 |
 |
 | ||||
 The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSP) was founded in London in 1839, the brainchild of Scotsman James Macqueen. A visionary and a thinker, Macqueen was a man ahead of his time. Before the age of 20 he was living on the Caribbean island of Grenada, managing a sugar plantation. He travelled throughout the Caribbean regions, gaining knowledge and ideas regarding trade and mail communications. By 1837 he had developed a `Plan' for mail communications. He nurtured commercial support and then guided his Plan through the British Parliament. It came to fruition on 26 September 1839, the day on which the company was granted a Royal Charter. That is accepted as the foundation date of the Company. The newly-formed RMSP set about ordering a fleet of steamers. Macqueen's ambitious plans were greatly pruned, with initial services to operate from Britain to the Caribbean islands and adjacent mainland areas of Central America, with an extention north to New York and Halifax NS. For those regions RMSP gained a British Government mail contract during 1840. To cope with the complex series of 11 different routes, the new fleet was spectacularly large. Fourteen steamers were ordered, each between 1,800 and 1,900 tons gross, as well as three small schooners. This giant construction programme meant that the Company existed for more than two years before it began earning money. The first mail voyages began when Thames and Tay departed in January 1842, though other ships had left Southampton the previous month as placement voyages to their Caribbean stations.
|
|
|
Trent (I), at Malta refitting late in 1854 during trooping service in the Crimean War.
Loss of Isis, October 1842.
|
|
| ||||
 |
 |
|