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 The last three decades of the 19th century appeared on the surface to be years of steady progress, but underlying the continuing services and periodic additions of new tonnage was a lack of direction. Those were years of enormous change in shipping trades and Royal Mail failed to take advantage of that, for developments were largely catch-up measures against competition. In that climate RMSP saw out the 19th century unhappily. There were resignations from directors and the Company was often trading unprofitably. RMSP also suffered from inefficient scheduling because yellow fever in Brazil caused quarantine problems. Despite that situation some fine ships entered the fleet in the late decades of the 19th century. They included a quartet of superb clipper-bowed steamers, the Company's first to exceed 5,000 tons. They were Atrato, Magdalena, Thames and Clyde. It says something of the Company's difficulties at this time that in the early 1850s it owned a ship of more than 3,000 tons but half a century later it had not reached 6,000 tons. The culmination of those unhappy years saw further resignations in 1902, including the chairman and deputy chairman, and in January 1903 there was a General Meeting at which new directors were elected.
Postcard of Clyde (II), one of the front-runners in the South American trade in the 1890s.
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Elbe, RMSP's first compound-engined ship, at Southampton. She was built in 1869 and survived beyond the turn of the century.
Scene on board Moselle leaving Southampton in 1888.
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