Australian Mail


"Indus" of 1871 (P&O, National Maritime Museum)

The first paddle steamer appearing in Australia was the 256-ton "Sophia Jane", sent out from London as a speculative venture, arriving at Sydney in 1831. About regular steamer services to Australia, E.A. Ewart informed: "The subject began to be ventilated in Australia in 1843 (...). This was before the demand for fast clipper ships to the gold diggings in the 1850's brought about those famous passages of 90 to 100 days between England and Australia (...). In the ten years 1840 to 1850, 520 ships had sailed between England and Sydney, and most of them took 121 to 130 days to the passage. Against this it was pointed out that, by any of the three routes proposed, a steam passage should be made with regularity in about 70 days."

For a connection Singapore - Sydney an early contract valid from 1848 with the India and Australia Mail Steam Packet Co. has been reported. Historian J.M. Maber ("North Star to Southern Cross") wrote: Agitation for extension of the mail service to Australia intensified when Anderson (of the P&O) in 1849 offered to take over the Suez-Bombay service form the East India Co. and to extend it to Australia". David Divine ("These Splendid Ships") commented: "The Government had advertised for tenders in five parts (...) The contracts were designed so that, if necessary, five separate companies could operate all five parts (...). The P&O tendered for all five and won them (...). On 5th January, 1852, they dispatched the new "Chusan", iron-built screw steamer (of 690 ts) from Southampton for Singapore to begin the new Australian service (...). May of the next year (...) they asked for a suspension of the contract for twelve months to allow of the building up of coal depots in Australia and the East - and the Government said "No!" The "Chusan" of the P&O left Sydney for the first time on 31st August 1852 via Melbourne, Adelaide, Albany and through the Sunda Strait to Singapore, connecting with India and Suez. A contract for a mail service to Australia on the much longer route via the Cape of Good Hope was awarded to the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Co. On 3rd June 1852 the screw steamship "Australian" departed at Plymouth, where the mails were embarked - and reached Sydney only after 95 days. The contract was withdrawn in 1853 and the company became known as the Australian Steam Navigation Co. In 1854 the Crimean war started to prevent the Tsar from taking parts of the Sultan's empire, a danger for the way England - India. Ships of the Australian Steam Navigation Co. and of the P&O (including the "Himalaya", with her 3,438 tons too big for the service to the east) were taken over by the Admiralty - a sort of rescue. In 1854 the Australia services of the Australian Steam Navigation Co. and also the services of the P&O were disrupted.

In this context it must not be ignored that also other companies were pioneering steam services to India and to Australia, on the longer Cape route however. In 1852 the General Screw Steam Shipping Co. started a Liverpool - Cape Town - Ceylon - Calcutta service, in 1853 extended to Australia. In 1852 Gibbs, Bright & Co. introduced Brunel's rebuilt "Great Britain" on a Liverpool - Cape Town - Australia route, continued under the labels Eagle Line and Liverpool & Australian Navigation Co. In 1853 Millers & Thompson and in 1856 the Australian Auxiliary Steam Clipper Co. opened services to Australia.

After the end of the Crimean war in 1856 the government invited tenders for a new service from Suez to Sydney. The P&O tendered - "and its tender was bluntly rejected. The contract was awarded to the European and Columbian Steam Navigation Company whose tender was 45,000 pound a year above that of the P&O" (D. Divine). The P&O directors "knew enough to sit back sternly and watch their rivals flounder ahead to disaster...." Under the new name European and Australian Royal Mail Co. Ltd. the competitors were to start steamer services Southampton - Malta - Alexandria and Suez - Sydney via Point de Galle, Ceylon, in 1857. "A branch route, connecting with the main line steamer at Malta, was to be worked from Marseilles with the first class mails (...). The "Oneida" left Southampton for Melbourne and Sydney to take up her new station on the 19th October 1856 and was followed at monthly intervals by the "Simla", "European" and "Colombian" (the "Simla" being chartered from the P&O). Two months later it was announced that the European & Australian R.M. Co. had entered into an agreement with Cunard Line whereby the Southampton to Alexandria service was to be subcontracted to the Liverpool concern" (J.M. Maber). E. A. Ewart concluded: "The European and Australian Royal Mail Company, formed in 1856, was practically insolvent within a year, although it struggled for a little with the help of the Royal Mail (West Indies) Company and (...) went bankrupt".

Victory of P&O
In October 1858 the Government advertised for tenders for a new Australian Mail contract. The P&O ".... Offered to undertake the service for 180,000 pound - exactly 40,000 a year more than the tender of 1856. A chastened Government accepted "(D. Divine). From 1859 the P&O provided in connection with their Southampton - Alexandria line the mail service Suez - Mauritius - Adelaide - Melbourne - Sydney under contract, while the Royal Mail S.P.Co interlude ended. The P&O's Australian connection soon was transferred from Mauritius island to Point de Galle and in 1862 to Colombo.

The first P&O steamers which had arrived in Australia were soon replaced by the "Shanghai"(700 tons), then by the "Bombay" and "Madras", of 1,200 tons each, and the "Norna" (1,035 tons). About the further development E.A. Ewart wrote: "In 1859 the Company had a magnificent fleet of steamers, many of them new, and over 2,000 tons and over 400 h.p. Out of a total of 55 liners on regular running, 38 were screw". At Sydney, the P&O and other steamers lay anchor out in the stream instead of coming alongside the existing deep-water wharves until c.1880. Ewart asked: "Is it possible (... ) that any of the large quantities of gold shipped was considered safer aboard a ship in the stream than within reach of thieves ashore?"


"Orotava" of Orient-Pacific Line, ex PSNCo, later RMSP (old card, coll. WS)

"Oroya" of Orient Line, later RMSP, Suez Canal (old card, coll. WS)

Orient Line
The P&O remained not the only official mail carrier for Australia. In 1878 the Orient Steam Navigation Company was founded. Its predecessors had started with sailing vessels shortly after Napoleon's defeat. They used steamers only from 1874 for Australia services via the Cape, from 1877 operated with steamers of the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. Under a contract, granted by the New South Wales Government, that "Orient Line" inaugurated services England - Suez - Australia in 1883. In 1887 the ships moved to the London Tilbury docks and from 1888 they conveyed the Australian Mail every two weeks, alternating with the P&O, via Plymouth, Marseilles, Naples to Fremantle, Adelaide and Sydney. In financial difficulties, the company intensified cooperation with the Pacific S.N. Co, and advertisements appeared in the name of an Orient-Pacific Line, then an Orient-Royal Mail Line. The Royal Mail or RMSP had acquired shares and in 1908 the new "Asturias" (12,002 gt) was transferred to Sydney. After the mail contract had been awarded to the Orient Line, the RMSP withdrew from the Australian Mail, from 1904 taken aboard the Orient liners at Naples, where a branch of the "Malle des Indes" mail train had its terminal.


"Ganges" of 1882, P&O, Sydney services, later Venice - Alexandria (P&O, National Maritime Museum)


"Rome", 1st class saloon (P&O, National Maritime Museum)

"Rome", Music Room (P&O, National Maritime Museum)

"Oceana" of 1888, P&O, Sydney services (via Flickr Commons)

Facing the competition by the Orient Line, the P&O introduced from 1880 the iron screw steamers of the 5000-ton "Rome" class, twin-funnelled, carrying only 1st and 2nd class passengers. In 1887 they were followed by the Jubilee class, beginning with the "Victoria" of 6,091 tons. With the 7,900-ton "India" class of 1896 and the 9,500-ton 'M' class of 1903, the speed was risen to 18 knots. So the P&O kept its leading position on the Indian Ocean.

"China" of 1896, P&O, at Port Said (old card, coll. WS)