422–471; and Bonsor (1978), vol. 2, 599–615, 701–711.

403 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 44–45, 53–54, 200–201, 209–210.

404 The company first had a contract with the government of the colony of Newfoundland, and then with the British government. See Hubbard & Winter, 263–264; Hargest 125–127.

405 See Timothy Collins, Transatlantic Triumph & Heroic Failure – The Galway Line (Cork, 2002), 151; sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 265–270.

406 Hubbard & Winter, 263–264. – This ship-telegraph route had already been used several years earlier by the New York Associated Press in connection with the Cunard Line’s calls at Halifax. However, it had never been an official part of any mail contract. See Chapter V.4.

407 Hubbard & Winter, 44, 199–200; Collins, 149.

408 Hubbard & Winter, 14.

409 A Memorial to the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, resolved in a meeting of the ACC in Liverpool on 14.4.1849. (LRO, 380 AME/2). The memorial was written in cooperation with the West Indian Association, especially due to delays in the West Indies mails, but the problem was naturally the same whenever overseas mails arrived at Southampton.

410 Tyler, 341.

411 Rathbone Collection, RP XXIV.2.20, (SJ).

412 The Cunard Line had 27 arrivals from New York and 26 from Boston to Liverpool that year, the Inman Line had 54 arrivals from New York to Liverpool, the Norddeutscher Lloyd had 22 arrivals and HAPAG 23 arrivals from New York to Southampton. See the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 50–52, 177–178, 241–242, 206–207.

413 Hubbard & Winter, 14.

414 Hubbard & Winter, 7.

415 Rathbone Collection, RP XXIV.2.20, SJ.

416 See Hubbard & Winter, 391–407.

417 The Cunard Line’s Mediterranean service had used iron screw steamers since 1852. See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 78–79.

418 See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 142–147; Fox, 186–191.

419 The Mediterranean service was started in the early 1850s with traffic between Britain and the Mediterranean, and was separated from the North Atlantic business when a company named the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1855. Both companies had the same owner families. Other prospects for a geographical enlargement of services were also considered at that time as the competition with the Collins Line was very tight. These considerations included a plan to start a steamship line to Australia. See Hyde (1975), 16–26.

420 See Bonsor (1975), 149; Hyde (1975), 51.

421 Tyler, 339; Hubbard & Winter, 14.

422 Tyler, 339; Hubbard & Winter, 225.

423 After the death or retirement of the founders, the management of the Cunard Line was transferred to their sons, John & James Cleland Burns, Edward & William Cunard; and David & John MacIver. For the new capital structure and control of the company, see Hyde (1975), 12–23.

424 Hyde (1975), 52; Hubbard & Winter, 56–57, 149–150, 181–182, 212–213, 244–245.

425 Tyler, 339–340.

426 Tyler, 340. For the negotiations and details of the convention, see Hargest, 149–150.

427 Tyler, 340–341. – Milne gives a different view of the new contracts: ‘Inman’s co-operation with Cunard in 1868 was a subtle maneuver, gaining a new source of revenue for his own operation while greatly reducing the subsidy available to his key competitor. Cunard in turn had to co-operate because the alternative might have been worse: with official thinking turning in the direction of reduced subsidies, Cunard had to appear reasonable.’ (Milne 2000, 174)

428 Hubbard & Winter, 15, 58–61, 212–213.

429 Tyler, 342.

430 Tyler, 343; Hubbard & Winter 169, 237. The Norddeutscher Lloyd did not always carry British mails westbound from Southampton, even if they carried German mails. (Hubbard & Winter, 248) HAPAG did not reapply for the British mail contract, but continued to carry U.S. mails. The company changed their port of call from Southampton to Havre, with some other adjustments included. See Hubbard & Winter, 169.

431 See Kenwood & Lougheed, 27; Tyler 197.

432 See Hyde (1975), 58–66.

433 Tyler, 355.

434 Hyde (1975), 64.

435 Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 228. – Bonsor’s statistics are based on a different logic and the number of voyages does not match with the lists of mail sailings by Hubbard & Winter. There may be other than Liverpool (– Queenstown) – New York mail sailings included in Bonsor’s figures, e.g. the Inman Line’s sailings via Halifax or the Cunard Line’s sailings from the Mediterranean.

436 The Batavia, the Abyssinia, the Algeria and the Parthia, all between 2,500 and 3,500 tons and with accommodation for 800 to 1,000 steerage passengers, were launched in 1870. Three more ships – the Atlas of about 2,500 tons and 800 in steerage, as well as the Bothnia and the Scythia, both of 4,500 tons and carrying 1,100 in steerage – were built for the North Atlantic route between 1873 and 1875. See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 150–152.

437 Fox, 192; Tyler 340; and Milne (2000), 173.

438 But the companies had had an agreement about fixed freight rates and minimum passenger rates to protect the British shipping lines against foreign competition since 1867 or early 1868. The National, Guion, Allan and Anchor lines also joined this agreement. See Hyde (1975), 94.

439 The length of the two unlucky voyages was originally given to Liverpool. To be comparable with the rest of the figures, these voyages have been calculated in the table as 16 and 26 days to Queenstown, even though the ships proceeded directly to Liverpool. One day has also been subtracted from the duration of the voyage in those cases where Hubbard & Winter only record the date of arrival at Liverpool. (In these cases, the ships have probably not been able to call at Queenstown due to bad weather or other reasons.) There was one such case in the Cunard Line’s operations on the New York run that year (and five on the Boston run), and eight cases in the Inman Line’s performance, including the two long voyages.

440 Bonsor (1975) vol. 1, 230–231.

441 These two were not the only important transatlantic steamship lines established in the early 1870s. The Holland-America Line (Nederlandsche-Amerikaanische Stoomvart Maatschappijj) established in 1872 and sailing between Hellevoetsluis and New York, the Red Star Line (International Navigation Company of Philadelphia) established in 1873 and sailing mainly between Philadelphia and Antwerp, and the American Line (American Steamship Company) established in 1873 and sailing between Philadelphia and Queenstown–Liverpool need to be mentioned. As they all served on different routes and in only a few years covered by this study, they are not examined here. Their sailing lists up to 1875 are available in Hubbard & Winter, 335–346. The history of the Red Star Line and the American Line, later merged with the Inman Line, is well covered by William Henry Flayhart III in The American Line (1871–1902) (New York, London, 2000). See also Bonsor (1979), vol. 3, 885–887 for the early years of the Holland-America Line, Bonsor (1975), vol. 2, 829–835 for the Red Star Line, and N.R.P. Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway (New York, 1979), vol. 3, 920–924 for the American Line.

442 See Robin Gardiner, The History of the White Star Line (Surrey, 2001), 25–66. – The emigrant ship Tayleur, chartered by the White Star Line for a trip to Australia, was wrecked off Ireland with the loss of 420 lives on her first voyage in 1854. See Gardiner, 26–28.

443 The ship names Arctic and Pacific were changed to Republic and Celtic (launched in 1872) due to the tragic associations the company believed the names might invoke among the public. See Fox, 241; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 733. – As if to continue the Collins traditions, the White Star Line’s Atlantic was wrecked in April 1873 with the loss of 585 hands, thus adding new sad figures to the company’s own record of worst disasters at sea – to be continued 39 years later when the White Star flagship Titanic sank with the well known consequences. For descriptions of the loss of the Atlantic, see Gardiner 86–89; Flayhart (2003), 39–55.

444 The company’s early operations under the name Compagnie Général Maritime were affected by financial problems and the Crimean War. See Barbance, 31–48; and Bonsor (1978) vol. 2, 619–620. A short English résumé of the company’s first years can also be found in Duncan Haws, French Line. Compagnie Générale Transatlantic. Merchant Fleets (Pembrokeshire, 1996), 7–8. For the mail service from 1864, see Hubbard & Winter, 275–276.

445 For these companies’ operations on the West Indian, South American and Asian routes, see the following chapters.

446 Considerable savings in fuel and increased cargo space made the company change this policy later, and they built new screw steamers and rebuilt the old paddle-wheelers. See Bonsor (1978), vol. 2, 619–625.

447 In the 1860s, the French Line services were limited by a series of wars: the American Civil war, the Mexican war and the Franco-Prussian war. See Barbance, 73–84; Haws, 8–9.

448 See Hubbard & Winter, 275–277.

449 See Hubbard & Winter, 169,180–189, 277. – The calls at Brest ceased in 1874 due to the continuous difficulty in navigating the approaches to the harbour. See Hubbard & Winter, 286.

450 Hubbard & Winter, 193–194, 286. The French Line records for July–December 1875 are not available.

451 Bonsor assumes that the company was not authorized to carry steerage passengers on board the New York mail steamers between 1871 and 1879. See Bonsor (1978), vol. 2, 628. – Additionally, the number of emigrants from France was rather low on the whole, compared with several other countries. See O’Rourke & Williamson, 155; Kenwood & Lougheed, 57–61; and Tyler, 362.

452 After a tolerable duration of a voyage had been ensured, the speed was not necessarily the most important aspect for the passengers. A passenger survey carried on Liverpool ships in 1882 and 1883 showed that faster ships attracted no more bookings than slower ones of the same line. In fact, the fastest express liners were not usually the most comfortable ships for travelling. Such White Star liners as Oceanic and Celtic, or later Olympic and Titanic, the HAPAG steamers Amerika and Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, or the French liners France and Paris are examples of luxurious ships that were not even built to be the fastest vessels on the route. See Hyde (1975), 74; and Kludas, 25–26.

453 The Germanic made the westbound trip at an average speed of 14.65 knots in 1875 and improved her record to 15.76 knots in 1877. See Kludas, 146–147.

454 Samuel Cunard’s letter to Viscount Canning 11.3.1853, published by Staff, 140–142.

455 The ‘Hales Trophy’ was introduced as late as 1935. See Kludas, 16–18.

456 For a detailed analysis of the source material used in these calculations, see Bonsor (1980), vol. 5, 1867–1871.

457 Kludas, 10–16. Kludas’ study of the Blue Riband contest is based on Bonsor’s revised list of the record crossings. Bonsor was the first to provide separate lists for west- and eastbound record voyages, and he corrected many errors and omissions in press reports and company statements regarding the duration of the crossings. For these arguments, see Bonsor (1980), vol. 5, 1866–1887.

458 Kludas, 25; Staff, 103.

459 Only companies with mail contracts are included in the diagrams. One major shipping line excluded for this reason is the Anchor Line, which had three ships on the North Atlantic route in 1860, 18 ships in 1870 and 25 ships in 1880 (Staff, 135). Chartered ships with only one to three round trips for the mail-carrying companies are also excluded from the figures.

460 See Staff, 130–132; Kludas, 45, 146.

461 The general average is weighted according to the number of ships in traffic by each company.

462 The Adriatic made only one trip for the Collins Line before the collapse of the company. She was later owned and chartered by different shipping companies. She carried U.S. mail on five round voyages for the North Atlantic Steamship Company, which closed down in early 1861. During the Civil War she was used as a troop carrier. See Staff, 129–137; Hubbard & Winter, 271.

463 This unfortunate period ended in the 1880s after long internal discussions and, finally, a change in the company’s policy. To start a major shipbuilding programme for larger and faster vessels able to compete in the North Atlantic business, the company was publicly listed in 1880 with the name Cunard Steam Ship Co Ltd. See Hyde (1975), 24.

464 Trip one in Diagram 35 was the Oceanic’s last voyage, and trip four was the Belgic’s last voyage.

465 See Diagrams 21 and 22.

466 See Fox, 106–109. – The companies generally paid more attention to regularity than safety, as the mail contracts often included monetary sanctions in case of delays. For concrete examples, see e.g. Arnell (1980), 181–182. – The passengers were naturally worried about their safety and some measures were taken to calm them. ‘These steamers carry Phillip’s Patent Fire Annihilators. An experienced Surgeon is attached to each steamer’, announced the Inman Line in an advertisement in the Liverpool Mercury 13.10.1854. In 1874, after several fatal shipwrecks in the Atlantic within a short period, the American Line announced: ‘All steamers are fitted with Life Rafts, in addition to the extra number of Life Boats and Life Preservers.’ See Lloyd’s List 9.10.1874.

467 The Allan Line lost the following vessels in shipwrecks on the Liverpool – Quebec/Portland mail route: Canadian (I) 1857, Indian 1859, Hungarian 1860, Canadian (II) 1861, North Briton 1861, Anglo-Saxon 1863, Norwegian 1863, Bohemian 1864 and Jura 1864. Most of the disasters took place off the rocky and foggy Canadian coast, but the line even managed to lose one of their vessels as a result of a mishap in the River Mersey at Liverpool. See Bonsor (1980), vol. 5, 1888–1889; and Hubbard & Winter, 131–144.

468 The total number of lost passenger steamers was 65. Of these, 36 were lost while carrying mails under government contract. In addition, 14 of these ships carried mail occasionally. For example, the Anchor Line, not listed by Hubbard & Winter but mentioned as a potential mail carrier by Staff, lost 11 passenger ships on the North Atlantic run during that period. The Inman Line lost six ships during the period, but two of the disasters took place before the company had a mail contract. The loss of the pioneering steamer President in 1841 has been added to the figure as she carried American mails. See Bonsor (1980), vol. 5, 1888–1890; Hubbard & Winter, 195–196; and Staff, 135. Hubbard and Winter have listed all the sailings of steamship lines with a mail contract. Staff has also listed a few other lines that carried mails occasionally.

469 Hubbard & Winter, passim.

470 There are several examples of mail sailings that ended in returning to port under canvas. The sails were used in these kinds of situations as late as the 1870s, 40 years after the invention of ocean steam power. See Hubbard & Winter, 18, 49, 62, 80, 98, 113; 277, 278, etc.

471 Hargest, 127–133.

472 Total wrecks, caused by any of these problems, are not included in these statistics. Of all the passenger steamship losses between 1841–1875, no less than 41 were wrecked, mainly off the coasts of North America and Ireland, two were abandoned, four destroyed by fire, five lost in collision, three foundered, one collided with an iceberg, and nine went missing without trace. See Bonsor (1980), vol. 5, 1888–1890.

473 Hubbard & Winter, passim.

474 Hyde (1975), 33. – A lively discussion about the technological progress versus government mail subsidies has been published in Holt, Review of the Progress… Institute of Civil Engineers. Minutes of Proceedings, 2–94.

475 During 36 years, Cunard Line’s ships ran aground at least eight times in addition to the two shipwrecks. However, no repairs were needed in four of the eight times. The ships were involved in at least two collisions and once struck a submerged object, thought to be a whale. Two delays were caused by non-detailed storm damage and ten delays by broken machinery. At least 23 major delays were caused by fog, ice or snowstorms. Additionally, Cunard ships were reported to have passed Queenstown without calling in due to heavy weather at least five times during the period. See Hubbard & Winter, 17–80. – Even if these lists are far from perfect, they give an overall picture of the reasons for delays in the mail service and the different shipping company profiles. During the first 75 years of its existence, Cunard Line made thousands of round trips across the Atlantic and lost only three ships, no passengers, and almost no mail.

476 An average Collins Line trip westwards – including the ad hoc voyages by chartered steamers in 1857 – took 12.4 days, while an average westbound voyage of all contract mail steamers on that route in 1875 took 11.3 days.

477 Between 5.1.1875 and 9.1.1876, both dates from Liverpool. (Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 78–80) She served mainly on the Liverpool–Boston route. Built in 1862, she was one of the oldest ships the company had in transatlantic service. See Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 146–147.

478 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 28–41.

479 The estimate of the maximum is based on an average ten-day westbound and nine-day eastbound crossing, allowing one day for the writer at both ends of the journey.

480 In 1875, the Inman Line, the White Star Line and Norddeutscher Lloyd all sailed from New York on Saturdays, which was also the departure day of the Cunard Line’s ships from Boston. See the sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 78–80, 193–194, 223–224, 260–262, 315–316, 331–333.

481 In the example, 13.3.–17.3.1875, 10.4.–14.4.1875 and 8.5.–12.5.1875; and 23.7.–24.7.1875, 10.9.–11.9.1875 and 26.11.–27.11.1875.

482 A general overview of early communications systems has been presented in several telegraph histories, independent of their more or less local focus. See e.g. Frank Large, Faster than the Wind. The Liverpool to Holyhead Telegraph (Great Britain, 1998), 8–9; Einar Risberg, Suomen Lennätinlaitoksen historia 1855–1955 (The History of the Telegraph in Finland) (Helsinki, 1959), 15–22; and James D. Reid, The Telegraph in America. Morse Memorial. (New York, 1886), 2–6.

483 Despite being called a Swede in many history books, A.N. Edelcrantz was of Finnish origin. He was born and grown up in Turku, and moved to Stockholm for high administrative posts in his later years. (Risberg, 33)

484 Large, 10–11; Risberg, 23–27, 30–49.

485 Risberg, 27–30; G.R.M. Garratt, One Hundred Years of Submarine Cables (London, 1950), 2.

486 Risberg, 49.

487 Large, 3, 18–19, 109–111; Risberg, 30.

488 Large, 3, 19, 109–111, 115–117.

489 Large, 83–89, 97.

490 Large, 92–93, 99–100. In fact, there were two different code books. Large explains the differences, as well as the control codes used by Chappe and Edelcrantz, 90–107.

491 Large, 18. – Lloyd’s List commonly reported that ships were arriving ‘off Holyhead’ or ‘off Liverpool’. Especially after the railway had been opened for the whole distance between Liverpool and London, the news of a ship’s arrival off Holyhead was published in London before the vessel was in the port of Liverpool. Another news service speeded up by the telegraph was the ‘Vessels spoken with’ also published in Lloyd’s List. It included information about vessels met at sea: the name of the ship and her captain, port of origin and destination, as well as the longitude and latitude where met at sea. When comparing the contents of ‘Vessels spoken with’ and the published information on ship arrivals, it seems evident that many of the reports were sent by the optical telegraph system while the ship was still at sea.

492 Large, 19.

493 J. V. Kieve, Electric Telegraph. A Social and Economic History (Devon, 1973), 18–35. See also Risberg, 54–64; Reid, 71–75.

494 Large, 14; Kieve, 38.

495 Large, 116; Kieve, 55–56, 62, 64.

496 Large, 115. – According to Large, there were also many practical problems to be solved. Land owners were unhappy with the wires crossing their fields, and submarine cables caused constant difficulties even in the 1860s. Additionally, the communications between ships at sea and the telegraph on land was still based on flags and other good old-fashioned systems which needed eye-sight. The wireless telegraph later used by ships would be invented only at the end of the century. (Large, 115–117) The existing semaphore system probably also gave some advantage to the Liverpool merchants in receiving news from the sea before it was forwarded to London. This benefit was not long-lived, however. In the early 1850s, an electric telegraph line was built between Holyhead and Chester along the railway. In addition, a direct telegraph line existed between London and Liverpool from 1851. (Kieve, 49, 55, 82)

497 Large, 14; Risberg, 64. – According to Reid, the Hamburg–Cuxhaven telegraph line, built by two Americans, Charles Robinson and Charles L. Chapin by using relay technology, worked better than the Wheatstone system. (Reid, 85)

498 Risberg, 64–65.

499 Kieve, 68, 73. –The Electric Telegraph Company had been established in 1846 on the basis of Cooke’s and Wheatstone’s patents to build the telegraph in cooperation with the railway companies, while the English & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company was established in 1851 to provide links between England and Ireland by submarine telegraph. It was merged with the British Electric Telegraph Company in 1856, forming the British & Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company. Its technology was based on magnetic electricity. The company’s head office was in Liverpool, and there was a strong provincial and commercial interest among the local shareholders and directors. (Kieve, 43–44, 54, 269) – Britain nationalized the telegraph companies in 1868–1869 and the Post Office took over the businesses. See Kieve, 138–175. The new arrangements included a uniform one shilling rate for 20 words, independent of the distance, following the model of the uniform one penny postage rate. As a result, the number of sent telegrams increased in Britain from about 6,500,000 in 1869 to 19,250,000 in 1875 (calculated from mid-1874 to mid-1875). Such expansion was not seen in any other country. See Kieve 162–163, 183. The maximum inland rates had been reduced from ten to four shillings in the early 1850s, and one shilling rates had been introduced by minor competitors already in the early 1860s. (Kieve, 53, 64)

500 The technological solutions varied greatly in different countries. Instead of the different needle systems, the line opened between St. Petersburg and Helsinki in 1855 was based on Morse’s invention. (Risberg, 75–84). About Morse’s discoveries and the development of his electro-magnetic telegraph, see Reid, 48–111.

501 Reid, 112–117.

502 The main historical American telegraph companies are listed by Reid, vii–xiii. About the cooperation with the railway companies, see e.g. Reid 244–245, 479-–481. Reid’s book covers probably all the important telegraph companies in North America during the first four decades of commercial telegraph.

503 Reid, 120–121, 128–130, 139, 173–175, 207–209. – Gutta-percha was the coagulated latex of certain rubber trees growing in the Malay Peninsula. Even if known in Europe by the mid-17th century, its excellent insulating and underwater conductor qualities were only discovered in the late 1840s. It was used for the insulation of submarine cables for almost a century until challenged by modern synthetic plastics based on polyethylene by 1950. See Garrett, 6; Kieve 101–102.

504 Reid, 300–304.

505 Reid, 358–359.

506 John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid, The Social Life of Information (Boston, 2000), 17–18.

507 Reid, 343–346, 362–364.; Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 77. – In Europe, The Times in London had been the first newspaper to use ‘the electric telegraph’ already in 1844. See Oliver Woods & James Bishop, The Story of The Times (London, 1983), 90. This use must have been mainly experimental, however, as the telegraph lines were mainly built a few years later. – According to Kieve, it was Julius Reuter who was ‘probably the first man to see the immense advantages of the use of the telegraph for newspapers and had established an office in London 1851’. (Kieve, 71)

508 Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 77; Arnell (1986), 190. Arnell does not mention any source for his statement, however. This kind of arrangement may have been only temporary, as Cunard vessels hardly sailed that northern route all year round.

509 Robinson, 271; Garratt, 6–11; Large, 115–117; Kieve 103–104, 115.

510 Garratt, 13; Kieve, 105, 115.

511 To get a good overall idea of the building of the first Atlantic cable, Garratt’s short history is very useful. See Garratt, 14–22. Two recent books give very different perspectives: Gordon’s A Thread Across the Ocean... highlights Cyrus W. Field’s role in the project, while Gillian Cookson’s The Cable. The Wire that Changed the World (Gloucestershire, 2003) gives a more balanced picture of the development that led to the final breakthrough of fast Atlantic communications. See Gordon and Cookson, passim. See also Kieve, 105–115. About Morse’s role in the project, see Cookson, 56–57, 60–63, 69–70, 72. Reid put it this way: ‘Faraday and Morse encouraged the American projector [Cyrus W. Field]. But scientific and practical men were so divided, that it was difficult to inspire the degree of confidence necessary to success.’ He continued: ‘In face of all these obstacles, Mr. Field went to London, and succeeded in 1856 in organizing the first Atlantic Telegraph Company, and raising the necessary money to carry out the project, subscribing himself for more than one-quarter of the entire capital.’ (Reid, 519) British sources give a rather different picture of Field’s role as an investor in the project. See Kieve 107, Cookson 63.

512 Garratt, 14–15; Cookson, 23–24, 52–54, 62–63.

513 Garratt, 15–17. Cookson, 81–96.

514 Garratt, 18. Cookson, 96–105. – Kieve, referring to the report of the Joint Committee appointed by the government, explains that the faults were on the electrical side and also the core, and that especially the conductor was too small. See Kieve, 110–111.

515 According to Cookson, 271 messages were forwarded from Trinity Bay, Newfoundland to Valentia, Ireland and 129 telegrams passed in the other direction, at an average of ten words each. Unfortunately the author does not give any reference to the sources used. See Cookson, 102.

516 Garratt, 19.

517 Cookson, 62–63; Garratt, 15; Large, 14.

518 ‘Laying of the Atlantic Cable’. Memorial of Liverpool Merchants Trading with America and Associated as the American Chamber of Commerce, 2.12.1858. (LRO, 380 AME/2)

519 Robinson (1964), 143–144. In 1860, a parliamentary committee saw so little need for these arrangements that it recommended the return of power to contract for sea-going mail services from the Admiralty to the Post Office. This happened by an Act of Parliament in the same year. See Robinson (1964), 144.

520 About the American discussion on the possibility of moving the western terminus of the Atlantic cable to the United States from the British territories, see Cookson, 64–67. See also Kieve, 112.

521 Cookson, 140–141. – The news was published by The Times 27.4.1865 with the remark that the report had arrived ‘via Greencastle, per Nova Scotian’.

522 Sailing lists of Hubbard & Winter, 178, 208. – The Electric and the Magnetic had contracted with Reuter’s in January 1859 for the exclusive rights to supply foreign telegrams to all towns in the UK. Reuter’s retained the exclusive right of supplying commercial and shipping news within 15 miles of London (the former were prohibited from passing it on to newspapers or public rooms). In February 1865 the telegraph companies (including the minor United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Company) formed a combined news and intelligence department under the direction of a joint committee and managed by Charles Boys of the Electric. As the companies had a monopoly of the telegraph communications of the UK, newspapers requiring news by telegraph were compelled to resort to them for it, and take what they were willing to supply. The smaller newspapers were possibly satisfied, but the larger ones were not as they continually attacked the telegraph companies. This dissatisfaction would be one of the major factors in the nationalisation of the telegraph system. (Kieve, 71–72)

523 See Garratt, 19–21.

524 See Garratt, 21–22; Kieve 114–115; Cookson, 142–150. – The success in laying the Atlantic cable ended another ambitious project, the building of the Russian-American overland route telegraph across the Siberia and via Alaska. The losses of this unfinished attempt reached $3,000,000, mainly to be paid by the American Western Union Telegraph Company. See Cookson, 150; Reid 508–517.

525 Marriner, 114.

526 Marriner, 114. Each company had their own code books, and the telegrams had to be interpreted on both sides of the Atlantic: first to the cipher language and then back to English again. Examples of telegrams with opened cipher codes can be found e.g. from C.K. Prioleau’s correspondence in the business records of Fraser, Trenholm & Co. at the MMM (B/FT, box 2). – The use of codes also caused confusion and delays: ‘What is penance in Charleston code. Telegraph at once. Orleans March April paid 91. Dufour.’ (Telegram from H. Dufour & Co. at Havre to C.K. Prioleau & Co. in London, 5.1.1875. (MMM, B/FT, box 2)

527 Marriner, 114–115.

528 Marriner, 115.

529 Milne (2000), 129–130. There were similar problems in the United States, see Reid 136–137, 308, 327–328, 357–358. To reduce costs, the operators sometimes employed young girls with small salaries. They made free translations and left out what they could not read. Commercial terms were unknown to them and they gave new terms to trade. (Reid, 780)

530 Garratt, 38. – JoAnne Yates has compared the information costs by ordinary mail and telegraph in American companies. According to her, the companies could exert more central authority over their agents by insisting e.g. that no unauthorized price cuts should be made or that rush orders had to be confirmed with the headquarters. In such cases, the high cost of sending a telegram was justified as the use of the telegraph led to savings in the company’s business. The study does not cover overseas information transmission. See JoAnne Yates, ‘Investing in Information: Supply and Demand Forces in the Use of Information in American Firms, 1850–1920’ in Peter Temin (ed.) Inside the Business Enterprise. Historical Perspective on the Use of Information. (Chicago, 1991).

531 Richard B. Kielbowicz has noticed the same in the inland news-gathering of American newspapers: only hard facts were transmitted by telegraph while the rest was sent by ordinary mail. Also the U. S. newspaper exchange system needed physical transmission of documents. See Richard B. Kielbowicz, ‘News Gathering by Mail in the Age of the Telegraph: Adapting to a New Technology’ in Technology and Culture, Vol. 28, No. 1, Jan. 1987, 26–41.

532 Busk & Jevons in New York to Rathbone Bros & Co. in Liverpool 6.1.1869. In the Rathbone Collection, RP XXIV.2.28. (SJ). – Schwind, McKinnell & Co. was a Rio merchant house which sold flour and bought coffee for the Rathbones. (Marriner, 21, 71)

533 Busk & Jevons in New York to Rathbone Bros & Co. in Liverpool 7.1.1870. In the Rathbone Collection, RP XXIV.2.29. (SJ)

534 Marriner, 54, 115–116. Earlier, all cotton handled by a merchant, whether as owner or consignee, was sold through his selling broker to a buying broker who acted for the spinner. The few powerful spinners who imported cotton themselves employed brokers. The cables facilitated the spinner-importing, and also produced a fusion of broker-merchant, who both imported and sold, thus leaving the middlemen out. See J.H. Clapham, An Economic History of Modern Britain. Free Trade and Steel 1850–1886 (Cambridge, 1932), 315–316.

535 Marriner, 115–117; Hall, 99–107.

536 For different West Indian route descriptions and auxiliary ship services between 1820 and 1842, see Britnor, 129–140, 149–154; and John L. L. DuBois, Jeremiah A. Farrington and Roger G. Schnell (eds), Danish West Indies Mails 1754–1917 (Snow Camp, USA, 2000), 32–33.

537 Bryson Collection, Records of Sandbach, Tinne & Co., D/B/176; Earle Family and Business Archive, correspondence of Thomas and William Earle & Co, D/Earle/5/2 (MMM, Liverpool). Additionally, three letters to Sandbach, Tinne & Co. (dated 26.11.1825, 6.2.1826 and 2.3.1836) are included in the calculation from a private philatelic collection: Heikki Hongisto, Sugar in the life of Mankind. (2005) (HHC). – Even though all the letters were carried by private ships, one of them was a duplicate of which the original had been sent by a government packet from Berbice to Thomas and William Earle & Co, dated 18.10.1841.

538 See the correspondence of Thomas and William Earle & Co, D/Earle 5/1–11 (MMM).

539 In 1837, the amount of postage charged by Postmasters in the colonies was only £410 from Berbice for the whole year, while e.g. the figure from Canada was a hundred times greater, £38,977. BPP, Transport and Communications. Post and Telegraphs 2, (1838). Select Committee on Postage, Appendix E, 221.

540 For a more detailed description, see Seija-Riitta Laakso, ‘Managing the Distance: Business Information Transmission between Britain and Guiana, 1840’ in International Journal of Maritime History, XVI, No.2 (December 2004), 221–246.

541 See Robinson (1964), 93; and ‘A List of Packets at Present, Employed in the Service of the Post-Office’ in Lloyd’s Register 1840.

542 For the changes in Liverpool merchants’ interests in the Caribbean area, see Williams, ‘Abolition and the Re-Deployment…’1–17; Milne (2000), 51–53; and Dawn Littler, ‘The Earle Collection: Records of a Liverpool Family of Merchants and Shipowners’, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire, Vol. 146 (Liverpool, 1996), 97–102.

543 Littler, 96.

544 J.M. Houston to Thomas and William Earle & Co in his Monthly Return of Plantation Hanover, Berbice, for January, 1840. Earle Correspondence, D/Earle 5/7/1 (MMM).

545 BPP, Colonies. West Indies 1, (1842), Report of Select Committee on West India Colonies, iii–v. – Some estate owners may have been better prepared for the changes than others. For example, John Gladstone of Liverpool, who had purchased several plantations in Demerara in the 1820s, sold his assets properly by 1849 without major losses. S.G. Checkland describes Gladstone’s business ideas and networks in the West Indies in his article ‘John Gladstone as Trader and Planter’ in Economic History Review, v. 7, 1954/55, 222–228.

546 Lloyd’s List 13.4.1840.

547 Lloyd’s List 11.5.1840; 12.5.1840.

548 At that time, the mails were sent by coach from Falmouth via Exeter to London and from there by railway to Liverpool. It normally took a couple of days. See BPP, Transport and Communications. Post and Telegraphs 2, (1838). Appendix E, 227–232; and Clapham (1930), 387.

549 See Britnor, 150, 154; and DuBois (etc.), 32–33.

550 Tobago has been mentioned as one of the places where the Demerara and Berbice mails were forwarded. See e.g. Britnor, 154.

551 Lloyd’s List normally published the dates of departures of all the islands visited, as can be noticed from Table 31.

552 About the use of postal handstamps on the ‘loose packet letters’, see DuBois (etc.), 34–36.

553 Lloyd’s List 7.2.1840; 19.2.1849; and 25.4.1840.

554 Date of the Liverpool Post Office arrival handstamp on the letter.

555 The departure dates of the Hope from different ports were as follows: Falmouth 4.3.; Barbados 4.4.; Tobago 6.4.; Trinidad 12.4.; Grenada 14.4.; St. Kitts 18.4.; Tortola 19.4.; St. Thomas 20.4.; Puerto Rico 21.4.; Cape Haitien 26.4. and the arrival at Falmouth 26.5.1840 (Lloyd’s List 28.5.1840).

556 Lloyd’s List 28.5.1840. It was not unusual for the armed Falmouth packets to carry high-value freights of bullion and specie when arriving from Mexico or the West Indies. Arrivals of treasury were usually reported by Lloyd’s List.

557 The exact date of the letter’s arrival in Liverpool is missing. It has been assumed here that it was 28 May, allowing two days for the mail transport from Falmouth to Liverpool.

558 Lloyd’s List 22.6.1840. The letter bears no postal markings, only the recipient’s note about the arrival date.

559 Lloyd’s List 15.8.1840; 17.8.1840.

560 ‘SHIP LETTER KINGSBRIDGE’, see Tabeart (1997), 132.

561 Lloyd’s List 20.7.1840; 10.8.1840.

562 Lloyd’s Register, 1840.

563 Lloyd’s List 23.8.1840.

564 The departure dates of the Hope from different ports during the trip were as follows: Falmouth 17.7.; Barbados 16.8.; Tobago 17.8.; Trinidad 26.8.; Grenada 29.8.; St. Kitts 2.9.; Tortola 3.9.; St. Thomas 4.9.; Puerto Rico 5.9.; Cape Henry 9.9. and Falmouth 23.10.1840 (Lloyd’s List 26.10.1840).

565 Lloyd’s List respectively.

566 The only sailing departure reported by Lloyd’s List, but the reports possibly did not include all of them.

567 Lloyd’s List 12.9.1840.

568 Britnor, 136. For the Atlantic and Caribbean winds and currents, see Map 1.

569 ‘Sketch of the New Arrangements for the Conveyance of Her Majesty’s Mails in the West Indies. To Commence in October, 1840’, Britnor, 153–154. During the steamship era, Berbice mails were often taken overland from Demerara. See Kenton & Parsons, 14.

570 However, J.M. Houston mentions in his June Report something that may describe the rural conditions: five sheep had been killed by a tiger on plantation Op Hoop Van Beter, a nearby coffee plantation earlier owned by the Earle family. J.M. Houston to Thomas and William Earle & Co in his Monthly Return for June, 1840. Earle Family and Business Archive, D/Earle 5/7/6, (MMM).

571 Lloyd’s List 25.8.1840.

572 The handstamp ‘SHIP-LETTER’ on the cover was used in London 1840–1857. Deal would have used the handstamp ‘DEAL SHIP LETTER’ and Gravesend ‘SHIP LETTER GRAVESEND’ in 1840. See Tabeart, 63–64, 102, 182.

573 Lloyd’s List 10.11.1840. Liverpool Post Office arrival handstamp and the recipient’s note on the letter.

574 Lloyd’s List 14.1.1841; 6.3.1841.

575 ‘DEAL SHIP LETTER’ and handstamp of Deal 6.3.1841, Liverpool Post Office arrival handstamp 8.3.1841. The recipient’s note 7 March 1841 cannot be correct, as the postal markings clearly indicate a later arrival.

576 Lloyd’s List 20.1.1841; 15.2.1841.

577 Lloyd’s List 16.2.1841.

578 The other sample of letters from 1826–1841 show that both merchant houses, Sandbach, Tinne & Co. as well as Thomas and William Earle & Co., usually often received duplicates from their plantations in Guiana. Seven of the 15 letters in this sample are duplicates, five of them in Sandbach’s correspondence and two in Earle’s. Interestingly, both duplicates in the latter collection are from 1841, as if the practice would then have been introduced at the plantation. Subsequently, at least three letters out of 11 in Earle’s correspondence from 1842 are duplicates. As the whole sample consists of only 36 letters from 1825–1842, they can naturally only give examples of business practices and can by no means be interpreted as full evidence of the companies’ policies in this question. See Records of Sandbach, Tinne & Co., D/B/176; Correspondence of Thomas and William Earle & Co, D/Earle/5/2. (MMM). – There could naturally also be other reasons for sending duplicates than just getting the message through as fast as possible. For instance, something new could have happened since the original letter was sent: ‘I have already written to you to this packet but since posting my letter, I have seen W.B. Chisholm. I had a long & interesting conversation with him…’ (William Carter to William Earle, Berbice 23.1.1842, ‘p. Packet’. Correspondence of Thomas and William Earle & Co, D/Earle/5/8/4b, MMM).

579 Brown & Duguid have pointed out that it was finally the telegraph, linking the European capitals to their overseas colonies, which radically reduced the independence of the overseas administrators. With rapid communications, decision making could be centralized and the financial and executive autonomy of the overseas partners was quickly absorbed. See Brown & Duguid, 30.

580 John Ross of Inverness to Thomas and William Earle & Co., Liverpool, 30.12.1839; 10.1.1840. He continues about the possible sale of the plantation 20.1.1840. D/Earle 5/1–11, (MMM)

581 Ross to Thomas and William Earle & Co., Liverpool 16.8.1841; 30.10.1841. D/Earle 5/1–11, (MMM)

582 The Earle correspondence includes a letter from Mr. Nash, Manager of Plantation Hanover, to William Carter, Attorney, in Liverpool, 12.4.1842. (D/Earle 5/1–11) Despite several attempts, the plantation was not sold in the 1840s but abandoned as unprofitable, and closed up decades later by William Earle’s descendants. Earle Family and Business Archive Records. Thomas Algernon Earle’s interview, September 1939. (MMM)

583 This practice was well known by the General Post Office and the Treasury, and became part of a lively parliamentary debate in 1838 in connection with the General Post Master’s plan to uniform the inland postage rates, which were based on miles carried, to one penny. Simultaneously with this reform in 1840, the rates of incoming private ship letters were uniformed to 8d per oz., covering the transmission from the exit port of the country of origin to the addressee anywhere on the British Isles. See Robertson, C2; and BPP, Transports and Communications, Posts and Telegraphs 1 and 2 (1838). Select Committee on Postage, passim. – In the sample of 1825–1841, six letters had arrived via the Post Office: two via Glasgow, two via Deal, one via Plymouth and one to Sandbach, Tinne & Co. through the Liverpool Post Office, carrying the ‘LIVERPOOL SHIP LETTER’ handstamp. Six letters were forwarded to the recipient by the captain, two duplicates privately, and one remained unknown as the cover was not included in the records. There were paid and non-paid letters in both companies’ correspondence. See D/B/176; D/Earle/5/2 (MMM) and HHC.

584 The figures are calculated from the statistics in BPP. Colonies. West Indies 2 (1806–49), Select Committee Reports and Correspondence on the Trade and Commerce of the West Indies. Appendix, 306–307. For comparison, the largest vessels of the East India Company, trading with India and China, at that time were 1,200–1,300 tons, even 1,400 tons. Lloyd’s Register 1826.

585 The total number of other British ship departures and arrivals was approximately 10% of the whole. Of these other ports, Bristol and Plymouth had the most traffic to Guiana but still less than 20 sailings in total.

586 An exact number of vessels cannot be given, as there were several ships by the same name and insufficient other details.

587 E.g. the Lady Campbell’s arrival in Liverpool 6.5.1840 was published by Lloyd’s List on 7.5.1840. Her departure from Demerara (14.3.1840) was published almost a week later, 13.5.1840. The Palmyra’s arrival in Liverpool 1.7.1840 was published by Lloyd’s List 2.7.1840 and her departure from Demerara (26.5.) a week later, 9.7.1840. It could also happen that the news of the ship’s departure from the colonial port and arrival at the homeport were published in the same issue, and even on the very same page, like when Lloyd’s List published the departure of the Thistle from Demerara (23.8.) and her arrival at Clyde 22.9.1840, on 23.9.1840. Quite often this problem has been avoided by a note in the arrivals: ‘sailed ...’ thus combining the two different news types.

588 Three trips with durations between 82 and 97 days have been left out of the calculation, as they most probably were not direct sailings.

589 BPP, Colonies. West Indies 2 (1806–49), Select Committee Reports and Correspondence on the Trade and Commerce of the West Indies. Appendix, 307.

590 Sarah Palmer, ‘Port Economics in an Historical Context: The Nineteenth-Century Port of London’, International Journal of Maritime History. Vol. XV No. 1 (June 2003), 27–67.

591 Jarvis (1991), 68–102; Graeme J. Milne, ‘Port Politics: Interest, Faction and Port Management in Mid-Victorian Liverpool’, in Lewis R. Fischer & Adrian Jarvis, Harbours and Havens Havens: Essays in Port History in Honour of Gordon Jackson. Research in Maritime History No. 16 (St. John’s, 1999), 35–62.

592 The plantation owners claimed that after abolition, having been able to purchase their own land, the former slaves were not willing to work at the plantations for more than ‘three or four days in a week, and from five to seven hours in a day’. BPP, Colonies. West Indies 1 (1842), Report of Select Committee on West India Colonies, iii–v. – Modern research has examined more critically the reasons for these problems. See e.g. Douglas Hall, ‘The Flight from the Estates Reconsidered: The British West Indies, 1838–1842’ and O. Nigel Bolland, ‘Systems of Domination After Slavery: The Control of Land and Labour in the British West Indies After 1838’ in Hilary Beckles & Verene Shepherd (eds): Caribbean Freedom. Economy and Society from Emancipation to the Present (Princeton, 1996), 55–63, 107–123.

593 Robertson, A1, C5.

594 Lloyd’s List 22.1.1840.

595 Ojala (1999), 238, 435.

596 Lloyd’s Maritime Atlas (London 1964), Map 1. This variation of voyages was also noticed by Steele, although he looks at it from the perspective of English ports. As he also remarked, the West Indian mail packets demonstrated that ships could safely sail on the route regardless of the seasons. See Steele (1986), 23, 286, 290.

597 Lloyd’s List, 1840. The mails had earlier been sent on the first and third Wednesday of each month from London, the packets leaving from Falmouth on the following Saturday, but this somewhat confusing system had been adjusted in 1834. The mails were now made in the London Post Office on the 1st and 15th of each month. If these dates happened to be Sundays, the departure from Falmouth consequently took place on the 4th and 18th. See Britnor, 149–152.

598 To be consistent, this calculation is based on data concerning packets by which it was possible to send mail to Britain from the West Indies in 1840. Thus, the Tyrian was the first packet included. She departed from Falmouth on 4 December, 1839 and arrived at Barbados on 16 January, 1840. The Ranger was the last packet of the next 12 months, departing from Falmouth in November, 1840. She was back in Falmouth on 12 February, 1841.

599 In three cases, the date of the stop at Barbados is missing, making it impossible to calculate the duration of the westbound and inter-islands journeys. Normally, the Falmouth packet departures and arrivals were well reported in Lloyd’s List compared to the merchant vessels.

600 ‘A List of Packets at Present Employed in the Service of the Post-Office’, Lloyd’s Register, 1840.

601 Britnor, 9.

602 Steele (1986), 283.

603 See the sailing lists of Arnell & Ludington, 69.

604 The figures are calculated from the sailing lists of Howat, 81; and from Lloyd’s List 1840. – The official length of the round voyage Falmouth – Rio de Janeiro – Falmouth was 18 weeks. See Howat, 5.

605 See Howat, 1–6. – In practice, the system was more complicated. On those journeys starting from Falmouth in January–June each year, the packets called at Bahia and Pernambuco on their homeward voyage. On the journeys commencing from Falmouth in the second half of the year, Bahia and Pernambuco were touched at the outward voyage. And in 1832, when the Post Office service to South America was totally taken over by the Admiralty, this was adjusted once more so that the respective months were February–July and August–January. See Howat, 65. The reason for the odd six-month arrangement was simply that the running order of the South American ports of call depended on the prevailing winds. See Pawlyn, 111.

606 Howat, 5, 10, 16–18; and Pawlyn, 54–56, 66–68.

607 Howat, 6.

608 In 1830, there was a double service to South America, conducted by both the Post Office and the Admiralty. The Post Office packet sailings covered the route Falmouth – Rio de Janeiro – Montevideo – Buenos Aires – Montevideo – Rio de Janeiro – Falmouth and did not make a call at Bahia or Pernambuco. Their average home voyage from Rio took 51.3 days. (Howat, 61) In three cases, the mails were transferred from the packet to a man-of-war in Rio, however. These changes caused serious protests among the local merchants as well as the Post Office in England due to confusion in sailing schedules and differences in postage rates. See Howat, 54–55.

609 Howat, 29, 32–35.

610 See the list of Admiralty packets in Howat, 32–35. It is a more complete list than the one in Lloyd’s Register 1840. – The longer route via Bahia and Pernambuco on homeward sailings half of the year did not explain the difference. There were new and old vessels on both routes, and the new ones were typically faster on both routes throughout the year. See the sailing lists of Howat, 81. – As an exception to the rule mentioned, the Seagull which was the last Falmouth packet in service was of middle-size, 280 tons.

611 This opportunity remained occasional even in 1850, when it was possible only three times out of 12 to send an answer to a letter by an earlier departing packet. Additionally, one packet left on the same day when the packet from England arrived, thus giving only a slight opportunity to somebody close to the port to send an answer to a letter by that vessel. See sailing lists of Howat, 85–86.

612 Calculated from the sailing lists of Howat, 61.

613 Calculated from the sailing lists of Howat, 61, 81, 94.

614 See Howat, 27; Kenton & Parsons, 2–3, 8, 21. – There was also a French government mail packet line between Bordeaux and Vera Cruz in 1827–1835. The monthly service of the ‘Paquebots Réguliers aux frais du Gouvernement’ was ceased in mid-1835. The last ship was to sail from Bordeaux for Martinique, Haiti and Vera Cruz on 1.7.1835. A new service was started by Compagnie Général Transatlantique’s steamers as late as 1862. The early French sailing packet service enabled about the same information circulation from Bordeaux to Vera Cruz as the Falmouth packet service did from England. A round trip normally took about five months and two information circles could be carried out in 11 months. Salles gives the departure and arrival dates from Bordeaux but no arrivals and only a few departure dates from Vera Cruz, which makes it impossible to reconstruct the information circles enabled by the service on that route at the period. Apart from the possibility to send a message by an earlier leaving packet, which remains unknown, the missing intelligence makes it impossible to compare any options to send mail to Europe by the French or the British service. See Raymond Salles, La Poste Maritime Française, Tome IV, Les Paquebots de L’Atlantique Nord, Antilles – Amérique Centrale et Pacifique Sud, États-Unis (Limassol, 1992), 9–14.

615 Britnor, 150. – In 1840, the Falmouth packets for Mexico departed on the 17th of each month (Lloyd’s List 1840).

616 Britnor, 150. – As can be seen in table 40, several Falmouth packets called at Belize again in 1840. Continuous changes were typical on these routes.

617 In addition to the packets mentioned in this table, the Pigeon arrived from Vera Cruz at Falmouth on 15.1.1840 with $200,000; the Reindeer on 15.4.1840 with $580,000; and the Delight on 30.4.1840 with $250,000. (See Lloyd’s List 1840, respectively). They had all departed for their round trip in 1839.

618 For example, the American sailing packet Columbus arrived at Liverpool on 15.6.1840 with $50,000 from New York; and the Philadelphia packet Monongahela with ‘upwards 500,000 dollars’. (Lloyd’s List 17.6.1840)

619 For some more dates, the October, November and December 1839 sailings proceeded as follows: the Pigeon sailed from Vera Cruz on 28.11.1839, Tampico on 10.12. and Havana on 19.12. arriving at Falmouth on 15.1.1840; the Reindeer sailed from Vera Cruz on 11.2., Tampico on 17.2. and Havana on 6.3. arriving at Falmouth on 15.4.1840; and the Delight sailed from Vera Cruz on 6.3., from Tampico on 10.3. and Havana on 27.3. arriving at Falmouth on 30.4.1840. (Lloyd’s List 1840, respectively)

620 Calculated from the dates of 11 arrivals in 1840, as the sailing date of the Skylark from Havana is missing. See Lloyd’s List 1840–1841, respectively.

621 Lloyd’s List 16.1.1841; 16.2.1841.

622 Leaving out the Lisbon packets that had already been replaced by steamers in 1840, the Falmouth packets took their turns for the various voyages according to the time of their arrival at the home port. See Robinson (1964), 111.

623 For the West Indies and Mexico routes, see Lloyd’s List 1840; for the South American route, see the sailing lists of Howat, 81; and for the Halifax route, see the sailing lists of Arnell & Ludington, 69.

624 See sailing list of Howat, 86.

625 See Gibbs, 322.

626 Nicol, vol. 1, 33–35.

627 MacQueen was also involved in the affairs of the Pacific coast of South America and worked towards a line of steamers for a service along the coast. This resulted in the formation of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company in 1840. The company became closely linked with the Royal Mail Line in the coming years. See Nicol, vol. 1, 39.

628 T.A. Bushell, Royal Mail. A Centenary History of the Royal Mail Line 1839–1939 (London, 1939), 4; and Nicol, vol. 1, 37.

629 Gibbs, 323.

630 Nicol, vol..1, 40; and Bushell, 7–9.

631 M.H. Ludington & Geoffrey Osborn, The Royal Mail Steam Packets to Bermuda and the Bahamas 1842–1859 (London, 1971), Preface.

632 See especially Kenton & Parsons, 2–7, 80–81, 116–119, 222–226, 322–323; and Ludington & Osborn, 3–23.

633 Kenton & Parsons, 2, 36. For the early arrangements in Southampton, see Bushell, 36–40.

634 For more details, see Kenton & Parsons, 2–3.

635 Sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 10; and Duncan Haws, Merchant Fleets. Royal Mail Line & Nelson Line (1982), 26–30.

636 See chapter VI.1.

637 Calculated from the voyages which started from Falmouth in January–September 1842. See the sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 10–12. Several dates are missing from the lists.

638 Kenton & Parsons, 14.

639 Sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 28.

640 Earle Correspondence, D/Earle 5/8/8, 5/9/8. (MMM); and the sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 10–11, 14.

641 William Carter to William Earle from Barbados 7.4. and 8.4.1842. Earle correspondence, D/Earle 5/8/8;10. (MMM); See also sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 10–12.

642 William Carter to William Earle from Barbados 22.4.1842. In Earle correspondence, D/Earle 5/8/11. (MMM)

643 William Carter to William Earle from St. Thomas 28.4.1842 and New York 14.5.1842. In Earle correspondence, D/Earle 5/8/12–13. (MMM)

644 Kenton & Parsons, 10. – Indifferent sea charts, uncertain compasses and unlit coral reefs were mentioned as reasons for a number of disasters during the first decade of Royal Mail services. For further descriptions, see Bushell, 41–53.

645 See the sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 26–32. The respective intelligence of Lloyd’s List varies somewhat from these lists. According to Lloyd’s List, the Thames arrived from Bermuda on the 19th and not the 18th. According to Kenton & Parsons, it was the Tay which sailed for Jamaica 24.11. while according to Lloyd’s List it was the Trent. Lloyd’s List does not report the Dee’s trip to Jamaica between 8.–23.11. None of the sources tell from where the Tweed arrived at St. Thomas on 23.11. or where the Trent proceeded after 23.11. Kenton & Parsons’ sailing lists are largely based on maritime intelligence published in Caribbean newspapers, which were nearer the scene but might be less reliable for other reasons – Lloyd’s List again was published far away in London and changes were possible after the intelligence was sent by the Lloyd’s agent. For the references, see Kenton & Parsons, 415–417. (Also Lloyd’s List, The Times and Illustrated London News are among their sources.) – Without knowing the original plans for sailings – if any – it is impossible to interpret from the sailing lists whether the inter-island vessels were on schedule or not. For example, Nicol mentions that the Clyde was at Nassau on 17 February nine days behind schedule. (Nicol, vol. 2, 25) The sailing lists can only tell that the ship arrived at Nassau on 16 and departed on 20 February. Thus, we can only see from the sailing lists where the ships have been, not where they should have been at that time.

646 Lloyd’s List 11.6.1842; 29.8.1842; 5.11.1842; and sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 10–21, 26.

647 Bushell, 27; Nicol, vol.2, 26; Kenton & Parsons, 16, 19. – St. Thomas was probably the most reliable place for coaling. For example the Medway had to sail from Curaçao to St. Thomas for coaling, which made an extra ten days sailing. (Kenton & Parsons, 16)

648 Nicol, vol. 1, 54–56; Nicol vol. 2, 25–26.

649 Nicol, vol. 1, 54; Nicol, vol. 2, 27.

650 See Harold G.D. Gisburn, The Postage Stamps and Postal History of the Bahamas (London, 1950), 22.

651 Gisburn, 22; Bushell, 27. – The Tay arrived on the following day. The Forth sailed back to the West Indies on 1 May taking a direct route to Demerara via Barbados, while the Tay departed on 16 May, also proceeding to the Demerara route. See the sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 10, 12.

652 See for example Kenton & Parsons, 13–17.

653 Sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 13, 28. – The Jamaica mails in April should have been carried by one of the two steamers, Forth or Tay, which both decided to sail home instead.

654 From October 1842, the Royal Mail mail steamers would ‘no longer touch at New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, New York, Halifax N.S., Curacoa, Paramaribo in Surinam, Maracaibo, Bahia Honda, San Juan de Nicaragua, Mayaquess in Porto Rico, Ponce in Porto Rico, Turks’ Island, Cape Nichola Mole in Haiti, or Santa Cruz’. The mails for Mexico, Honduras (Belize), Chagres and the Isthmus of Panama, Cartagena, Santa Martha, La Guayara and Puerto Cabello would be made only once in a month instead of a bi-monthly service. Mail transmission by schooner between Madeira and Fayal would also be omitted. (‘Notice to the Public and Instructions to all Postmasters... General Post Office 12th September, 1842’, reprinted by Kenton & Parsons, 24.) – In June 1843, the system was adjusted again. The packets would no longer touch at Cape Haitien, St. Domingo, but instead at Jacmel on the same island. On the home voyage, Bermuda and Fayal would be touched only alternatively. (‘Notice to the Public and Instructions to all Postmasters... General Post Office, June 1843’, reprinted by Kenton & Parsons, 34.) With these changes, the company managed to conduct the mail service until the end of the first contract in 1847, except for the several months of ‘emergency plans’ caused by the loss of the Tweed in February 1847, as there was no vessel to replace her. See Kenton & Parsons, 73–78.

655 See the route maps 1–12 in Kenton & Parson, passim.

656 The next ship to the West Indies departed on the same day.

657 There were also other reasons to reduce the number of calls at St. Thomas. Despite its excellent harbour and ideal geographical situation, St. Thomas had some serious disadvantages. It was situated in the middle of the hurricane region. In 1867, when the Royal Mail Line used the island as the hub where its steamers entered simultaneously for the mails, several of the vessels with some 150 men were lost in a hurricane, which sank 58 of the 60 vessels anchored at Charlotte Amalie that morning. An earthquake, followed by a huge tidal wave – tsunami – caused additional damage at the same port only a few weeks later. St. Thomas was furthermore avoided because of the frequent yellow fever and cholera epidemics. See Bushell, 115–124; Kenton & Parsons, 246–250.

658 Bryson Collection, Records of Sandbach, Tinne & Co., D/B/176; Earle Family and Business Archive, correspondence of Thomas and William Earle & Co., D/Earle/5/11. (MMM)

659 The Annan was an iron screw steamer of 662 tons and 98 hp, built in 1872. She was owned by a Jacob Lohden, West Hartlepool, who had three ships in Lloyd’s Register in 1882. The ship represents an average merchant vessel among those mentioned in Sandbach, Tinne & Co. correspondence in the mid-1870s.

660 Letter to Sandbach, Tinne & Co. in Liverpool from Sandbach, Parker &c. dated in Demerara 25.3.1876. Bryson Collection, Records of Sandbach, Tinne & Co., D/B/174. (MMM)

661 For the contract, see Howat, 103–104.

662 Howat, 105.

663 Calculated from the sailing lists of Howat, 85–86, 129.

664 Calculated from the sailing lists of Howat, 85–86, 99–100, 129.

665 The duration of the port stay was originally one week but it was lengthened already in mid-1851 to give more time for the answers. Due to poor inland connections the additional time was really needed and was not even enough in many cases. The change did not affect the schedule homewards from Rio de Janeiro. See the sailing lists of Howat, 129.

666 See Howat, 105, 129.

667 Calculated from the sailing lists of Howat, 85–86, 99–100, 129. – According to the official schedule, the round trip to Rio would take 62 days and sixteen hours. It should be remembered that calculations based on dates do not give exact figures. Nevertheless, one can say that the company kept the schedules admirably.

668 Nicol, vol. 1, 64.

669 Nicol, vol. 1, 64. – The trip was not too comfortable for the first years’ passengers. Apart from the normal disadvantages of being at sea during that time period, the South American port facilities were not in place yet. Bushell describes the conditions: ‘The well-planned Avenidas, the fine buildings, hotels, warehouses and quays which have made Rio de Janeiro into one of the fairest cities in the world, had not yet come into being. The ‘Esk’s’ [Royal Mail Line’s first steamer to arrive, she would become the branch steamer between Rio, Montevideo and Buenos Aires] passengers stepped ashore into a town of narrow, evil-smelling streets, of stagnant pools, rotting garbage and foul drains which are said to have repelled even the hard-bitten British seamen of those days. After a brief stay, the ‘Esk’ set off again southward, called at Monte Video and entered the muddy waters of the River Plate... In the early days, the Royal Mail steamer anchored about 7 miles off the city [Buenos Aires]. The passengers and mails were transferred to a tiny steamer which took them to a point about two miles off shore. Here a second transhipment took place into a whale boat which was sailed, or rowed, close in-shore. When about 200 yards off the beach, the long-suffering passengers were again transferred, this time to a horse-drawn cart which finally landed them at a tiny wooden jetty. If the weather were at all unpropitious, the landing at Buenos Aires must have been the most formidable experience of the whole passage.’ See Bushell, 58.

670 Pekka Valtonen, Latinalaisen Amerikan historia (Helsinki, 2001), 208–209, 617.

671 Howat refers to the Post Office statistics. (Howat, 150)

672 Howat refers to the Post Office statistics. (Howat, 116)

673 Correspondence of Daniel Williams, DB/175 (MMM). For the Williams records, see Dawn Littler, Guide to the Records of Merseyside Maritime Museum, Volume II (St. John’s, 1999), 13.

674 Correspondence of Rathbone Bros & Co., RT XXIV.2.36. (SJ); Accounts and papers of Henry Eld Symons, 380 MD (LRO). For Rathbone’s businesses in South America at that time, see Marriner, 21, 44–46.

675 These are average figures calculated from the sample. Additionally, it took 31 days on average for the letters to arrive by the transatlantic steamer from Rio de Janeiro in Liverpool.

676 This example is partly based on the Williams correspondence, partly on the sailing lists of Howat, 131. There are practically no outward letters at all preserved in the archives, and letter books are not useful as they lack all postal markings, as well as notes of arrival dates. – In fact, Daniel Williams did not receive on 13 April any of the letters which arrived in Southampton on the 12th although he should have received them if they had been addressed to Liverpool. His villa address in Ormskirk was a continuous problem for the local post offices. For instance the letter from Herbidero had circulated an extra three days in the surroundings before its final arrival. It bears the following post office handstamps and markings: arrival in London 13.4.; Liverpool 14.4.; Birkenhead 14.4.; New Brighton 15.4.; note by hand: ‘not known at New Brighton’; and finally the recipient’s note 15.4.1856. Another point to note is that all the mails were not handled in London on the same day. While the contents of the Montevideo mailbag – with the letter from Herbidero – had been handstamped there 13.4., the letter from Rio Grande, which was in the Rio de Janeiro mailbag, was handstamped in the London Post Office already 12.4. and in Liverpool 13.4. Daniel Williams received that letter in Ormskirk already on 14.4.1856. (Daniel Williams correspondence, D/B/176, MMM)

677 Howat, 147.

678 See Table 46.

679 Howat, 147–151. Correspondence of Rathbone Bros & Co., RT XXIV.2.36. (SJ) For the shipping company’s history, see N.R.P. Bonsor, South Atlantic Seaway (1983, Jersey, C.I.), 34–38.

680 Bonsor (1983), 36. – The list of these companies show the wide interest in the South American trade at that time: Compagnie de Navigation Mixte (French, 1853–1858); Companhia de Navegação a Vapor Luso-Brasileira (Portuguese, 1854–1857); Compagnie Franco-Américaine (French, 1856); Union Line (British, 1856–1857); Compagnia Transatlantica (Italian, 1856–1857); Hamburg-Brasilianische Packetschiffahrt Gesellschaft (German, 1856–1858); European & American Steam Shipping Company (British, 1857); and Real Companhia de Navegação a Vapor Anglo-Luso-Brasileira (Portuguese, 1859–1860). See Bonsor (1983), 39–63.

681 See Howat, 116. – On the West Indian route, matching arrivals and departures from England were not a reality before April 1860. The nicely working new schedule, which enabled eight consecutive information circles instead of six on that route, is presented in Table 48, the example being from 1862. For the change, see the sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 184, 193.

682 Howat, 117.

683 Calculated by Howat, 117.

684 Calculated from the sailing lists of Howat, 131–133.

685 Correspondence of Daniel Williams, DB/175 (MMM). Correspondence of Rathbone Bros & Co., RT XXIV.2.36 (SJ); Accounts and papers of Henry Eld Symons, 380 MD (LRO).

686 The earlier French attempts to run a mail service between Bordeaux and Vera Cruz in the 1830s have been explained in Chapter VI.1.

687 See the sailing lists of Salles, Tome IV, 25; and the fleet lists of Haws (1996), 23–24. – There was also a branch service between Martinique and Guadeloupe and further to St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada and Trinidad in 1863–1865. See Salles, Tome IV, 27–29.

688 The sailing north to Southampton was somewhat longer than to St-Nazaire but the Royal Mail Line had a shorter route in the Caribbean, where they proceeded homewards from St. Thomas while the French Line sailed more eastwards for Martinique.

689 Calculated from the sailing lists of Salles, Tome IV, 25; Kenton & Parsons, 215–216.

690 See Table 50.

691 Calculated from the sailing lists of Salles, Tome IV, 25; Kenton & Parsons, 215, 218.

692 SRLC; sailing lists of Salles, Tome IV, 25; Kenton & Parsons, 215.

693 Salles, Tome IV, 17.

694 The routes, their schedules, mail steamers, and postal handstamps used on the specific routes are explained by Salles, Tome IV, 30–223.

695 Fleet lists of Haws (1996), 26–28.

696 Sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 240–243; and Salles, Tome IV, 105.

697 The new route was called Ligne A, and the Mexico route Ligne B. The branch services had similar alphabetically organized names, which were also used in the postal handstamps on the mail carried by these services. Ligne C operated between Fort-de-France and Cayenne, French Guyane, Ligne D between St. Thomas and Kingston, Jamaica, Ligne E was the branch line between St. Thomas and Fort-de-France, Ligne F was a branch line between Vera Cruz, Tampico and Matamoros in Mexico, Ligne G was the branch line between Fort-de-France and Point-de-Pitre on Guadeloupe; and Ligne L was the line between Fort-de-France and Venezuela. The missing letters between G and L and after L were used in other parts of the world: for example, Ligne H was the Havre – New York route, Ligne J and K were the South American routes, and Ligne Z was a Mediterranean branch line. This postal line system was developed by the French Post Office, and included several shipping companies’ operations. See Raymond Salles, La Poste Maritime Francaise, Tome VII, Index Alphabétique des Cachets Postaux et Marques Maritimes (Cyprus, 1993), 98–102.

698 See the sailing lists of Salles, Tome IV, 79, 168.

699 The earlier sailing date from St-Nazaire was originally the 6th but was changed to the 8th from April 1866. See Salles, Tome IV, 79.

700 See Salles, Tome IV, 79, 105, 168.

701 Sailing lists of Salles, Tome IV, 80, 106, 168.

702 Sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 240; and Salles, Tome IV, 105.

703 Sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 289; and Salles, Tome IV, 106.

704 Duncan Haws, Merchant Fleets. Messageries Maritimes (Pembroke, 1998), 3–4; Raymond Salles, La Poste Maritime Française, Tome III, Les Paquebots de l’Atlantique Sud; Brésil–Plata de 1860 á 1939, Cote Occidentale d’Afrique de 1889 à 1939 (Cyprus, 1992), 9. – The company’s name followed the political history of the country. Being originally Messageries Nationales it was changed to Messageries Impériales during the time of Napoleon III, carrying this name during 1853–1870. In 1871, at the beginning of the Third Republic, the company was renamed Messageries Maritimes. See Haws (1998), 2–5. – The value of the subsidy was equivalent to about £190,000. In the mid-19th century, one pound was approximately 24 to 25 French francs. The estimate is calculated from the data given by Moubray & Moubray, 498; and Mario D. Kurchan, Argentine Maritime Postal History (Buenos Aires, 2002). 294.

705 Kurchan, 235; sailing lists of Salles, Tome III, 24.

706 About the Royal Mail Line contract effective in 1862, see Howat 116–117; about the Messageries Impériales fixed schedule of the same time period, see Salles, Tome III, 24.

707 Correspondence of Daniel Williams, DB/175. (MMM). Correspondence of Rathbone Bros & Co., RT XXIV.2.36. (SJ).

708 This idea was also used when sending important mail or specie from California to New York. Instead of loading them into a ship for New York in Colon at the Panama isthmus, they were taken by a Royal Mail steamer to Southampton, and then from Queenstown by a Cunarder to New York. Although slower, this was a safer route and the entire voyage was conducted under a neutral flag. See John Haskell Kemble, The Panama Route 1848–1869 (Berkeley, 1943), 111.

709 SRLC; sailing lists of Howat, 134, and Salles, Tome III, 24, 29.

710 SRLC; sailing lists of Howat, 134, and Salles, Tome III, 25, 29.

711 A.R. Doublet, The Pacific Steam Navigation Company. Its maritime postal history 1840–1853 with particular reference to Chile (London, 1983), 17–18. Doublet also states that there was a line of packets from Liverpool to Valparaiso organized by the South American merchants of Liverpool since 1836. These packets were advertised to sail from Liverpool as follows: to Valparaiso, Islay and Lima (Callao) every three weeks, to Arica, Islay and Lima every two months and to Lima direct every six weeks. The Vice Consul at Tacna (Peru), referred to this service in a letter to Foreign Office in October 1842: ‘…I would recommend all the official despatches to be sent by the direct ships from Liverpool to Arica…’ Nothing more seems to be known about this service. See Doublet, 24. The ships must have been regular traders without government contract. The timing matches with the overall increase of activity by the Liverpool merchant ships, e.g. in East India and Australasia (see Chapter VII.1.) The line model itself was a copy of the American sailing packets on the Liverpool – New York run.

712 Doublet, 18.

713 Pawlyn, 95, 111; Britnor, 150. Also Doublet states that there was a monthly mail service by British men-of-war between Jamaica and Chagres in the 1830s. (Doublet, 20)

714 Doublet, 24.

715 Bushell, 87; Robinson (1964) 154; Doublet, 35. – Water ways could not be used in the same way in both directions due to currents etc., which may have been the reason for the different length of the inland voyage.

716 Doublet, 20; Howat, 48–50.

717 Doublet, 25.

718 Doublet, 25–33.

719 Robinson (1964), 154. – Panama belonged at that time to New Grenada (Columbia).

720 Kenton & Parsons, 9, 19, 25, 33.

721 Sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 25–27, 31–33.

722 Doublet, 33.

723 The announcement is reprinted by Doublet, 34.

724 Robinson (1964), 154–155.

725 Robionson (1964), 155; Bushell, 88.

726 Wierenga, 73–81.

727 Wierenga, 74.

728 Wierenga, 74, 319–326. Pacific Mail Steamship Company operated also to Callao and Valparaiso in South America. (For some inadequate sailing lists, see Wierenga, 336–337.)

729 The U.S. Postmaster General’s report is reprinted by Wierenga, 81.

730 Wierenga, 324.

731 The letter bears the 31.3.1858 transit handstamp of Liverpool port, used on outgoing North American mail. – no markings from London or Southampton. (SRLC; for this handstamp, see Tabeart, 165–166.)

732 Sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 176–177.

733 SRLC; sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons, 240, 243.

734 For the American clippers, see e.g. Cutler (1961), passim.; Mc Kay, passim.; and for the British clippers MacGregor (1952), passim. A recent paper by MacGregor gives a short and sharp analysis of the clipper period from the British point of view, see David R. MacGregor, ‘The Tea Clippers, 1849–1869’ in Richard Harding, Adrian Jarvis & Alston Kennerley, British Ships in China Seas, 1700 to the Present Day (Liverpool, 2004), 217–224.

735 Sailing lists of Cutler (1961), 476–520, covering the years 1848–1860. The average is calculated by Cutler.

736 Sailing lists of Cutler (1961), 487–493.

737 Kemble, 58–60.

738 David McCullough, The Path Between the Seas. The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870–1914 (New York, 1977), 38. The importance of the Nicaragua route can also be seen in the fact that San Juan de Nicaragua, or Greytown as the British had renamed it, was one of the ports the Royal Mail steamers called at throughout the period, except a few months in 1842–1843. See the route maps of Kenton & Parsons, passim.

739 See Chapter V.3.

740 For details, see Kemble, 58–115.

741 See Kemble, 89. – For the different steamship services between New York and Colon, see the sailing lists of Wierenga, 340–364, between New York and San Juan del Norte (Nicaragua), 365–372; between San Francisco and Panama, 320–329, and between San Francisco and San Juan del Sur (Nicaragua), 331–335.

742 Kemble, 62–63.

743 Kemble, 68.

744 For these events, see Kemble 74–76; Wierenga 368–372; and Valtonen, 326–328.

745 Kemble, 83, 86–88.

746 Kemble, 82–85.

747 Kemble, 86–93, 110–113, 254–255.

748 Kemble, 101, 114–115.

749 Moubray & Moubray, 248–249.

750 Moubray & Moubray, 249; Rudolph Daniels, Trains Across the Continent. North American Railroad History (Indiana, 2000), 52–53.

751 After the opening of the transcontinental railway, also the Pacific mail steamship service from Australia and New Zealand was redirected via Honolulu to San Francisco to be carried by train to New York instead of using the Panama route. In the 1870s, the eastbound route enabled usually three consecutive information circles per year. For the sailing data, see Colin Tabeart, Australia New Zealand UK Mails to 1880. Rates Routes and Ships Out and Home (Fareham, 2004), 281–316.

752 Kemble, 114–115.

753 The building of the Siberian railway in 1891–1904 might be another good example.

754 Sigurd Ringström & H.E. Tester, The Private Ship Letter Stamps of the World. Part 1. The Caribbean. (Trelleborg, printing year missing), 126–128, 133–134; Bushell, 127–128. The Royal Mail Line histories by Bushell or Nicol do not comment on the German rival. – The Universal Postal Union (UPU) was established in 1875, but it was a few years before the countries involved in the West Indian mail services had joined. Letters with the HAPAG postage stamps of 1875–1877 are pictured in Ringström & Tester, 144–157.

755 See Ringström & Tester, 12–28.

756 See Gisburn, 23–25; Moubray & Moubray, 277–278. The Cunard Line had also had a service from Halifax to Bermuda from 1833 and further to St. Thomas from 1850. St. Thomas replaced by Kingston in 1880. This route was not much used for letters to or from Europe as it was slower than the Royal Mail Line connection. It mostly served the British administration at Bermuda. The Cunard service ended in 1886. See Arnell & Ludington, for introduction of the service x–xvi; for sailing lists between Halifax and Bermuda, 55–161. See also Moubray & Moubray, 280–281.

757 Moubray & Moubray, 276.

758 Bushell, 126–127; Ringström & Tester, 126. For the changes in the Royal Mail Line’s contracts, see Kenton & Parsons, 222–227 for the fourth contract effective 2.1.1864, and 322–325 for the fifth contract effective 2.1.1875. The sailing lists of Kenton & Parsons cover the journeys only as far as Plymouth.

759 See Jorma Ahvenainen, The History of the Caribbean Telegraphs before the First World War (Helsinki, 1996), 9–22.

760 The Panama line was finally opened in 1875. See Ahvenainen (1996), 22–30, 42.

761 Ahvenainen (1996), 196–197.

762 Ahvenainen (1996), 197.

763 Letters to Sandbach, Tinne & Co. in Liverpool from Demerara (Georgetown) 25.3.1876, 4.4.1876, 25.4.1876, 24.8.1876 and 5.9.1876. (Bryson Collection, Records of Sandbach, Tinne & Co., D/B/176, MMM)

764 See Bushell, 125–127; Howat 164, 166, 169, 180, 189–190, etc. – The compound engine does not seem to have considerably affected the service speed of the vessels. For example, the speed of the Royal Mail steamers with compound engines in the 1870s was 11 to 12 knots, which was normal performance for ships with inverted engines, too. Technically, the 1860s were also the time when the old wooden paddle steamers were changed to iron screws. See the fleet list of the Royal Mail Line in Bonsor (1983), 21–24, Howat, 122.

765 Howat, 159. As an example of a private ship letter sent by a Lamport & Holt vessel, a letter from Montevideo 22.9.1863 to Rathbone Bros & Co. in Liverpool ‘p. Str Kepler’ (RT XXIV.2.36, SJ).

766 See Howat, 159–170, 175–181; Moubray & Moubray, 284–285.

767 See Howat, 185; Moubray & Moubray 285.

768 Howat, 187. – Additionally, the German Hamburg-Süd (Hamburg-Südamerikanischen Dampfschiffahrts Gesellschaft) started on the South American route two years later in 1872. See Bonsor (1983), 189, 200–201.

769 Royal Mail Line sailed the route Southampton–Lisbon–St. Vincent (Cape Verde)–Pernambuco–Bahia–Rio de Janeiro–Montevideo–Buenos Aires; Lamport & Holt sailed Liverpool–Bahia–Rio de Janeiro–Montevideo–Buenos Aires; Tait & Company sailed Falmouth–Rio de Janeiro–Montevideo–Buenos Aires; Pacific Steam Navigation Company sailed Liverpool–Bordeaux–Lisbon–St. Vincent (Cape Verde)–Rio de Janeiro–Montevideo–Valparaiso; Messageries Maritimes sailed Bordeaux–Lisbon–Dakar–Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro–Montevideo and Buenos Aires. See Howat, 123, 163, 180, 189–190; Salles, Tome III, 89.

770 For the corresponding change in the Royal Mail Line’s mail contract, see Howat, 122–123.

771 The factual dates of Messageries Impériales arrivals in South American ports are missing from the sailing lists of Salles, and the homeward sailing dates are given only from Buenos Aires. In a few cases, the comparison between the Daniel Williams correspondence (Bryson Collection, D/B 175, MMM) and the sailing lists give an unusually long transfer time between Bordeaux and Liverpool, four days instead of the normal two. This may indicate that the ship arrival dates in French newspapers could probably be incorrect, as the postal handstamps are to be considered more reliable. This is probable also because there is some non-correspondence between the sailing lists of Salles and Hubbard & Winter concerning the French Line sailings in the North Atlantic in the 1870s. Salles has used French newspapers and shipping company archives as sources, while Hubbard and Winter have used New York papers and Lloyd’s List (Salles, Tome III, 4; Salles, Tome IV, 8, 238–239; Hubbard & Winter, 275, 284–286). But it is also possible that the sailing dates are right and the mail between Bordeaux and Liverpool has been delayed for some reason. In the Howat sailing lists, a few Tait & Co. and Lamport & Holt sailing dates are missing and estimates have been calculated by using Buenos Aires arrival or departure dates. In some cases, Howat has also used dates ‘due to arrive or depart’ instead of factual dates. Additionally, two Liverpool arrival dates have been corrected as the postal handstamps of letters in the Williams correspondence show clearly that the ship did not arrive on the day given. See Howat, 171, 183, 211.

772 For the discussion about the renewal of the mail contract, see Howat, 181–190. – The Post Office also took a survey of the amount of British postage collected on the correspondence carried by the mail lines between South America and Britain during the six months beginning from June 1869. It was noticed that the earnings of the Royal Mail Line, the only company with a fixed subsidy (Messageries Impériales received subsidies from the French government), had not been diminished by the establishment of additional mail lines. Another survey showed that the payments by the Post Office to Lamport & Holt were only £4,834 in 1869 and £5,418 in 1870, which did not indicate large amounts of mails carried. The Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s part was even somewhat smaller, but the company naturally had its role in the Pacific service. The actual earnings by the Royal Mail Line were still £33,100 in 1874, then declining rapidly to £20,828 in 1875, £16,976 in 1876 and being only £5,538 in 1880. See Howat, 128, 170, 181, 209.

773 See Howat, 123–126; Salles, Tome III, 91; Bonsor (1983), 102–105, 128–129, 135–136.. – No sailing lists exist of the operations of the German or the Mediterranean companies.

774 Howat, 126.

775 For example the Messagerie Maritimes arrivals in early January, February, July, August, October and December 1875. See Salles, Tome III, 94.

776 For example the Lamport & Holt sailings in January–April (the schedule was changed from May 1875) and Pacific Steam Navigation Company sailings in late February and March, early May and mid-October. See the sailing lists of Howat, 139–140, 173–174, 216–217.

777 See the sailing lists of Howat, 139–140, 173–174, 216–217; and Salles, Tome III, 94.

778 See the sailing lists of Howat, 139–140, 173–174, 216–217; and Salles, Tome III, 94.

779 Sailing lists of Howat, 139–140, 173–174, 216–217; and Salles, Tome III, 94. The averages of 1870 are based on the sailing lists of Howat, 137, 171, 183, 211; and Salles, Tome III, 89, 91. When calculating the duration of the trips by Messageries Maritimes and Lamport & Holt, it has been estimated that the departures from Montevideo took place one day later than the given dates from Buenos Aires.

780 See Howat, 170.

781 Howat, 121–122. For the French Consulates and their services in Lisbon, Gorée, Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Buenos Aires, see Salles, Tome III, 41–49.

782 Jorma Ahvenainen, The European Cable Companies in South America before the First World War (Jyväskylä, 2004), 11–30. Also for further development of the international cable business in South America the book is highly recommended, passim.

783 Ahvenainen (2004) , 31–33.

784 Ahvenainen (2004), 35. – The inter-European lines were naturally used already in the 1860s.

785 See Chapter V.4.

786 See Ahvenainen (2004), 35, 92–96. The Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s figures are factual average sailing times. The planned duration of sailings were 41 days to Valparaiso and 43 days back home. The planned duration of sailings between Lisbon and Montevideo were 23 and 24 days respectively. (Howat, 200) – The western coast of South America received telegraph connections between Valparaiso and Callao in 1875–1876, and the line between Panama and Callao was finally built by the Central and South American Telegraph Company in 1882. See Ahvenainen (2004), 111.

787 Ahvenainen (2004), 33, 35, 122.

788 Ahvenainen (2004), 80. For a different view, see Kaukiainen (2001), 1–6, 21–23.

789 Royal Mail Line average between Southampton and Rio de Janeiro in 1875. Calculated from the sailing lists of Howat, 140.

790 The EIC monopoly in the East India trade was modified by the British government in 1793 and abolished in 1813, with the aim of improving trade between Britain and India during the wartime. The company’s commercial businesses ended with a further abolition of the China trade monopoly in 1833. The last trade vessels sailed back home in 1834. After that, up to the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the EIC activities in India were focused on the governmental duties of the presidencies, and then ceased. See Cain & Hopkins, 97, 282–288.

791 Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (London, 2000), 24–26, 123, 129–138; Robertson, B 26. – Two recently published volumes of conference papers relating to the EIC and the China trade are worth further examination: H.V. Bowen, Margarette Lincoln & Nigel Rigby (eds): The Worlds of the East India Company (Suffolk, 2004); and Harding, Richard, Jarvis, Adrian & Kennerley Alston (eds.): British Ships in China Seas: 1700 to the Present Day (Liverpool, 2004). – For the EIC’s privileges in India, mentioned above, see BPP, Colonies, East India 3 (1812). The Fifth Report from the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company, 1812, 12. – The military aspects of EIC activities are not discussed here, but to understand the specific role of the Company it may be useful to mention that the EIC’s compensation for military expeditions at the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, Manila, Malacca and Molucca during the war was widely discussed in the Parliament. The Company wanted to get compensation for the shipowners for equipping the vessels with provision, wood, gun powder, and wages for the officers and seamen. Although the EIC played an important role in British expansion in Asia, the counterargument against compensation was that the company had also gained remarkable profits e.g. from the spice trade in Ceylon. See BPP, Colonies, East India 2 (1810–1812). Third and Fourth Reports from the Select Committee of the Affairs of the East India Company. Appendix 47, 3–7. – The export of opium from India to China caused two Opium Wars between Britain and China, in 1839–1842 and 1856–1858. The importance of this trade can be verified from the export figures. Between 1848 and 1852, the earliest figures available, the export of opium from India was worth 61.5 million rupees on average, while the other exports were valued as follows: cotton 29.4 million, cotton manufactures 7.7 million, jute 1.3 million, jute manufactures 2.0 million, rice 7.6 million, and tea 0.4 million rupees. For the Opium Wars, see James, 236–238; for the statistics, see B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics. Africa, Asia & Oceania 1750–1988 (New York, 1995), 635.

792 The relationship between the British and Dutch East India Companies is well described by Femme S. Gaastra in ‘War, Competition and Collaboration: Relations between the English and Dutch East India Company in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, in Bowen, Lincoln & Rigby, 49–68.

793 The figures are calculated from the lists published by Robertson. The ‘packets’ made 55 voyages to Asian ports, mainly to India, during 1761–1814. The lists originate from Hardy’s last edition of ‘Register of Ships Employed in the Service of the East India Company’. By extracting an analysis from many thousands of entries, Robertson has formed and published a very useful alphabetical list of all the East Indiamen that sailed during 1761–1834. See Robertson, B 31 – B 41.

794 See Robertson, B 29; Jean Sutton ‘Lords of the East: the ships of the East India Company’ in Harding, Jarvis & Kennerley, 25–31. A well known earlier study about the maritime service of the EIC, its ships, men and life on board, voyages and famous fights was published in the late 1940s by Sir Evan Cotton (ed. Sir Charles Fawcett): East Indiamen. The East India Company’s Maritime Service (London, 1949). The political connections between the Parliament and the EIC during the last fifty years of the Company’s commercial history are discussed by C.H. Philips in The East India Company 1784–1834 (Manchester, 1968).

795 BPP, Colonies, East India 2… Appendix 47, 140. – It has also been stated that there was real reluctance at Lloyds to insure vessels going to India between June and January. See Geoffrey Eibl-Kaye, ‘The Indian Mails 1814 to 1819. Negotiations between the Post Office and the East India Company’ in The London Philatelist, Volume 113, April 2004, 113:86.

796 Sutton, 22–25.

797 Robertson, B 29.

798 Robertson, B 30; Eibl-Kaye, April 2004, 113:78.

799 Robertson, B 29–30. Due to the prevailing winds and currents, sailing ships normally called at Madeira on the way outward and at St. Helena on the way home. Thus, letters from London to St. Helena were first carried twice across the Atlantic, via the coast of Brazil to South Africa and from there, after a varying delay at port, by another ship to St. Helena. This took at least four months, but if there were no homeward sailing ships available at the Cape, as often was the case, there could be a further delay of several weeks or even months. On the other hand, letters from St. Helena to London were carried directly in about two months. (Calculated from the maritime intelligence in Lloyd’s List 1812–1813 and 1832–1833.)

800 Robertson, B 30.

801 For details of the development of navigation and knowledge of sea routes, see Andrew S. Cook, ‘Establishing the Sea Routes to India and China: Stages in the Development of Hydrographical Knowledge’ in Bowen, Lincoln & Rigby, 119–136.

802 In 1780, the East Indiaman Grosvenor, homeward bound and full of passengers including many prominent members of Bengal society, ran ashore on the African coast 500 miles from the Cape. Although 135 persons reached shore, none was ever heard of again, except for four of the crew who eventually reached Cape Town by foot. Between 1761 and 1834, eleven of the 541 East Indiamen (the ‘packets’ excluded) disappeared without trace on the voyage. Additionally, 48 were lost at sea, four were condemned for other reasons, 15 were burnt, another 15 were captured by the French, three more were captured but recaptured, and one ship was blown up. Six vessels remained in India. Calculated from Robertson, B 31–41.

803 The figures referring to the voyages shown in Table 64 have been calculated from Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters 1813, ‘Ships in the East India Company’s service, &c.’; Lloyd’s List 1812 and 1813, passim.

804 See Lloyd’s List 14.5.1813.

805 Robertson, B 27.

806 Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters 1813.

807 Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters 1813; Lloyd’s List 23.10.1812, 9.2.1813, 14.5.1813, 4.6.1813, 8.6.1813, 10.8.1813 and 16.8.1813.

808 Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters 1813.

809 Lloyd’s List 6.11.1812, 9.2.1813, 16.4.1813, and 18.5.1813.

810 Lloyd’s List 24.7.1812, 8.9.1812, 9.2.1813, 11.5.1813, 11.5.1813, 8.6.1813, 10.8.1813 and 16.8.1813.

811 Calculated from Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters 1813, ‘Ships in the East India Company’s service, &c.’; Lloyd’s List 1812 and 1813, passim

812 Eibl-Kaye, April 2004, 113:85.

813 K. Charlton, ‘Liverpool and the East India Trade’ in Northern History. A Review of the History of the North of England. Volume VII. Reprint. (University of Leeds, England, 1972), 54–55; Cotton, 125.

814 Cotton, 125. Many of the old East Indiamen continued in Chinese waters, however. According to the statistics from the port of Hong Kong, 11 former East Indiamen, about 1,200 tons on average, arrived at that port between August 1841 and December 1842, three of them even twice. Most of the vessels were carrying government stores from Britain, or from other colonies. See ‘Ships arriving Hong Kong Aug. 41 – Dec. 42. From the ‘Chinese Repository’ for Jan. 1843’ Appendix 41-B in Lee C. Scamp, Far East Mail Ship Itineraries. British, Indian, French, American, and Japanese Mail Ship Schedules 1840–1880. Volume I. (Texas, 1997), 398–406.

815 Calculated from the statistics of Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters 1813, 1816, 1826, and 1833. – The word ‘Australia’ is used here and further in this study for the geographic areas known then as New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (equivalent to the current Australian states of New South Wales and Tasmania).

816 The Liverpool merchants who had led the campaign against the EIC were among the first to send their vessels to India. The first ship, mentioned also in the British Parliamentary Papers in 1831–1832, was John Gladstone’s Kingsmill, which sailed for Calcutta in May 1814. It was followed by two other Liverpool vessels in 1815 and no less than 17 more ships in 1816. In 1832, they already numbered 34. (‘A List of Vessels that have cleared out from the Port of Liverpool for the East Indies, since the passing of an Act of Parliament 21st July 1813…’ in Liverpool Street Directories, 1818. Appendix, 140–141.) For the statistics, see ‘Number of Ships and Amount of Tonnage Entered Inwards at the Port of Calcutta between 1793 and 1831’ in BPP, Colonies, East India 8 (1831–1832). Appendix to the Report from Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company with an Index [II Finance and Accounts] Part II, Commercial, 772, 786. – Not all vessels under the British flag in Indian ports had arrived from England, however. There were dozens of Indian ‘country ships’, carrying the British flag and with British officers and lascar crews, sailing between India and other Asian ports. In addition to exporting cotton, they were also the main carriers of opium to China on behalf of the EIC. See Anne Bulley, ‘The country ships from India’ in Richard Harding, Adrian Jarvis and Alston Kennerley (eds.), British Ships in China Seas: 1700 to the Present Day (Liverpool, 2004), 35–41.

817 The value of the EIC’s merchandise exports from England to India decreased from £710,700 in 1814–1815 to £71,900 in 1824–1825 and £2,600 in 1826–1827. Moreover, whereas the value of military stores carried by the Company to St. Helena and India was £944,100 in 1826–1827, it had decreased to £92,000 by 1830–1831. See BPP, Colonies, East India 8…An Account of the Exports by the East India Company for each Year, from 1814; distinguishing Military Stores from Merchandise. Appendix, No. 26, 767.

818 See Geoffrey Eibl-Kaye, ‘The Indian Mails 1814 to 1819. Administration of the Packet Service and its Demise ’ in The London Philatelist, Volume 113, May 2004, 113:114–119.

819 See Eibl-Kaye, ‘The Indian Mails…’ May 2004, 113:114–124; Robertson, D 21 – D 25.

820 Moubray & Moubray, 180.

821 John K. Sidebottom, The Overland Mail. A Postal Historical Study of the Mail Route to India (Perth, Scotland, 1948), 48. He refers to General Post Office records.

822 The Americans were frequent visitors in Calcutta in the 1790s, but disappeared during the last war years. Detailed statistics of the major Indian ports in 1793–1830 can be found in BPP, Colonies, East India 8,… Appendix, No. 30, 772–839.

823 This can be noticed from the sailing dates published by Lloyd’s List in 1832, passim. The East Indiamen continued their old tradition and generally sailed together.

824 Calculated from the maritime intelligence published by Lloyd’s List 1832–1834.

825 See Charlton, 63. – Sugar production at Mauritius grew from 10,481 tons in 1825 to 20,485 tons in 1826, and to 32,750 tons in 1830. See Noel Deerr: The History of Sugar. Volume I. (London, 1949), 203.

826 See Charlton, 63.

827 The figures have been calculated from the maritime intelligence published by Lloyd’s List 1832–1834. – Batavia, Singapore and Manila were not usually ports of destination but ports of call on the way to somewhere else. Therefore the figures in table 66 give a different picture of their role in the Asian trade than the text above.

828 See BPP, Crime and Punishment, Transportation 2, 1837. Report of the Select Committee on Transportation. Appendix, No. 10, 261.

829 By comparison, the populations of India and China were approx. 260 million and 395 million respectively in 1830. See Mitchell, 55.

830 The value of Australian wool exports grew from £35,000 in 1830 to £849,000 in 1840, and to £2,305,000 in 1850. Although wheat exports had also started by 1850, they were worth little for decades. See Mitchell, 649.

831 Some vessels coming from Australia stayed in the Indian Ocean and China Sea for years as tramp ships without returning to England. Most of the 21 convict ships of 1832, having left their human freight at Sydney or Hobart Town, proceeded to the Asian trading posts. Strikingly often it was just these vessels that were wrecked in bad weather, the cargo being ‘thrown over the board’ or sold locally with the remains of the ship, far away from the sea assurance inspectors at home. Of the six vessels lost during a voyage to or from Australia, five were convict ships on their way back home, while one was an emigrant ship on the way to Australia, which was destroyed by fire off Brazil with heavy loss of life. (The tragic loss of the Hibernia was described in Lloyd’s List 3.5.1833.)

832 Liverpool shipping expanded in several directions during the 1830s. For example, the Brocklebanks merchant house increased their sailings not only to Calcutta (from four in 1830 to nine in 1840) and to Bombay (from none in 1830 to four in 1840), but also to ‘Lima etc.’ (from two in 1830 to seven in 1840) and to St. John’s (from two in 1830 to five in 1840). The sailings for India must therefore be seen as a part of the general growth in trade and not as a separate phenomenon. For the Brocklebanks sailings, see John Frederic Gibson, Brocklebanks 1770–1950, Volume I (Liverpool, 1953), 88.

833 Calculated from Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters, 1833.

834 Calculated from Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters, 1833.

835 The values of imports are based on the statistics published in BPP, Colonies, East India 8... Part II Commercial, 1831–32. Appendix No. 4. Imports – Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, 1830, 575.

836 Calculated from the maritime intelligence published by Lloyd’s List 1832.

837 The averages are calculated from 13, 12, 10 and 18 voyages respectively.

838 Calculated from the maritime intelligence published by Lloyd’s List 1832–1834.

839 For example, the Caledonia departed from Liverpool for Bombay on 3.1.1832 and again on 20.11.1832; the Fortune from Glasgow on 7.1.1832 and on 13.11.1832; and the Sir Francis Burton from Liverpool on 8.1.1832 and on 24.10.1832. There are plenty of similar examples of consecutive departures in 1833. (Lloyd’s List 1832–1833).

840 Calculated from the maritime intelligence published by Lloyd’s List 1832–1834. If the ship was sailing for Calcutta but called first at Madras, only the duration of the voyage as far as to Madras has been recorded. Due to the long distance, ships sailing for Calcutta often called at Madeira, the Cape or Mauritius for watering or provisions, which added a few days to the total length of the voyage. The stops are included in the figures. – The averages have been calculated from 36, 14, 43 and 38 voyages respectively. The reason for the low number of home voyages from Madras is that most ships sailed to Calcutta via Madras but home directly, or even if they called at Madras, it was left unreported.

841 Calculated from the maritime intelligence published by Lloyd’s List 1832–1834. At least 160 ships of those which sailed from England in 1832 made a call at St. Helena on their home voyage. In 124 cases at least the departure date from that port was reported in Lloyd’s List, and additionally 32 arrivals of which the departure date was not reported.

842 Calculated from the maritime intelligence published by Lloyd’s List 1832–1834. – The averages have been calculated from 11 voyages.

843 Calculated from seven voyages. The departure dates from China were not always reported.

844 Calculated from Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters 1833 and Lloyd’s List 1832–1834. – The reporting from Sydney and Hobart Town was not very accurate. No fewer than 27 arrivals were reported in Lloyd’s List without any date or giving just a ‘previous to’ date which could refer to any date within the previous few weeks. Only ten of the 53 vessels which were reported to have arrived were also reported to have sailed from Hobart Town and Launceston, while only 36 of the 70 vessels which were reported to have arrived were also reported to have sailed from Sydney.

845 Calculated from Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters 1833 and Lloyd’s List 1832–1834

846 Also the qualities of the ship were naturally important: the rigging and the number and size of sails, the form of the hull, metal cover, technical equipment on board, etc. See e.g. Ojala (1999), 226–241, 435–436.

847 For maritime intelligence, see Lloyd’s List respectively. – The news about ship arrivals were usually sent in long lists and it often happened that the earliest arrivals on the list could be weeks older than the latest, depending on how long ago there had last been communications from that port to London.

848 Lloyd’s List 19.4.1833.

849 Lloyd’s List 30.4.1833.

850 Lloyd’s List 7.5.1833.

851 Lloyd’s List 10.5.1833.

852 The value of indigo is calculated from BPP, Colonies, East India 8... Part II Commercial, 1831–32. Appendix No. 4. Imports – Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, 1830, 575.

853 Lloyd’s List 21.5.1832.

854 For maritime intelligence, see Lloyd’s List respectively.

855 Lloyd’s List 14.6.1832.

856 Lloyd’s List 1.10.1833.

857 Her arrival was reported in Lloyd’s List on the same day.

858 Lloyd’s List respectively. – The wrecked Lord Amherst also carried mails for the East India Company. Five letters in the general correspondence of the EIC, dated between 27.12.1832 and 3.5.1833, give evidence that the Lord Amherst’s mails were finally taken to London by the ship Juliana. She sailed from Bengal on 16.7.1833, having been delayed by loss of anchors and grounding in the Hooghley River, apparently without major damage. Her mails were landed at Portsmouth on 19.12.1833 and the letters were finally received by the EIC in London on 23.12.1833. The oldest letter was 361 days and the freshest 234 days old when received in London. – General Correspondence of the EIC, E/4/142 (BL, IRO). For the Juliana’s incident, see Lloyd’s List 10.12.1833.

859 For maritime intelligence, see Lloyd’s List respectively. The ship also brought other sad news: ‘The Hooghley, Reeves, arr in the Downs from Bengal, passed on the 20th August, in lat 35 S long 21 E during a hurricane, a vessel dismasted, also the contents of a ship’s deck, mast, boats, batches, and topmast with rigging on.’ (Lloyd’s List 8.11.33)

860 Lloyd’s List 15.11.1833.

861 Lloyd’s List 19.11.1833.

862 Lloyd’s List 22.11.1833.

863 For maritime intelligence, see Lloyd’s List respectively.

864 Lloyd’s List 19.11.1833. The arrival of the ship was reported in the same issue.

865 For maritime intelligence, see Lloyd’s List respectively.

866 Lloyd’s List 7.5.1833; and 24.5.1833.

867 Lloyd’s List 14.6.1833.

868 See Sidebottom, 59–60. Obviously the figures also include mails for other Asian ports than India.

869 Daniel Thorner, Investment in Empire. British Railway and Steam Shipping Enterprise in India 1825–1849 (Philadelphia, 1950), 23; Moubray & Moubray, 180.

870 For the later years of the Enterprise, see Thorner, 23; Moubray & Moubray, 180; Sidebottom, 14; and Robertson, B 42. – The mail service was probably just an annual dispatch by the Bombay Government up the Red Sea to the EIC agent at Alexandria, to be forwarded to a Mediterranean steam vessel. The ship also carried dispatches for the Indian government during the first Burmese war. See Sidebottom, 8, 55.

871 Moubray & Moubray, 180; Sidebottom, 14. – For the background of Thomas Waghorn and his early attempts to find support for a steamship service around the Cape of Good Hope, see Sidebottom 15–19; for his career, see Cable, 53–64.

872 Holder Furber, ‘The Overland Route to India in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, first published in Journal of Indian History, 29 (Trivandrum, 1951). Republished in Rosane Rocher (ed.), Private Fortunes and Company Profits in the India Trade in the 18th Century (Variorum, 1997), see 116–117.

873 See Furber, 117–133; Moubray & Moubray, 180; and Cable, 56–57.

874 Thorner, 25–28; Moubray & Moubray, 180. – More than a dozen pamphlets were published in Britain for and against the different shipping and route plans. For a useful list, see Thorner’s bibliography, 184–186. – Even as late as 1838, one of the hopeful advocates of the longer sea route, Sir John Ross, Captain of the Royal Navy, published a plan to collect £500,000 capital for a new India Steamship Company for steam communications to India via the Cape. The service was planned to reach only as far as Point-de-Galle in Ceylon, probably to get support from both the Bombay and Calcutta merchants. The continuation of the trip by local means would have made the duration of information transmission equally long to both the main trade ports. Ross calculated that the trip between England and Ceylon would be made in 46 days. The plan included three steamers and two store ships for coaling. See Sir John Ross, On Communication to India in Large Steam-Ships, by the Cape of Good-Hope (London, 1838), 3–44. For the different interests, see Cable, 68–69.

875 See Thorner, 25–26; Sidebottom, 61–62. – How long it took for the mails to arrive in England by this trip remains unclear. According to Thorner, it took 59 days in grand total, ‘an impressively brief period for that age’. According to the Moubrays, however, the estimated time taken for the whole trip would have been 61 days ‘had there been a steamship to take the mails from Alexandria’. See Moubray & Moubray, 181.

876 Philips, 264–268.

877 Philips, 264–265.

878 Philips, 266–267.

879 The EIC, General Correspondence from Bengal, E/4/138–142 (BL, IRO).

880 There are a few exceptions, when the examiner of the EIC has made a note that the first copy had arrived by another ship, usually earlier. The date when received was always marked on the letter, as well as the name of the ship by which it had arrived. There are no postal markings in the correspondence. Most of the thick letters have just been folded in half lengthwise and sent in bundles.

881 The EIC General Correspondence, E74/143 (BL, IRO); Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters 1833; Lloyd’s List 8.11.1833.

882 See Chapter VII.1.

883 For example, letters from Calcutta 31.12.1832 (339 paragraphs, 170 pages); 13.7.1833 (263 paragraphs, 94 pages); 22.8.1833 (402 paragraphs, 200 pages)); and 21.11.1833 (453 paragraphs, more than 200 pages). The EIC, General Correspondence from Bengal, E/4/141–144 (BL, IRO).

884 The EIC, General Correspondence from Bengal, E/4/140 (BL, IRO).

885 The EIC, General Correspondence from Bombay, E/4/ 517–519 (BL, IRO); Lloyd’s Register for Underwriters 1833.

886 The EIC, General Correspondence from Bombay, E/4/ 517–519 (BL, IRO).

887 The EIC, General Correspondence from Bombay, E/4/ 519 (BL, IRO).

888 The EIC General Correspondence from Madras, E/4/ 364–365 (BL, IRO); Lloyd’s List, January 1832 – June 1834, passim.

889 See Thorner, 26; Sidebottom, 59.

890 See Thorner, 26–27.

891 For the Mediterranean mail routes and services, see Moubray & Moubray, 142–143, 155–162; and Tabeart (2002), passim.

892 See Sidebottom, 63–72.

893 For the sailing dates of 1835, see Tabeart (2002), 27–30.

894 Tabeart (2002), 25–28; Sidebottom, 38–39, 61–69. Lively descriptions about the early overland crossings can be found in Cable, 81–84; and Sidebottom 73–75. – The donkey service ended when the railway was opened between Alexandria and Cairo in 1856 and the camel transport in 1859, when the railway was finally extended from Cairo to Suez. See Sidebottom, 80–81.

895 Thorner, 28.

896 Thorner, 30.

897 Thorner, 29–31.

898 See Thorner, 32, 38–39.

899 Reg Kirk, The Postal History of P&O Service to the Peninsula (London, 1987), 1–11. – The PSNCo had started privately on the route already in 1834. Its main partners, Brodie McGhie Willcox and Arthur Anderson, were from Ostend (although originating from English-Scottish parents) and Shetland respectively, and were therefore not highly appreciated by the London merchant houses. The main proprietor and shipowner, Richard Bourne, was from Dublin, and in fact some of the first vessels used Liverpool as a branch terminal. About the early history, owners, etc. see Cable, 6–36.

900 See Kirk (1987), 12–13; Tabeart (2002), 40–46. Tabeart also corrects some dates published by Kirk, referring to the ships’ logs.

901 See Kirk (1987), 13; Tabeart (2002), 44. – The sources available for this study lack information about the EIC’s eastbound sailing dates of this period, thus making it impossible to calculate information circles.

902 Calculated from the sailing dates published by Kirk (1987), 13.

903 This arrangement was enabled by the Anglo-French postal convention of 1839, which allowed closed mails through France for India. See Sidebottom, 84–90, Tabeart (2002), 187–190. – Tabeart notes that ‘a number of failures by the PSNCo ships slowed the average course of the mails from Malta to Falmouth to 19 days, with a correspondingly poor Alexandria–Falmouth time, averaging 29 days. These compare very unfavourably with the last all-RN figures homewards of 16 ½ and 23 days respectively’. In fact, also the transit times at Malta between the two Royal Navy steamers compared very unfavourably in 1838: instead of the normally one or two days’ transit time at Malta during the ‘all-RN’ service in 1837, it now took three to four days, even six, to get the mails from one Admiralty vessel to another. At Gibraltar, the reasons for lengthened transit times were different. Even if normally smoothly conducted, in four cases the mails were delayed in transit between an Admiralty packet and a PSNCo vessel due to a breakdown of the latter. The delay in these occasions was seven to nine days. For the quote, see Tabeart, (2002), 50, and for the transit dates and notes, 38, 49–52.

904 Sidebottom, 89. – The convention was a major improvement compared with the earlier period when the charges for a letter to India via Marseilles were 10d. British, 3s. 9d. French plus 1s. steam postage from Suez to Bombay, the total being 5s. 7d. See Tabeart (2002), 187. – The French Post Office had started several steamship lines on the Mediterranean routes in 1837. They carried mail between Marseilles and Malta, Athens, Constantinople, and Alexandria. The service was three times monthly. Yet the Overland service by the French started only in the 1860s, when the Egyptian railway had already been built. For the early French services in the Mediterranean, see Salles, Tome II, 9–35.

905 See the sailing dates by Tabeart (2002), 54–55, 189–190.

906 Tabeart (2002), 189.

907 Also Tabeart notes the poor connectivity at Malta between the Admiralty packets and the all-sea route via Gibraltar. The Malta–Marseilles packets clearly had priority in the mail service, which was ‘quite understandable – a principle reason for establishing the entire packet network was for the Government to get the earliest possible intelligence from [or to] the far-flung British Empire’. Tabeart (2002), 66.

908 See Chapter VII.1.

909 For the last leg, see Scamp, 10.

910 The last commercial East Indiamen, which departed from London in April and May, 1832, sailed to Canton via Anjer, Java, in 107 to 111 days. See Chapter VII.1.

911 Norman L. Middlemiss, Merchant Fleets. P&O Lines (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2004), 17; Tabeart (2002), 59; Thorner, 35–36. – The Royal Charter of 1840 is reprinted by Kirk (1987), 92–94.

912 Calculated from Tabeart’s figures (2002), 52–53; for the P&O sailings, see 69–70. See also Tabeart (2002), 59–66.

913 As late as 1847, three-quarters of P&O’s shares were held in Ireland, presumably by Richard Bourne and his business allies. See Cable, 68–71; Thorner, 36–38.

914 Cable, 69; Thorner 36. – In 1849, P&O made a further attempt to dislodge the EIC from the Bombay route by offering a £24,700/year contract for an extended Suez to Bombay to Australia link. The EIC service between Suez and Bombay was costing the British and Indian governments no less than £105,000/year at that time. The offer was declined even though it was at that time often quicker to send the mails to Bombay by the P&O service via Calcutta. The matter was hotly debated in the Parliament and the EIC was left in no doubt what the country thought of it. Three years later the EIC lost a complete ship load of mail in the Red Sea; and during the next few years the Bombay–Suez link was gradually transferred to P&O. See Middlemiss (2004), 18–19; and Reg Kirk, P&O Bombay & Australian Lines – 1852–1914 (Norfolk, no printing year given), 43.

915 See Cable, 78; Middlemiss (2004), 18.

916 Middlemiss (2004), 17–18. – More about the Overland route arrangements by the P&O, see Cable, 85–93.

917 Kirk, The P&O Lines... 11; Middlemiss (2004), 18.

918 Kirk, The P&O Lines.., 11; Middlemiss (2004), 18.

919 Calculated from the sailing dates published by Scamp, 10, 31–32, 47.

920 Calculated from the sailing lists of Scamp, 31–32, 37–38, 47.

921 See the sailing lists of Scamp, 31–32, 37–38, 47.

922 See Kirk, The P&O Lines..., 23–24; Scamp, 94 , 101, 123–130.

923 The memorandum was originally published by the Bombay Times on 26.3.1843, see Scamp, 98. On arrival, the Berenice was about ten days delayed due to engine problems. See Scamp, 93, 98.

924 See Table 80.

925 For the sailing dates, see Scamp, 93–103, 108–117; and Kirk, The P&O Lines..., 11, 23–24. See also Table 79 for the consecutive information circles.

926 For the sailing lists, see Scamp, 31, 47–48, and 62; for the ‘Chinese Repository’ see Scamp, 398–413.

927 See Scamp, 31, 35, 399. If the ‘56’ is correct, the ship departed from Bombay on 9.8. and not on 10.8. as has been estimated by Scamp. For the information circulation, see Table 80.

928 The quote is from the merchants’ complaint to the British Superintendent of Trade. See Scamp, 35. Hong Kong was established by the British in 1841.

929 For the example, see Scamp, 10, 15.

930 See the table about arrival dates of the Overland mails from England in China 1840–1843 by Canton Press 11.3.1843, republished by Scamp, 16.

931 For the year 1841, see Scamp, 32–35.

932 For the Canton Press table of 11.3.1843, see Scamp, 16.

933 For the sailing dates, see Scamp, 31–32, 37–38.

934 For the ‘Chinese Repository’ 1842–1843, see Scamp 398–406.

935 See Scamp, 47, 49, 404.

936 There is also evidence of mails arriving by private sailing vessels directly from England faster than the Overland mail. Scamp refers to Chinese newspapers which reported ‘news brought by Folkstone’ which included ‘accounts from London to the 3rd October’. The Folkstone had sailed from England in three months and three weeks, and the regular October mail was at that time delayed by trouble in Egypt. The newspapers also reported that the Narranganset, from Liverpool, brought the latest dates of 20.10.40 ‘but a very few letters’. Both these ships sailed via the Cape of Good Hope. See Scamp, 32.

937 Scamp, 93, 122.

938 Moubray & Moubray, 187.

939 For the British tea trade, see MacGregor (1952), 3–30. – For changes in the construction of private merchant vessels in order to increase the speed, see MacGregor (1952), 33–188, passim.

940 See Cutler (1961), 167–169, 226–239.

941 See sailing lists of the American tea clippers between China and England 1850–1860, published by Cutler (1961), 467–474; and sailing lists of the British tea clippers on the same route 1848–1875, published by MacGregor (1952), 200–232.

942 See Kirk, The P&O Lines..., 13; and Kirk (1987), 106.

943 No fewer than 12 P&O mail steamers served in the Black Sea area during the war. By agreement with the British Government, the line to Australia was abandoned and the China Line was degraded to a monthly one. The new line to Italy – at that time a cargo line – was also dropped. See Kirk, The P&O Bombay…, 2–3; Reg Kirk, Australian Mails via Suez 1852 to 1926 (Kent, 1989), 4.

944 For the Second Opium War, see e.g. James (2000), 238–241. For the Mutiny, see Cain & Hopkins, 284–288; and Lawrence James, Raj. The Making of British India, (London, 2003), 233–298.

945 For a French view of Franco-British relations during the building of the Suez Canal, see Zachary Karabell, Parting the Desert. The Creation of the Suez Canal (London, 2004), passim.

946 SRLC.

947 Kirk, The P&O Bombay…, 11–12. The departure dates from Southampton were the 4th, 12th, 20th and 27th of each month. The express mails via Marseilles departed eight or even nine days later for the same steamers from Aden to the different Asian ports. See e.g. Kirk (1989), 57–65; Kirk, The P&O Lines…, 45.

948 The average duration of the eastward voyages was calculated from 18 trips and of the number of the westward voyages from 19 trips. The average duration of information circles was calculated from 15 consecutive cases during the period. The sailing dates are published by Kirk, The P&O Bombay…, 12, 47.

949 Hector Proud (Edward B. Proud, ed.), The British Sea Post Offices in the East. British Maritime Postal History Volume 4, (East Sussex, 2003).

950 Proud’s study covers the Mediterranean Sea Post Offices as well as the Sea Post Offices on the Bombay–Suez (later Aden), Bombay–Karachi, Rangoon–Calcutta and Penang–Singapore–Hong Kong routes, lists of marine sorters, used cancellations and different timetables, partly up to the 20th century. See Proud, passim. – For the beginning of sorting mail at sea, see Proud 13–17; for the French Sea Post Office markings of the Mediterranean packets, see Salles, Tome II, 51–139.

951 Moubray & Moubray, 198.

952 See Chapter VII.1.

953 Robinson (1964), 186–189. When the Toulmin service ended in early 1849, private sailing ships were again the only means of sending letters to Australia.

954 Robinson (1964), 189–190.

955 Robinson (1964), 190–191. For further details, see also Moubray & Moubray, 199.

956 Michael K. Stammers, The Passage Makers (Sussex, 1978), 109.

957 Stammers, 125; Mitchell, 36.

958 See Stammers, 125–126; and for the early years of the White Star Line on the Australian route, Gardiner, 12–66.

959 Stammers, 78–81.

960 The P&O service went by the west coast of Australia, past Cape Leeuwin to King George’s Sound, Melbourne and Sydney. See Robinson (1964), 191–192.

961 To compare, the largest vessels in the North Atlantic service at that time were Collins Line’s Atlantic and Baltic, both 2,860 tons. See e.g. Staff, 131.

962 Robinson (1964), 191–193. – For the General Screw mail contract to South Africa, and for some time even via Mauritius to Calcutta, see Robinson (1964)173–175.

963 For more details on the miserable performance of the Australian Mail Line, see Moubray & Moubray, 200.

964 See Robinson (1964), 193–194.

965 For the Cunard Line ships at the Crimean war, see e.g. Babcock, 117–118; for the P&O see Kirk (1989), 4; for the Royal Mail Line, Bushell, 80–85. For the Australian mail contracts with the Black Ball Line and the White Star Line, see Robinson (1964), 194–195; Stammers, 144–146. – The PR value of a mail contract was so high for any shipping company that it was even used afterwards. The Black Ball Line advertised its Australian service by ‘British and Australian ex-Royal Mail Packets’ after having lost the contract to the steamships in 1857. The advertisement of James Baines & Co is kept among the Accounts and papers of Henry Eld Symons, LRO, 380 MD, 20.

966 Stammers, 144; Robinson (1964), 195. Colin Tabeart has collected all the sailing dates of the Australian mail clippers from the contranct period 1855-1856, see Tabeart (2004), 144–160. – There was also a plan to start a mail steamship service via the Pacific in the early 1850s. With the Royal Mail Line heading the project, a new company called the Australasian Pacific Mail Steam Packet Company was formed in order to start a steam traffic service between Europe and Australia via Panama and Tahiti. The project slowed down in early 1854 due to the Crimean War, which postponed the Government’s interest in such mail contracts. See Bushell, 90–93.

967 See the sailing data by Tabeart (2004), 144–160.

968 Details about the start of this service vary. For example, Robinson states that the P&O lost the contract as they were unwilling to stop at Freemantle and Adelaide, but the timetables published by Kirk show that the European & Australian Line steamers did not stop there either. Kirk also notes that the latter company was not subjected to financial penalties e.g. if the Marseilles steamer was late, although the refusal to submit to the system of penalties was mentioned by Robinson and Cable as the most important reason why the P&O could not accept the details of the contract as desired by the government. See Kirk (1989), 6–8; Robinson (1964), 195–196; Bushell, 93–94.; and Cable 137–140.

969 Kirk (1989), 13–21. – The barque Oliver Cromwell mentioned above sailed to London in 97 days, arriving 30.1.1858. See Kirk (1989), 39.

970 See Robinson (1964), 196; Cable, 140.

971 See Bushell, 94–95; Kirk (1989), 57.

972 Kirk (1989), 8.

973 The Accounts and Papers of Henry Eld Symons, LRO, 380 MD, 9–21.

974 For the sailing dates, see Kirk (1989), 14, 32.

975 For the sailing dates, see Kirk (1989), 14, 33.

976 For the sailing dates, see Kirk (1989), 35.

977 For the sailing dates, see Kirk (1989), 33–35, 39.

978 Both letters were directed ‘Per Royal Charter’ and handstamped by ‘PAID LIVERPOOL SHIP OC 17 1857’ on arrival. For the arrival of the August mails, see Kirk (1989), 35; and for the Royal Charter, see Stammers, 164–166, 201, 436, 446. The Royal Charter formed together with the famous Great Britain the auxiliary steamship service of the Liverpool and Australian Steam Navigation Co. For the Great Britain, see Fogg, passim.

979 For the trip to Jeddah, see Kirk (1989), 35–39; Bushell, 94. The stories vary somewhat but it makes no major difference from the postal historical point of view.

980 The cost for the British Government was £6,000 each month in addition to the annual £185,000. The Royal Mail Line also refused to pay any penalties regarding late arrivals under the former contract. See Kirk (1989), 44; Bushell, 94–95.

981 For the sailing dates of these ships, see Kirk (1989), 61, 155. Also the following month’s ship was late, probably due to repairs. She arrived in Sydney on 15 December, while the vessel with mails for Europe had again left on the day before. See Kirk (1989), 62, 156.

982 See the sailing lists published by Kirk (1989), 64–69, 158–162.

983 See Robinson (1964), 197; Kirk (1989), 65.

984 Calculated from the sailing schedules published by Kirk (1989), 57–69, 151–162. Only six ‘normal’ sailings have been included from both years, leaving out trips via the Cape or trips with exceptional delays due to repairs.

985 Swatow, Amoy and Foochow were Chinese ports north of Hong Kong, Foochow being about half-way to Shanghai. The modern names of the ports are Shantou, Xiamen and Fuzhou.

986 Kirk (1989), 69, 164; Proud, 76; Middlemiss, 96–106.

987 The departure dates for the all-sea mails from Southampton were 7th (C), 12th (B), 20th (AC) and 27th (B). See Kirk (1989), 77.

988 For distances, see e.g. Kirk, The P&O Bombay..., 5, for ship details, Middlemiss, 96–106.

989 See Stephen Rabson, ‘The Iron Hong. P&O and the Far East from 1845’, in Richard Harding, Adrian Jarvis & Alston Kennerley, British Ships in China Seas: 1700 to the Present Day (Liverpool, 2004), 120,124.

990 Rabson, 124.

991 From 1866, there was also a contract mail route across the Pacific from Sydney via Wellington, New Zealand, to Panama, across the Isthmus by railway and from Colon by steamer to Southampton. The leg between Australia and Panama was taken care of by the Panama, New Zealand and Australian Royal Mail Company and the leg between Colon and Southampton by existing Royal Mail Line services. This eastbound route enabled 2.5 to three consecutive information circles between Sydney and England per year. The length of the sea voyage sometimes caused the classic situation, where the mails arrived soon after the next ship to Australia had departed. The line existed for only three years. For the sailing data, see Tabeart (2004), 271–281.

992 See Raymond Salles, La Poste Maritime Française. Tome V. Les Paquebots de L’Extrême-Orient (Limassol, 1993), 9–15.

993 The P&O service for Saigon is mentioned for the first time in Kirk’s sailing lists at the end of July 1861, but according to Salles the period lasted from February 1861 to June 1862. The French service for Indochina was inaugurated in October 1862. See Kirk (1989), 72, 166; Salles, Tome V, 25–27, 30–31. Kirk reports the last P&O departure from Saigon on 1.12.1862 and the last arrival on 3.1.1863. See the sailing lists by Kirk (1989), 80, 177.

994 See Salles, Tome V, 32–41.

995 Calculated from the sailing lists published by Salles, Tome V, 28–29; and Kirk, The P&O Lines…, 63–64.

996 See Rabson, 123. In fact, the Messagerie ships did not sail directly from Shanghai to Suez but there was a change in Hong Kong, and as noted in the text above, P&O changed its departure dates from Shanghai in late 1865 to match the French departures (and the French again changed their departures and the P&O followed). Nevertheless, the P&O cargoes and mails were carried by three different ships to Suez with changes in Hong Kong and Galle. The company preferred to serve the Calcutta merchants by direct sailings to Suez with no changes en route. See the sailing lists published by Kirk (1989), e.g. 91, 187.

997 At least the following mail-carrying vessels were lost in the P&O service east of Suez between 1843 and 1875: the Pacha with 16 lives in 1851, the Douro in 1853, the Erin in 1857, the Alma in 1859, the Canton also in 1859, the Malabar in 1860, the Colombo in 1862, the Corea with 103 lives in 1864, the Niphon with 13 lives in 1868, the Benares also in 1868, the Carnatic with 26 lives in 1869, and the Rangoon in 1871. See Middlemiss, 92–108. – The French losses between 1862 and 1875 were the Hydaspe in 1864, the Nil with 142 lives in 1874 and the Neva in 1875. See Haws (1999), 20–36.

998 For the Suez Canal project, see Karabell, passim.; for the Canal and the P&O, see Cable, 153–168. – At that time, the eastern seas provided a major source of employment for the sailing fleet, while the Atlantic was already dominated by the steamers. In 1868, over a million tons of sailing ships left British ports for the Far East, a greater tonnage than the sailing fleet that headed for North America that year. See Max E. Fletcher, ‘The Suez Canal and World Shipping, 1869–1914’ in The Journal of Economic History, vol. XVIII (December 1958), No 4, 558.

999 See Fletcher, 557.

1000 After the Mooltan, the following steamers in the P&O fleet were also provided with compound engines during the first half of the 1860s: Poonah, Carnatic, Rangoon and Golconda in 1863, Delhi and Baroda in 1864, and Tanjore in 1865. Many of these and several other P&O steamers were later re-engined with more powerful compound engines. See Middlemiss, 107–110.

1001 See Cable, 166; Rabson, 121–122.

1002 ‘Coal from Liverpool, Birkenhead or Garston’, in Boult, English & Brandon’s Freight Circular 6.6.1863. (SRLC).

1003 See Cable, 92. – For further statistics about coal export freight rates from Britain (1818–1913), see Charles K. Harley, ‘Coal Exports and British Shipping, 1850–1913’ in Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 26, Number 3, July 1989, 334–336.

1004 See Fletcher, 557. – For a technical description of the progress of steam shipping, especially the compound engine, see Holt, 1–9. – Alfred Holt, originally a railway engineer, became interested in the Far Eastern trade in the 1860s and started a steamship line by steamers with developed compound engines between Liverpool and the coast of China in 1866. See Francis E. Hyde, Blue Funnel. A History of Alfred Holt and Company of Liverpool from 1865 to 1914 (Liverpool, 1956), 11–23. See also Cooper, 226–227. – For wider economic aspects of the change from coal to steam during a somewhat later period, see Kaukiainen (2004), 113–128.

1005 See Francis E. Hyde, Far Eastern Trade 1860–1914 (Liverpool, 1973), 21–23.

1006 Fletcher, 564.

1007 Cable, 164; Fletcher, 560–561. For the Far Eastern freight rates, see also Hyde (1973), 24–26.

1008 See Harley (1989), 315.

1009 See Cable, 165–166.

1010 For example, the Ocean Steam Ship Company of Alfred Holt competed seriously for the mail contracts on the China route in 1867 and 1879, but lost. Holt’s public arguments about the injurious effects of the subsidies on freight and passage rates may be somewhat exaggerated, in view of the quickly changing business environment and its effects as a whole. And even if he strongly criticised the contract system, Holt continuously repeated attempts to secure one for his own company. See Hyde (1956), 40–42. – This happened simultaneously with William Inman’s efforts to capture the mail contract from the Cunard Line in the North Atlantic. Lamport & Holt, the well-known shipping company in which Alfred Holt’s brother George was a main partner, also held a mail contract between Liverpool and South America in 1868–1876. See Howat, 159–174.

1011 See Duncan Haws, Merchant Fleets, British India S.N. Co. (Hereford, 1991), 12–13. Kirk mentions that the company also had a mail contract between Sydney and England via Suez and Naples from 1879. See Kirk (1989), 240–241.

1012 The reorganizing of mail services, including changing departure dates etc. are explained by Kirk (1989), 127.

1013 Calculated from the sailing dates published by Kirk (1989), 123–130, 211–220.

1014 See the sailing lists published by Kirk, The P&O Lines…, 86–87; and Salles, Tome V, 105.

1015 See Salles, Tome V, 104.

1016 For comparison, in 1900 the P&O sailings to Shanghai, via Brindisi or Marseilles, took some 32 to 35 days and enabled approximately five consecutive information circles per year. See the sailing lists published by Kirk, The P&O Lines…, 140–141.

1017 See Cattell, 11. – From 1852, the General Screw service was lengthened by a leg via Mauritius to India. This route was never profitable as the P&O already used the Overland route for mails to Calcutta. See Robinson (1964), 172–175.

1018 See Robinson (1964), 175–176. For the early years of the Union Line, see Murray, 1–31. According to Cattell, the first contracts allowed the company to use 38 days for the voyage. Thus, it is possible that Robinson means the contract of 1868. See Cattell, 12.

1019 In the 1893 mail contract, the allowed duration of the trip was only 19 days. See Cattell, 12.

1020 The 1832 averages are calculated from Lloyd’s List maritime intelligence 1832–1833. The outward trip average covers 45 trips and the homeward average 43 trips made during that period. The tea clippers for London were not often reported passing the Cape, even if those on their way to New York were. The average duration of the trips therefore covers only eight voyages, calculated from the sailing dates published by McGregor, 200–232.

1021 See Cattell, 12–15.

1022 See Cattell, 12–16; Robinson (1964), 178–180.

1023 See Cattell, 16; Robinson (1964), 182–183. The two companies were finally merged in the early 1900s during the South African war, forming the well- known shipping line called the Union-Castle Line. See Marischal Murray, Union-Castle Chronicle 1853–1953 (Glasgow, 1953), 134–139.

1024 See Jorma Ahvenainen, The Far Eastern Telegraphs (Helsinki 1981), 13–14.

1025 Ahvenainen (1981), 14.

1026 Ahvenainen (1981), 16.

1027 Ahvenainen (1981), 16–17.

1028 Ahvenainen (1981), 17–19; Robinson (1964), 272.

1029 Mitchell, 773.

1030 See Ahvenainen (1981), 17–58.

1031 Kirk (1989), 149.

1032 ‘Directions to Capt. Middleton when sailing to China with the Agamemnon on her first voyage April 19th 1866’, Blue Funnel, Ocean Steamship Co. OA 2583, (MMM).

1033 ‘Directions to Capt. Middleton...’, OA 2583, (MMM).

1034 Kludas, 146–147.

1035 Hyde (1975), 83.

1036 For the vessels, see Bonsor (1975), vol. 1, 157, 415; Bonsor (1978), vol. 2, 661, 765.

1037 Kludas, 146–147.

1038 Kludas, 36, 131.

1039 For example, abstracts of logs from the sailings of the Queen Mary from New York to Cherbourg and Southampton, 29.7.1936 and 23.6.1937, conducted in rather different weather conditions. (SRLC)

1040 See James Steele, Oueen Mary (Hong Kong, 1995), 187.

1041 The figures are calculated from Allan Morton, Directory of European Passenger Steamship Arrivals for the Years 1890 to 1930 (Baltimore, 1998), 165–174.

1042 Evening World, 20.5.1925. PR 3.1/12h (CP). The figures probably included also the coastal mails for New York.

1043 ‘Big Three figures 1929 – From Marine Supt’s Records’. PR 3.1/12k (CP). – The Berengaria was the former HAPAG ship Imperator, which had changed owner after WW1 as part of war indemnities, replacing the Cunard ship Lusitania which was sank with great loss of life by German torpedoes in 1915.

1044 For the Shanghai sailings, see Kirk, The P&O Lines…, 159. The mails from Colombo further to Shanghai were carried by even smaller vessels of 8,000 tons or less. See Middlemiss, 121–135.

1045 The P&O steamers reached their peak in size and speed in the early 1960s, when the largest vessels of over 40,000 tons and a speed of 27.5 knots were launched. The Australian service continued up to 1974. See Middlemiss, 147–160.