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
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.
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´.
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.
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, 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 - 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.
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".
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.
History - KAISER FRIEDRICH - the failed GermanGreyhound
History - EUGENIO C. Liner to South America, liner and cruise icon
Oetkers mull HAMBURG SÜD sale
History - EUGENIO C. Liner to South America, liner and cruise icon
Oetkers mull HAMBURG SÜD sale
COMPAGNIE de CHARGEUR RÉUNIS
SOCIÉTÉ GÉNÉRALE de TRANSPORT MARITIMES
COMPAGNIE de NAVIGATION SUD-ATLANTIQUE
Comments
Post a Comment