Revolutions in Postal Transport - 3

Steamships across the Atlantic

Inland, trains replaced mail coaches as the main form of mail transport. Overseas, steamships replaced sailing vessels. 

The Sirius was chartered by the British and American Steam Navigation Company to be the first steamship across the Atlantic. Her passage lasted 18 days 10 hours arriving at New York on 22 April 1838. However, she only made two round trips, having been designed for the Irish Sea!

Of more lasting importance was Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s first ship, the famous Great Western. The Great Western is shown here in unadopted stamp artwork by David Gentleman, for the British Ships issue of 1969. This ship was built for transatlantic trade, joining up with the Great Western railway, also being built by Brunel. The Great Western carried mail across the Atlantic to the United States from 1838 until 1846 (and then to the West Indies).

You can find out more about Brunel Speeding the Mail in our exhibition to mark the bicentenary of the great engineer's birth.

The Great Western Company’s high charges for carrying mail did not endear them to the Post Office. In 1839 the main contract to carry mail by steamship between England and North America was awarded to the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. (later Cunard) sailing from Liverpool, rather than Bristol. Sailings began in July 1840 with the Britannia and lasted through to the end of the century. 

Tonnage and speed increased dramatically in the next decades. In 1840 the paddle steamer Britannia was 1,154 tons; but the Majestic of 1889 was almost 10,000 tons and no longer had auxiliary sails. The first steamships had taken over 14 days to cross the Atlantic; by the end of the century it was only half that time.

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