Falmouth Packet Archives 1688-1850 | home

H.M.Paddle Steamers

Although Falmouth was familiar with steamers operated by the navy, paddle-steamers were not considered a threat to the town as a packet station until notices announcing that government was seeking tenders from steam contractors to run the packet service confirmed their worst fears.

After a period of meeting vessels in the western approaches, to speed mails home during spells of adverse winds, navy paddle-steamers were introduced to the scheduled packet routes in 1828. Following successful voyages of Brunel's Paddle-steamer Great Western, Admiralty, in November 1838, advertised for tenders to carry the mails by steamship between England and North America.

As coaling stations became established further afield, large steam vessels were eventually contracted on the Iberian & Mediterranean, Caribbean and Brazil routes also. P & O and the Cunard Line survive today from their early beginnings as mail contractors, which service subsidised the construction of vessels to meet the demand for passenger-carrying services.

The opening of railway links to Liverpool and Southampton would predictably put Falmouth at a disadvantage. Roads and mail coaches had not improved overland transit times much over 150 years. Steamers which could 'sail' into the wind, and steam trains which could travel relatively quickly and carry large numbers of passengers would render ineffective the geographical advantage argument Falmouth had upheld for so long. Protests were many, and every opportunity was taken to publicise the deficiencies of the steam contractors. The railway was not to come to Falmouth until 1863, thirteen years after the last sailing packet departure from the port, by which time steamers were established and prospering, operating from city ports close to the large population masses of emigrant passengers. [Competition was no longer Falmouth sailing packets, but the ever larger and faster American, French and German passenger liners. Pacquets of other nations are each a subject in themselves! ]

FP 11 July, 1840: A meeting held at Selly's' (Greenbank) Hotel, commission to discuss Steam Packets to the West Indies, Present, Vice Admiral Sir James Gordon, Capt. Drew (Trinity House), Mr. Lawrence (Ass. Sec. Post-office), Capt. Plumridge, (Navy Superintendent of packets, H.M.S. Astraea). Always keen to publicise the wished for deficiency of steam, the same edition reported:

Meteor, Lt. George Williams, incurred wind blowing fresh westerly off Rame Head, put back to Plymouth and, (those persons named above) came by road to Falmouth!

Database records include references to the following vessels employed as STEAM PACKETS

Acheron (1838) H.M.P. Steam Packet (see Branch Packets, Mediterranean)

African (1831) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Alban (1832) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Ariel ( ? ) Ex GPO Packet, transferred to Admiralty in 1837

Avon ( ? ) Ex. GPO Packet Thetis, transferred to Admiralty in 1841

Blazer (1835) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Brunswick (1830) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Carron (1830) H.M.P. Steam Packet (& Branch Packet ?)

Colombia (1830) H.M.P. Steam Packet & Branch Packet

Comet (1834) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Confiance (1830) H.M.P. Steam Packet & Branch Packet

Cuckoo ( ? ) Ex. GPO Packet Cinderella

Dee (1836?) H.M.P. Steam Packet & Branch Packet

Echo (1830?) H.M.P. Steam Packet & Branch Packet

Firebrand (1832) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Firefly (1832) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Flamer (1832) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Hermes (1830) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Hermes (1835) H.M.P. Steam Packet (new)

Lightning (1831) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Messenger (1830) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Meteor (1829) H.M.P. Steam Packet & Branch Packet, Caribbean)

Myrtle ( ? ) Ex. GPO Firefly, transferred to Admiralty in 1837 [CHECK if 1832]

Netley (1835) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Pluto (1835?) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Promethus (1839 Sheerness) H.M.P. Steamer, 200 HP, 794 bm 164' x 23' 8" x 31' 10" in hold

Ramona (1837) Post Office-hired Steam TENDER, worked Falmouth & Channel.

Rhadamanthus (1831) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Spitfire (1834) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Tartarus (1835) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Volcano (1836) H.M.P. Steam Packet

Passenger Rates

FP 31/1/ 1835: TARIFFS: Passenger Tariff:

Destination Cabin / Stowage

Steam Vessels:

Lisbon or Oporto £ 12.0.0. /£ 6.10.0

Med. Cadiz or Gib 17.0.0 / 9.10.0

Malta 29.0.0. / 17. 0.0 (Malta - Falmouth £29/£16)

Corfu 36.0.0 / 20. 0.0

Gib - Malta £ 14 /£ 8, Gib - Corfu £22 / £12, Malta - Patras £ 8 / £5, Malta - Alexandria £10 /£6

Sailing Vessels: Brazils & Bue

Falmouth to Madeira £25/£13, Teneriffe £27/14, Pernambuco £49/25, Bahia £52/27,

Rio £57/£30, Buenos Ayres £70/£30 & Rio - Bue £20/£12.

Falmouth - Halifax £30/£16, Bermuda (via Halifax) £40/£21, Halifax - Bermuda £12/£7

Halifax - Falmouth £28/£15, Bermuda - Falmouth £38/£15.

Falmouth - Barbados, £35/£18, Dominique or Guadeloupe £37/£19,

Falmouth - Antigua or Monserrat £38/£20, Nevis or St. Kitts £39/£21

Falmouth - Tortola, St. Thomas or Jamaica £40/£22, Havannah £43/22 (St. Thomas - Fal £40/20)( Jamaica or Havannah - Fal £52/£27)

Falmouth - Carthagena or Honduras £46/£23, Vera Cruz or Tampico £52/27

(Carthagena - Fal £58/£29) (Vera Cruz - Fal £60/£30)

Steam Vessels: Barbados - Jamaica £10/£6, Jamaica - St. Thomas £10/£6

St. Thomas - Barbados £5/£3

Female servants 2/3 of cabin passage money

Male servants as steerage passengers.

Children under 3 yrs. Free, under 9 as steerage, above 9 as cabin when traveling as such.

400 lbs. linen, wearing apparel & books per passenger.

Passengers not proceeding after taking their passage, forfeit 1/2 the passage money.

Bedding - in sailing packets, to be found by the passengers.

Lieutenants commanding Steam Vessels are to pay the public 1/3 of passage money up to 12 cabin passengers and for all over that number, 1/2 to be paid to the public. (Purse?)

========

Royal Mail Steam Packets were contracted on Caribbean routes w.e.f. January 1842.

Royal West India Mail Packet Company.

R.M.S.P. Avon (1842) "Launched Friday 4 Feb. 1842 at the Bedminster yard of Messrs. Acraman Morgan & Co (Peninsular shareholders) Accounts showed payment £187,986 for Avon & Severn.

Avon's first voyage departed 3 February,1843, (Southampton-Falmouth-Corunna -Madeira - W. Indies). Did not arrive at St. Thomas until 10 March, 1843, nine days over time, on account of running out of coal and trusted to her sails for some time. [ Falmouth Packet, 8 April,1843.]

An Incident which brought criticism (from Falmouth's proponents of sailing packets) for failing to stop to help an injured vessel arose when; "At 11.40 am on 4th May at 40.30N & 17.13W, Avon came in collision with a brig Eliza, Laly Master, of and from Swansea for St. Jago de Cuba, by which the larboard sponsen of the steamer was carried away and the paddle wheel injured. The brig was seen to have lost her bowsprit as she dropped astern and the crew were heard crying for assistance, but, although the steamer had four boats hanging to her quarters, all nicely painted and covered with canvas for harbour show, and the officer in charge of the mails, Lt. T. James RN, jumped into one of them and volunteered to go to the brig to ascertain the damage and if necessary, to take of f the crew, thirteen in number, yet the commander of the steamer refused to render any assistance, and had not the collision injured one of her paddle wheels so as to have prevented her proceeding, the crew of the brig would have been left to their fate. The steamer, we understand, had no [navigation] lights exhibited." [ FP 13 May 1843 ]

On 3 September, 1843, R.M.S.P. Avon performed the last steam packet sailing from Falmouth on this route arriving 19 October, 1843 at St. Georges, Bermuda, from St. Thomas. Sailed 21 October, 1843 for Nassau. Caribbean sailings continued from Southampton.

It was reported it Falmouth thus: "R.M.S.P. Avon, we are told, took 3 days from Southampton to the Lizard, showing proof of the superiority of Falmouth" [ FP 14/12/1843 ]

R.M.S.P. Clyde (1841) Built Dunbar & Co, Greenock, 1600 tons burthen. Engines by Caird & Co.

17 December, 1841 - Clyde sailed in advance, from Southampton, without passengers or mail [to be on station in the Caribbean at the start of the Royal West India Mail Packet Company's contract.]

Seven others for the same company, of the same tonnage, were built, 4 at Greenock, 1 at Port Glasgow, 1 at Leith and 1 at Dunbarton.

Clyde, Woodruff arrived at New York 27 February 1842, she arrived at Charlestown p.m. of 22 Feb. from Granada, via St. Croix, St. Thomas, Turks Island, Nassau, Savannah. She averaged 233 miles per day. Next expected Medina, 2 weeks beyond her time, the authorities in Havannah having deranged the combinations [of sailings] most unexpectedly by putting one of the mail ships in quarantine. [ FP 26/3/1842 ]

In 1843 The Jamaica Standard (newspaper) reported " Clyde arrived 12th April without any mails from England, another disappointment is added to the many which have hitherto been experienced by the inhabitants of this Island.".

The Barbados Mercury 18th April, 1843: "Revive the old line of sailing packets - at 1/5th cost!"

[Note 1: Falmouth Packet & Cornish Herald (FP) reported arrival as 0100 on 8 May 1842, and an outcry that Capt Woodruff was off the Lizard at 1700 and delayed arrival Falmouth until after the Post Chaise had left Falmouth, thereby creating a "deliberate" delay - suggesting this was further evidence of supporting the argument for Southampton over Falmouth as the packet station...

Note 2: Bermuda records Clyde sailing without incident at least through 1846. [ Bermuda Royal Gazette, courtesy of M H Ludington ]

R.M.S.P. Dee (1842)

We have the "solemn protest" of 12 passengers on R.M.S.P. Company's steamer Dee, from Falmouth 17 January 1842, who complain of prejudices and losses from delays, being delayed at Barbados 29 hours instead of 3, Grenada 75 hours instead of 2 and St. Thomas 94 hours instead of 4. On 15 February, 1842, on arrival at Turks Island, passengers were put aboard Actaeon, a small steamer, to await the arrival of steamers to take them to their destinations, Jamaica, Honduras, Havannah, Vera Cruz & New Orleans. None had arrived by 18 February, and the protest was signed on board Actaeon. There had been no bad weather to cause these delays.

The inconvenience, doubtless vexation, but so vast an apparatus as the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company requires to perform their contract time & experience will in time ensure!

The W.I. mail steamers Medina, Tay & Forth were lying at Havannah on 23 February 1842, the former waiting the West India mails for England. The Dee which sailed hence with the West India mails had not arrived at Havannah when the Lyra left. Merchants expressed great disappointment thereat.

[ FP 2/4/1842 ]

[Note: H.M. Packet Brig Lyra, Lt. Collier, returned to Falmouth on 28 March 1842, was on the next to last sailing packet voyage on the West Indies station. (Crane, Lt. Hill performed the last sailing packet voyage on this station leaving Falmouth 17 December, 1841 and returning 1 April, 1842.)]

R.M.S.P. Forth (1842) - in service until at least 1846

R.M.S.P. Isis (1842) - lost 8 October, 1842.

Another of the R.M.S. Company's steamers, R.M.S.P. Medway put into Penzance, not having sufficient fuel to reach Falmouth. Mails were sent to Falmouth by Post Chaises. She brought news that R.M.S. Isis foundered in a gale 40 miles WSW of Bermuda. One engineer's boy, Dennis of Falmouth, drowned. The lifeboats which formed part of the paddle covering were found eminently useful in taking out the crew to the Medway, sailing in company with Isis while returning to England in consequence of having grounded at Porto Rico and due to the damage, was considered unsafe, but got to Jamaica for (minor) repairs & survey. One Master (RN) outspoken that she was not fit to sail to England. R.M.S. Tweed had also run aground on Turk's Island.

Isis believed insured for £40,000 but cost the company £70,000. [FP 5/11/1842]

Loss of Isis: Twenty seamen made an application at the Thames Police Station for a summons against Captain Smith of Medway.

Isis ran upon rocks at Porto Rico 12/9/1842, got off damaged an hour later "by putting an engine astern" - her crew took clothes and hammocks to Medway, but Captain Smith refused to allow any luggage aboard and threatened to cut (one) seaman's hands off and to cut the boat adrift. They sued for the value of clothes and considered themselves harshly dealt with. Advised that they were servants of the West India Mail Packet Company, and their contract was with the Master of Isis, not Medway. The men retired with great dissatisfaction [ FP 19/11/1842 ]

Account of the loss of Isis, scuttled by Captain Smith of Medway after transferring her crockery, boats, sheep, pigs and poultry. [But no clothes and crew hammocks!] Cut the cow's throat and scuttled the Isis in calm conditions... (giving rise to considerable criticism, due to the proximity of Bermuda, where some felt she should have been towed.) [FP 19/11/1842 ]

R.M.S.P. Medina (1842) Just two days after returning from her first voyage, Medina sailed from Falmouth. On 12 May 1842, she struck and was lost at Turks Islands.

By R.M.S. Dee we learn of the total wreck of R.M.S. Medina, Burney commander. She left Falmouth 17 April 1842, having on board the Earl of Elgin, Governor of Jamaica and his Lady, and Commodore Byng, West Indies Commodore, with 170 on board. A great part of the baggage was saved. Elgin & Lady & her sister were removed to R.M.S. Tweed together with the passengers for Jamaica. Those for England were on board the schooner Larne. [FP 11/6/1842]

[Note: Lt. Burney [sic] exonerated of any blame for loss of Medina "a most unusual sea [the] cause" ]

R.M.S.P. Severn (1842)

R.M.S.P. Solway (1842) - [Note. Royal Mail Caribbean steam packets took on coal at Corunna & Madeira.]

Solway arrived Falmouth 26 May 1842, passengers told us they were 13 days detained on that sandy wilderness of Turk's Island, waiting for conveyance to Nassau to join the home steamer and compelled to live off turtle. R.M.S. Contract was for 58 days return, 98 days taken, steamer comes 6 1/2 weeks late. [FP 28/5/1842]

FP 22/4/1843: "Loss of Solway" - the third R.M.S. Packet Company vessel to be lost in 10 months (see Isis & Medina, Royal West India Mail Company report 1843-4 showed operating loss of £80,000 of which £63,668 was attributed to ISIS & MEDINA loss - net of insurance paid)

Solway took on 81 tons of coal at Corunna and sailed at 9.30 p.m., struck a submerged rock at midnight, 20 miles out from Corunna on a calm moonlit night. Narrative of Mr. Lane, Purser included praise for Capt Duncan, last seen or heard ordering remaining crew & passengers to "fly to the rigging" (where some were indeed rescued from next morning). Lane stated his conduct was most noble, showed no thoughts for his own safety. (33 drowned, 17 crew & 16 passengers. Account revealed that over 60 were saved, largely due to the most clement conditions, despite one lifeboat being launched & capsizing with 25 people aboard (most perished) while under way attempting to run the vessel ashore. One lifeboat, 1/3 full of water took 53 on board, with no oars or rudder, baled out using hats & shoes. Women in night apparel. Lt. Hemsworth, Admiralty Agent on Solway, and Mr. Wilder, Chief Officer, obtained a bottom board from a cutter carrying other survivors, Mr. Bevis, 3rd officer together with Mr. Leigh and Mr. Carlils [Carlisle?] (passengers) crew off the Thames steamer, steered & made Corunna at 5 a.m. The French National steamer L'Erebe, Capt. Castaigne left port & searched for survivors, finding one in the capsized lifeboat and 8 or 10 in the rigging. Solway was in 15 fathoms of water 4 miles off shore.

Captain Duncan (32) had 10 years Atlantic Steam navigation experience. He served on the ill-fated President and on two of Cunard's ships. He made one voyage on Solway as Chief-Officer and succeeded Captain Britton on 15 June 1842, with six months cruizing the West Indies & Gulph (sic) of Mexico and encountered several hurricanes (September 1842) He left a wife and infant child. Solway had only £1,300 in Specie on board, was insured for £28,000 but cost £66,000.

Crew lost off Solway; Captain Duncan, Lt. Hall (Midshipman), Ralph Robinson (Carpenter's mate), Hugh Thompson (Quartermaster), Henry Snilson (Ord. Seaman), James Beveridge (A.B.), James Donnell (Coal Trimmer), Garratt Dillon (Coal Trimmer), W. Wallace (Fireman), Hugh Wallace (Coal Fireman), H Noal (Purser's Steward), George Reading (Captain's Steward), Alex Brown (Head Room-Steward), R Eager (Knife & Boot Cleaner), Joshua Westhrop (Saloon Cook), Pat Antron (Baker) and Isabella McGurn (Stewardess).

16 passengers lost their lives, including a family with 4 children.

Captain Duncan was 2nd Officer on President, on her trial voyage from Liverpool to Cork he jumped overboard to rescue the cook's assistant, for which act of bravery he was awarded 30 Guineas for the purchase of a snuff-box. [ FP 29/4/43 ]

Born at Corunna, Spain. On 21 April, 1843, the lady of Capt. Wentworth R.E., of a daughter. Wrecked with her husband and family, all of whom were saved, in the ill-fated R.M. Steam Packet Solway on the night of 7th April on the coast of Spain, in consequence of her delicate situation has been detained at Corunna. She and the infant are in perfect health, not withstanding the trials and sufferings she endured. Out of 150 on board, 99 were saved, this infant makes the hundredth.

[FP 30//5/1843 ]

R.M.S.P. Tay (1842)

Sailed on Monday 3 January 1842: Thames steamer, Hayden and Tay steamer, Hast, with mails for the west Indies. [Masters should be reversed] [FP 8/1/1842]

[Note: These sailings were the first of the (delayed since September 1841) start of the contract steam packet service to the West Indies & Mexico. Four other steamers had preceded them to be on station at St. Thomas.]

On Wednesday [18 May] R.M. Steamer Tay, Hayden, sailed for the Western Isles, West Indies, New Orleans, Panama, British Guinea, Surinam & Mexico. She sailed with 700 tons of coal on board, a small quantity of quicksilver as cargo and 23 passengers. She will touch at Corunna and take in passengers for the Spanish West India colonies. At Madeira she will land Europeans and take outgoing passengers. Tay will reach Barbados, if with no accident, on 2nd June 1842.

[FP 21/5/1842]

R.M.S. Packet Company shareholders meeting. R.M.S.P. TAY Insurance cost £10,000 for repairs and the officers guilty of negligence dismissed. (On Colonades Reef) FP 26/10/1844:

[Note, Hayden is listed as commander pre & post this incident, which report presumably refers to the Master or others]

R.M.S.P. "THAMES" (1842)