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HISTORY - the ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY sailing the South Atlantic

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While on research for an article published in print in Jan/Feb 2017 eventually, about the CAP Express steamers of HAMBURG-SÜD (Wikipedia) HAMBURG SÜDAMERIKANISCHEDAMPFSCHIFFFAHRTSGESELLSCHAFT I had to look into the competitors and took advantage of creating seperate articles about.
by Earl of Cruises
cruise broshure 1959 of ROYAL MAIL LINE
ROYAL MAIL LINE cruise broshure of 1959 - own collection
The first of these South America or Rio de la Plata route related articles is about the ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY which was a British shipping company founded in London in 1839 by the Scottisch business entrepreneur James MacQueen. The line's motto was `Per Mare Ubique´ (everywhere by sea) - nobody ever should argue about the motto of Albert Ballin `Mein Feld ist die Welt´, both mottos are not ostentatious they express the same: I don´t want to be hindered by frontiers and my limit is the other shore or the sky. After good and bad times ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY became the largest shipping group in the world in 1927 when it took over the White Star Line from the Roosevelt owned IMM. A company much hated by the British public.
rms Amazon of ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY
Royal Mail Steam Packet Company  rms AMAZON of 1852 - Source: Wikipedia
Other competirors on the La Plata Route have been the French COMPAGNIE de CHARGEUR RÉUNIS and SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE de TRANSPORT MARITIMES suported by mail contracts as well two Italian lines equally subsidised be mail contracts. Since the end of 19th century a new French company the COMPAGNIE de NAVIGATION SUD-ATLANTIQUE joined the competition. And this company was sending in 1912 the BOURDIGALA on the La Plata route who was nothing less than the former Blue Riband attempt of NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD, the `KAISER FRIEDRICH the failed German Greyhound´.
posterstamp issued by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company
A posterstamp issued by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company to promote their service from Canada to the British West Indies - Source: Wikipedia
In the Great Depression beginning in 1929 after the New York Stock Crash, not the first nor the last, but the worst - from the results (far more dangerous is the Financial Crisis of 2007 starting with the Lehman Bros. bancrupcy, which is still lasting), ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY got into massive financial troubles. In 1906 Sir Owen Philipps, the later Lord Kylsant, became the new general director (Chairman) of ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY and with him an unparalelled rise did start. Within a short time a number of British lines had been purchased and the company formed an equivalent trust to IMM. In 1907 the SHIRE LINE, 1910 the PACIFIC STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY, 1912 the UNION-CASTLE LINE und 1913 the NELSON LINE and in addition interests in the ELDER DEMPSTER LINE as well GLEN LINE. in 1914 the ROYAL-MAIL-Group was one of the most influential shipping corporations in the world. Only paralelled by the IMM trust (created via speculation) and HAPAG from Hamburg, which turned out to be then the world biggest privat shipping company in the world.
rms Andes 1939 Royal Mail Line
ingrained picture of grandeur: ROYAL MAIL LINE´s rms ANDES, 1939, advertising postcard of the comming new Royal Mail Ship ANDES - own collection
With the Great Depression and the following decline in traffic and trade ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY got into massive financial troubles and went into bancrupcy in 1931. Over the last years all revenues of the group had been put into the shareholders pockets and not into maintaining the fleets or building some kind of financial back ups. The diferent operations had been squeezed like a lemon to dry them out. Besides the group relied on the vast gouvernment subsidiaries based on the different mail contracts, starting with the first mail contract with the British Admirality in 1840. The company had to be liquidated and Lord Kylsant was put into jail for a year. The collapse of the Group was a huge scandal in the British society and the world of finance. About the Society Scandal I was informed by my late aunt. A a member of the Scottish nobelty she pin pointed especially the greed factor. Also the British shipping business was rattled as hit by an earthquake. The group was finally liquidated and parts of its assets taken over by the newly formed ROYAL MAIL LINEs in 1932.
Over the years RML declined to no more than the name of a service run by former rival Hamburg-Süd which bought routing licenses and the brand name from C.Y.Tung, Hongkong. Two times after WWI and WWII the most fierce and only by private capital financed rival was taken out as a competitor by the Allies and just this rival bought the shadowing remains of a once great company.
rms TRENT as HMS and USS San Jacinto
rms TRENT as HMS and USS San Jacinto, the British Royal Mail paddle steamer built in 1841 by William Pitcher of Northfleet for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. She measured 1,856 gross tons and could carry 60 passengers.

Trent served the transatlantic passenger route until she was requisitioned by the British government on the outbreak of the CrimeanWar in 1854 for use as a troopship. She returned to her former civilian service in 1856.

Her interception by USS San Jacinto during the American Civil War in November 1861 provoked the TrentAffair, also known as the Mason and Slidell Affair, which almost led to war between the United Kingdom and the UnitedStates.
Trent continued in service until 1865, when she was sold and subsequently scrapped. - Source: Wikipedia
Queen Victoria granted the initial Royal Charter of Incorporation of ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY on 26 September 1839. In 1840 the Admiralty and the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company made a contract in which the latter agreed to provide a fleet of not fewer than 14 steam vessels for the purpose of carrying all Her Majesty's mails, to sail twice every month to Barbados in the West Indies from Southampton or Falmouth. 14 new steam vessels were built for the purpose, being THAMES, MEDWAY, TRENT and ISIS (built at Northfleet); SEVERN and AVON (built at Bristol); TWEED, CLYDE, TEVIOT, DEE, and SOLWAY (built at Greenock); TAY (built at Dumbarton); FORTH (built at Leith); and MEDINA, (built at Cowes). In reference to their destination, these vessels were known as the West Indies Mail Steamers. All the vessels got the honor being named Royal Mail Ships (R.M.S.) which is a title not a part of the ships name, as It never was lettered at the bow or in the official naming papers.
The West Indian Mail Service was established by the sailing of the first ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY, ps (Paddle Steamer) Thames from Falmouth on 1 January 1841. A Supplemental Royal Charter was granted on 30 August 1851 extending the sphere of the Company's operations. In 1864, the mail service to the British Honduras was established. A further Supplemental Royal Charter was granted extending the sphere of the Company's operations on 7 March 1882 to South America.
rms ARAGON of Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1908
rms ARAGON of Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1908 - Source: Wikipedia
In the decade before WWI the ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY (RMSP) modernised its fleet, introducing a series of larger liners ranging from 9,588 GRT to 15,551 GRT on its Southampton - Buenos Aires route. 
rms ATRAT, 1888, of Royal Mail Steam Packet Company - Source: Wikipedia
Each had a name beginning with the letter "A", so collectively they were called the "A-liners" or more technical the "A-series". The first was rms ARAGON in 1905, followed by sisterships AMAZON, ARAGUAYA and AVON in 1906, ASTURIAS in 1908, ARLANZA in 1912, ANDES and ALCANTARA in 1913 and ALMANZORA in 1915. Earlier members of the series, Aragon and Asturias, had twin screws, each driven by a four-cylinder quadruple-expansion steam engine. The final four members of the series, from ARLANZA to ALMANZORA, had triple screws, with the middle one driven by a low pressure Parsons steam turbine. It was as in all Olympic class liners a steam exhaust turbine.
ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY rms Alcantara
period postcard by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company - source Wikipedia (original seize)
After WWI ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY faced not only existing foreign competition but a new UK challenger. The defeated competitor crawled back under the ruins of Armistice and Versailles. Lord Vestey's BLUESTAR LINE had joined the South American route and won a large share of the frozen meat trade. Then in 1926–27 Blue Star introduced its new "luxury five" ships ALMEDA, ANDALUCIA, ARANDORA, AVELONA and AVILA to both increase refrigerated cargo capacity and enter the passenger trade. At the same time ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY introduced a pair of new 22,200 GRT liners, rms ASTURIAS in 1926 and rms ALCANTARA in 1927, which at that stage were the largest motor ships in the World. Although these were the biggest and most luxurious UK ships on the route, ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY Chairman Lord Kylsant called Blue Star's quintet "very keen competition".
advertising poster by Kenneth Shoesmith for Royal Mail Line
period advertising poster by Kenneth Shoesmith for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company - source Wikipedia
AVILA was tranformed into a a full time cruise ship after the 1929 Stock Exchange Crash. Also Asturias and ALCANTARA went on cruising for a number of voyages, then chartered by RAYMOND WITHCOMB.
period advertising poster of rms ATLANTIS of Royal Mail Steam Packet Company cruise to Spitzbergen - Source: Wikipedia
The company ran into financial trouble after 1929, and the UK Government investigated its affairs in 1930, resulting in the Royal Mail Case. In 1931 Lord Kylsant was jailed for 12 months for misrepresenting the state of the company to shareholders. So much of Britain's shipping industry was involved in ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY that arrangements were made to guarantee the continuation of ship operations after it was liquidated. ROYAL MAIL LINE (RML) was created in 1932 and took over the ships of ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY and other companies of the former group. The new company was chaired by Lord Essendon.
period advertising poster of rms Alcantara by Kenneth Shoesmith for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company - Source: Wikipedia
The new company's operations were concentrated on the west coast of South America, the WestIndies and Caribbean, and the Pacific coast of North America; the Southampton - Lisbon - Brazil - Uruguay - Argentina route was operated from 1850 to 1980. ROYAL MAIL LINE was also in the British market a leading cruiseship operator.
period advertising postcard issued by ROYAL MAIL LINE - own collection 
ROYAL MAIL LINE's largest vessel was the 25,895 GRT turbine steamship rms ANDES. She was designed as an ocean liner but when launched in 1939 was immediately fitted out as a troopship. She finally entered civilian liner service in 1948, was converted to full-time cruising in 1960 and was scrapped in 1971. 

rme MAGDALENA of ROYAL MAIL LINE - Source: Wikipedia 
ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY and ROYAL MAIL LINE lost a number of ships in their long history. One of the last was the 17,547 GT turbine steamship rms MAGDALENA, which was launched in 1948, grounded and sank off Brazil on her maiden voyage in 1949.
In 1965 ROYAL MAIL LINE was bought by Furness, Withy & Co., and rapidly lost its identity. In the 1970s parts of the Furness Withy Group, including ROYAL MAIL LINE, were sold on to Hong Kong shipowner C.Y. Tung, and later sold on to former La Plata rival Hamburg Süd (films about the historycompany web site); by the 1990s ROYAL MAIL LINE was no more than the name of a Hamburg-Süd refrigerated cargo service from South America to Europe. This became destiny for a number of former shipping lines.

COMPAGNIE de CHARGEUR RÉUNIS
SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE de TRANSPORT MARITIMES
COMPAGNIE de NAVIGATION SUD-ATLANTIQUE





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