Abstract
Steam Navigation to the West Indies A FURTHER step in the promotion of trans-Atlantic steam navigation was taken on September 26, 1839, when the Government granted a charter to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company which was formed to connect Great Britain and the West Indies by steam. By a contract made in 1840 with the Admiralty, the Company agreed for the sum of £240,000 per annum “to provide, maintain, and keep seaworthy, and in complete repair and readiness, for the purpose of conveying all Her Majesty's mails, a sufficient number (not less than fourteen) of good, substantial and efficient steam-vessels, of such construction and strength as to be fit and able to carry guns of the largest calibre now used on board of Her Majesty's steam-vessels of war, each of such vessels to be always supplied with first-rate appropriate steam engines of not less than 400 collective horse-power; and also a sufficient number (not less than four) of good, substantial and efficient sailing-vessels, of at least 100 tons burden each”.
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Science News a Century Ago. Nature 144, 564 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144564a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144564a0