The final years

No-one realised in 1945, as Britain emerged from war, how crucial the next 20 years would be for the Company.

There was some writing on the wall, however. Before the war the express South America mail service from Southampton occupied four ships; afterwards there were only two available, and no replacements were built. On the intermediate London-River Plate passenger and cargo service, though, while only one of five ships had been lost, an order was quickly placed for a replacement.

All of that reflected the expectation that air travel would grow quickly and that this would change the priorities and structure of shipping operations.

The new intermediate liner was Magdalena, which left London for her maiden voyage during 1949. What should have been a triumphant debut for Royal Mail's first post-war passenger liner turned to disaster, for Magdalena ran aground near Rio de Janeiro and broke in two. She was not replaced.

Cargo services resumed much as they had been before the war, the vessels lost being largely replaced with newbuildings completed during the war. Further additions were made in the late 1940s and 1950s - a large programme which saw more than a dozen newbuildings, principally for West Indies, Spanish Main and North Pacific routes.

The mid-1950s saw a resumption of cruising, with Andes and Alcantara withdrawn from South America mail services periodically for cruises to the Mediterranean and West Indies.

This became a stepping stone towards the last major shift in operations for the Company. By the late 1950s Alcantara, more than 30 years old, was sold for breaking up. The Highland ships, passenger-cargo liners operating between London and the River Plate, were not much younger, and in 1959/60 they, too, were sold. Andes was withdrawn from the mail service and underwent conversion to a first class-only cruise liner.

Thus, in the space of a couple of years, all passenger ships operating to South America were withdrawn. In their place, three new 20,000-ton liners were built - Amazon, Aragon and Arlanza. Based in London, they took on the role of mail ships, carried almost 500 passengers and could stow some 5,000 tons of cargo, mostly refrigerated. These were the last ships built for Royal Mail.

In 1965, after a century and a quarter, Royal Mail Lines lost its independence, for in that year it was acquired by Furness, Withy & Co. Its demise began at that time, with the Company steadily receding further into the Furness Withy Group. By 1968 a decision was made to end the South America mail service and the 'A' ships were transferred to another group company, Shaw Savill Line. Cargo ships were sold and not replaced. In 1971 Andes was sold for breaking up, marking the end of Royal Mail's passenger services.

It was during the 1970s that the Company effectively ceased to be a true operational firm; it was then among portions of the Furness Withy Group sold to Hong Kong shipowner C Y Tung; later still it was sold to a one-time rival in the River Plate trade, Germany's Hamburg-Süd.

 



Postcard of Loch Ryan, 9,904 tons, a cargo ship carrying 12 passengers on the North Pacific service, issued in the 1950s. The artist was Howard Jarvis.

A corner of the fine, comfortable first class lounge in Aragon (II), which operated through the 1960s.

Commodore Gilbert Grant in the 1960s when he commanded Amazon (III), who died late in 2000 at the age of 97.

 


Aragon (II) in the English Channel during the 1960s. Her voyage to Brazil and the River Plate early in 1969 closed the Company's mail services after almost 130 years.