Development of Mail Services to & from Australia/NZ in the 19th Century - with emphasis on steam

Colin Tabeart MA, FSPH

19 February 2009

Introduction

Prior to 1840 the likely passage time for a letter between ANZ and UK was probably anything between 150 and 200 days, with some passages in excess of 200 days. By the 1890s the time was down to 30-35 days. How was this remarkable improvement achieved in the short space of 50 years?

Improved Navigation

From the late 1840s to early 1850s sailing ship captains started to follow the advice of USN Lt Maury, who made a large study of the trade winds with recommended routes, and the work of John Towson, an examiner with the Liverpool Marine Board. By the early 1850s the crack sailing ship captains were regularly achieving 80-90 days, with records in the 70s - a ship 100 days out was sometimes posted as “overdue”!  The record out to Melbourne from Liverpool was 64 days (James Baines), and back was also 64 days (Lightning - Bully Forbes)

Steam Ships

Although by no means always faster than the crack clippers, and in the early days frequently unreliable, steam generally produced more consistent times, although the early steam packet services were usually monthly affairs. As soon as steam was established out to India (in practice about 1842 although a ramshackle service by the EI Co operated Bombay-Aden before that) Australians sought to send letters by sailing ship to Ceylon or India to pick up the steam link to UK. Similarly trans-Pacific, again by sail, linking with the RMSPCo service across the Atlantic. Steam ships gradually improved, whereas the clippers reached their peak in the 1850s.

Rail

Steam trains travelled faster than steam ships, so if advantage could be taken of a rail line overland it was done. Thus once the rail link London-Southampton was complete P&O sailings went from Southampton rather than Falmouth, but as soon as the Plymouth-London link was complete mails were loaded and landed at Plymouth. Once the San Francisco-NY railroad was completed in 1869 NSW & NZ looked to send mail via Frisco. Once the Australian south coast rail link Adelaide-Melbourne-Sydney was complete Australian mails were landed/loaded at Adelaide. There are other examples, notably through Europe and trans-Canada: the general rule was “the more the rail the faster the mail”.

General Overview 19th century routes

Pacific Routes

Pre-1866 sailing ship to S America, picking up Pacific SNCo route to Panama, then transatlantic by Royal Mail Steam Packet Co
1866-69. Sydney-Wellington-Rapa (for fuel)-Panama, then RMSPCo
1870 on. Sydney-Auckland-Fiji-Honolulu-San Francisco. Train to NY and on by 1st available Transatlantic steamer.
1893 on. Sydney-Auckland-Fiji-Vancouver then Canadain Pacific RR and on by 1st Transatlantic steamer - the “All Red Route”. Queensland & Fiji participated from time-to-time.