The SS Cornubia was laid down in November 1856 and built in Hayle, Cornwall, by Harvey & Co. She was launched in February 1858 as a packet ship and ferry for the Hayle and Bristol Steam Packet Company. Sleek and painted white, with two funnels mounted close together amidships and with a high bridge over her paddle wheels, she plied the Hayle/St Ives to Bristol route in the days when the Great Western Railway had not penetrated as far as West Cornwall.
The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company (ISSC) operates the principal shipping service from Penzance, in Cornwall, to the Isles of Scilly, located 28 miles (45 km) to the southwest. It provides a year-round cargo service together with a seasonal passenger service in summer. The name of the company's principal ferry, the Scillonian III, is perhaps better known than that of the company itself.
John Harvey was a Cornishman whose career started as a blacksmith and engineer at Carnhell Green near Hayle, in west Cornwall. In 1779 he established a foundry and engineering works at Hayle called Harvey & Co. By 1800 the company employed more than 50 people and continued to grow as Harvey worked with many of the great Cornish engineers and entrepreneurs of the day. These included Richard Trevithick, William West, and, more importantly, Arthur Woolf. In 1797, Harvey's daughter, Jane, married Richard Trevithick.
The Great Western Railway's ships operated in connection with the company's trains to provide services to Ireland, the Channel Islands and France. Powers were granted by Act of Parliament for the Great Western Railway (GWR) to operate ships in 1871. The following year the company took over the ships operated by Ford and Jackson on the route between Wales and Ireland. Services were operated between Weymouth, the Channel Islands and France on the former Weymouth and Channel Islands Steam Packet Company routes. Smaller GWR vessels were also used as tenders at Plymouth and on ferry routes on the River Severn and River Dart. The railway also operated tugs and other craft at their docks in Wales and South West England.
The Scilly Isles Steam Navigation Company provided shipping services between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly from 1858 to 1872.
The Alderney Steam Packet Company provided shipping services between Alderney and Sark, Guernsey and Cherbourg from 1897 to 1931.
Amazon is a 102-foot (31 m) long screw schooner ex-steam yacht built in 1885 at the private Arrow Yard of Tankerville Chamberlayne in Southampton.
Sir Edward Hain was an English shipping magnate and politician from Cornwall, England. He represented St Ives as a Liberal Unionist from 1900 to 1904, and as a Liberal from 1904 to 1906. His shipping company, Hain Line, was sold to the recently merged Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and British-India Steam Navigation Company after his death.
The Hayle and Bristol Steam Packet Company operated steam ship services between Hayle, Ilfracombe and Bristol in the mid nineteenth century. Confusingly from 1848 to 1860, the company name was used by two separate operators.
PS Gael was a passenger vessel operated by the Great Western Railway from 1884 to 1891
PS Earl of Arran was a passenger vessel operated by the Ardrossan Steamboat Company from 1860 to 1871 and the West Cornwall Steam Ship Company from 1871 to 1872
SS Little Western was a passenger vessel operated by the Scilly Isles Steam Navigation Company from 1858 to 1871 and the West Cornwall Steam Ship Company from 1871 to 1872
SS Melmore was a passenger cargo vessel operated by the Great Western Railway from 1905 to 1912
PS Guide was a passenger vessel built for the Dartmouth Steam Packet Company in 1869.
SS Lady of the Isles was a passenger vessel built by Harvey and Company, Hayle for the West Cornwall Steam Ship Company in 1875.
SS Lyonesse was a passenger vessel built for the West Cornwall Steam Ship Company in 1875.
SS Nidd was a freight vessel built for the Goole Steam Shipping Company in 1900.
Toyne, Carter and Company was a company based in Fowey, England from 1897 to 1968 which in its early days operated steamship services servicing the Cornish clay trade.
William Lancaster Owen was a British civil engineer primarily with the Great Western Railway.
