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This two-volume work began
when the author worked for Royal Mail Lines in the 1960s and largely uses
official documents as its source material - from the directors' minute
books from 1839 to annual reports; from departmental correspondence files
to the recollections of captains.
Profusely illustrated with pictures from the company's files, it tells
the story of a shipping line created with unprecedented strength in 1839,
which declined towards 1900, was rejuvenated to become the largest
shipping group in the world and finally slipped from view in the rapidly
changing maritime world from the 1970s.
Volume 1 has at its core the premier service region of South
America, but provides many vital aspects of the company's overall
development. Included are detailed accounts of the formation of the Company
and its founder James Macqueen, the years of Lord Kylsant (including the
first detailed account of his trial and its aftermath) and a special
feature on Royal Mail's long involvement with cruising. There is a
comprehensive Fleet List.
Each volume, of 272 pages, includes 16 pages of colour illustrations,
many of them photographs and postcards of the company's ships and
reproductions of its publicity brochures since they began shortly after 1900.
As Royal Mail's official historian in the 1960s the author
gained access to a range of material which places Macqueen's Legacy
in a unique position. There never has been, and now never can be, such a
comprehensive and detailed account of the Royal Mail story.
Available
from good bookshops, or:
Arcadia Publishing Inc,
Macqueen's Legacy - Volume 1
Macqueen's Legacy - Volume 2
UK Price: £17.99 per volume (plus £1.50 per volume p&p for mail order)
US Price: $29.99 per volume (plus $6 p&p for one or both volumes for
mainland States) |
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