The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company was a shipping line established in 1823. It served cross-channel routes between Britain and Ireland for over a century. For 70 of those years it transported the mail. It was 'wound-up' by a select committee of the House of Lords in 1922 and finally liquidated in 1930. [1]
The company operated from offices at Eden House, 15-18 Eden Quay which were constructed in 1829.
The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company began in Dublin in 1822 as Charles Wye Williams & Company; Williams is one of the unrecognised pioneers of steam navigation. His company initially operated steam ships between Dublin and Liverpool. In 1826, the line added service to London and Belfast. Later, service was also provided between Glasgow and Belfast. Transatlantic service to New York started with the Royal William departing Liverpool on 5 July 1838, becoming the first steamer to depart for an Atlantic crossing from the River Mersey. In January, 1839, they were awarded a contract to provide a night mail service from Holyhead; their ships docked at the Admiralty Pier in Holyhead. In 1843, the company took over the routes of the St. George Steam Packet Company, extending service to Wales. The Company also operated smaller steamers on the River Shannon.
Up until 1850, the British Admiralty carried the Royal Mail, but in that year, contracts were awarded for the first time to private companies. Ships carrying mail on these contracts were authorized to use the designation RMS or Royal Mail Ship. The most valuable route, with the highest volume, was between Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire), in Ireland, and Holyhead in Wales. The line won the contract and purchased RMS Saint Columba and RMS Llwywllyn from the Admiralty. In 1859, the line ordered four additional steamers, named for four provinces of Ireland, the RMS Connaught, RMS Leinster, RMS Munster and RMS Ulster; these four were commonly referred to as "The Provinces".
In 1897, the line was awarded an additional 21 years for their contract with the Post Office, the CofDSPCo ordered four identical ships from Cammell Lairds of Birkenhead to replace "The Provinces"; these carried the same names as the former ships. These were twin-propeller vessels powered by an eight-cylinder steam engine, capable of 24 knots.
During World War I, the company lost two steamers sunk by the Germans, the worst of which was the second Leinster which was lost with over 500 lives in 30 metres of water just North East of the Kish Light, the greatest single-incident loss of life in the Irish Sea. (The official death toll was 501. Research by Roy Stokes, author of Death in the Irish Sea: The Sinking of RMS Leinster and Philip Lecane, author of Torpedoed! The RMS Leinster Disaster suggest that the number lost was somewhat higher.) The Company was not able to financially recover from this loss. Afterwards, the remaining fleet were taken over by the British & Irish Steam Packet Company. The City of Dublin Steam Packet Company was finally liquidated in 1924.
Royal Mail Ship, usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS, is the ship prefix used for seagoing vessels that carry mail under contract to the British Royal Mail. The designation dates back to 1840. Any vessel designated as "RMS" has the right both to fly the pennant of the Royal Mail when sailing and to include the Royal Mail "crown" insignia with any identifying device and/or design for the ship.
Several ships have been named Innisfallen, the name being derived from the island of Innisfallen in County Kerry and often given to vessels serving the southerly coasts of Ireland. Five served on the Irish Sea route between Cork and Fishguard, from 1896 onwards: two of these were war casualties whilst the remainder have been either scrapped or renamed and sold to new owners.
The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company Limited is the oldest continuously operating passenger shipping company in the world, having been founded in 1830.
RMS Leinster was an Irish ship operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. She served as the Kingstown-Holyhead mailboat until she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UB-123, which was under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Robert Ramm, on 10 October 1918, while bound for Holyhead. She sank just outside Dublin Bay at a point 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) east of the Kish light.
The Chester and Holyhead Railway was an early railway company conceived to improve transmission of Government dispatches between London and Ireland, as well as ordinary railway objectives. Its construction was hugely expensive, chiefly due to the cost of building the Britannia Tubular Bridge over the Menai Strait. The company had relied on Government support in facilitating the ferry service, and this proved to be uncertain. The company opened its main line throughout in 1850. It relied on the co-operation of other railways to reach London, and in 1859 it was absorbed by the London and North Western Railway.
The National Maritime Museum of Ireland opened in 1978 in the former Mariners' Church in Moran Park, located between the seafront and the centre of Dún Laoghaire town, southeast of Dublin city. President Michael D. Higgins officially re-opened the museum in 2012.
RMS Connaught was a steamship built in 1897 and operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company for Royal Mail as well as passenger service. Connaught was the second ship of this name operated by the line. She was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-48 on 3 March 1917.
HMS Lively was a B-class torpedo boat destroyer of the British Royal Navy. She was built speculatively by Laird, Son & Company, Birkenhead, pre-empting further orders for vessels of this type, and was bought by the navy in 1901.
The Collins Line was the common name for the American shipping company started by Israel Collins and then built up by his son Edward Knight Collins, formally called the New York and Liverpool United States Mail Steamship Company. Under Edward Collins' guidance, the company grew to be a serious competitor on the transatlantic routes to the British Cunard shipping company.
The British and Irish Steam Packet Company Limited was a steam packet and passenger ferry company operating between ports in Ireland and in Great Britain between 1836 and 1992. It was latterly popularly called the B&I, and branded as B&I Line.
The Britannia class was the Cunard Line's initial fleet of wooden paddlers that established the first year round scheduled Atlantic steamship service in 1840. By 1845, steamships carried half of the transatlantic saloon passengers and Cunard dominated this trade. While the units of the Britannia class were solid performers, they were not superior to many of the other steamers being placed on the Atlantic at that time. What made the Britannia class successful is that it was the first homogeneous class of transatlantic steamships to provide a frequent and uniform service. Britannia, Acadia and Caledonia entered service in 1840 and Columbia in 1841 enabling Cunard to provide the dependable schedule of sailings required under his mail contracts with the Admiralty. It was these mail contracts that enabled Cunard to survive when all of his early competitors failed.
PS Admiral Moorsom was a passenger paddle steamer operated by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) from 1860 to 1885.
PS Alexandra was a paddle steamer passenger vessel operated by the London and North Western Railway from 1863 to 1889.
SS (RMS) Tynwald (I), No. 21921, was an iron paddle-steamer which served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, and was the first vessel in the Company to bear the name.
SS (RMS) Tynwald (III), No. 95755, was an iron passenger steamer which served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, and was the third vessel in the Company to bear the name.
RMS Snaefell (III) – the third ship in the line's history to be so named – was a packet steamer operated by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company from 1910 to 1914. She was then acquired by the Admiralty at the outbreak of the First World War, until she was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean on 5 June 1918.
SS (RMS) Douglas (III) – the third vessel in the line's history to bear the name – was a packet steamer which entered service with the London and South Western Railway in 1889 under the name Dora until she was purchased by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company in 1901 for £13,500.
SS (RMS) Mona's Isle (III), No. 76304, the third ship in the company's history to be so named, was a paddle steamer which served with the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company until she was purchased by The Admiralty in 1915.
Cumberland was launched at Holyhead in 1826 as a steam packet. In 1839 she underwent conversion to a sail barque. In 1846 Cumberland transported Parkhurst apprentices to the Swan River Colony. She foundered on 23 October 1849 while carrying rice from Bally, Netherlands East Indies, to Hong Kong.