Potted History of the Mail Ships

Early in the 17th century the East India Company was founded in London. Their ships traded from the U.K. to India and the Far East with calls at Cape Town to replenish water and take on cattle for the remainder of the voyage.
The outward bound sailors would leave letters for home under marked stones, homeward bound ships would stop for replenishments and retrieve the letters and deliver to the recipients, thus was the foundation for the Cape Mail ships was laid.
During 1814 the U.K. Government sponsored a monthly sailing from London calling at Madeira and then to Cape Town. The initial voyage lasted 114 days with calls at Madeira and Rio de Janeiro.
In 1820 the U.K Government sponsored mass emigration to the Cape, 21 ships were chartered and 4,000 people were transported, approximately 3,000 of them were landed at Algoa Bay and Port Elizabeth was founded.
On October 13 1825 the first steam ship arrived in Table Bay causing much excitement amongst the local population, she was the ENTERPRISE of the East India Company. She had left Gravesend on the 3rd of August; she was 122 feet long and fitted with two small steam engines, which developed 120-horse power, her tonnage was 464. Gordon & Sons Deptford built her.
Twenty five years later the General Screw Shipping Company was the first to attempt a regular sailing schedule between the UK and South Africa. The BOSPHORUS arrived in Cape Town on the 27th of January 1850, 5 days in excess of her contracted time. Two years later the company extended its services India with calls at Mauritius and Ceylon.
In order to meet schedules new ships were ordered and delivered and these were, QUEEN of the SOUTH, LADY JOCELYN, INDIA and CALCUTA. By 1854 with escalating fuel costs and a couple of maritime disasters the company decide to abandon the service.
Two years later in 1856 W.S. Lindsay’s line acquired the contract, which now stipulated a voyage time UK Cape Town 36 days and the same time for the return voyage.
On September 29 the ENGLAND arrived at the Cape: other ships used were, ROBERT LOWE, SCOTLAND, TYNEMOUTH, IRELAND, JAMES HARTLEY and W.S. LINDSAY.
Lindsay line found it difficult to comply with the South African requested schedule and the Scotland completed her final voyage for the company on the 23 September 1857.
The Admiralty as agent for the Post Office advertised for tenders for the carriage of mail between the UK and the Cape Colony and Natal. The voyage time and been increased to 42 days and the mails would be loaded at Davenport, Plymouth under the supervision of the R.N. for the outward voyage.
The Union Line was successful in winning the contarct, which would last for five years and would be eligible for £33,000 per annum subsidy.
Homeward bound the Mail Ships would call at St Helena and Ascension Island.
Due to the speed of awarding the contarct DANE (1) took the first sailing, she carried six passengers and £102, of cargo, the first voyage of the new company could be considered as a disaster as she was two days late in arriving in Cape Town.
November of the same year saw the CELT arrive in Cape Town with over ten thousand letters, 3,671 newspapers and passengers. The company recorded a profit of £325 for the mail carriage. Cargo profits, plus passenger profits which were not included; the company was now on the up and up.
During 1858 Union Line embarked on a policy of purchasing second hand larger ships. The ATHENS a Mediterranean ship was acquired and re-rigged for the South Atlantic. By the end of the year the company fleet was the ATHENS, DANE (1), CELT (1), NORMAN (1) and the PHOEBE, she was the fastest ship in the company fleet.
Union Line adverts now pointed out that their service now included a Stewardess as “well as cabin bedding provided”, which was something of a novelty as passengers were responsible for their own bedding.
The ships colours were changed; the funnel was repainted with a black top and red beneath, hull colours were changed to black, at some stage the hull colour was changed to white.
June 1859 the Cape Legislative Assembly voted that £250 per day should be paid to any Mail Ship for each passage day below 35 days.
1872 February 23rd Donald Currie dispatched his first private Mail steamer to the Cape. Private Mails were stamped S.S. and were only carried by the Union Mail Ships if space was available. In order to meet his fortnightly schedule from the UK to the Cape, he chartered the MARSDIN, WARRIOR and PENGUIN.
On October 5th 1876 a joint Mail contract was awarded to Union and Castle line by the Cape Assembly. A clause in the new agreement expressly forbade any amalgamation between both lines.
February 1888 a new Mail agreement was accepted by a concerned and the amalgamation clause remained.
October 1st 1893 a new seven year joint contract was issued and agreed withal parties, the clause forbidding amalgamation remained.
When the new mail contract was announced in 1900 the Cape Assembly had omitted from the contract the clause forbidding amalgamation. The change was carried out in order to try and create a more competitive environment. The changes backfired as no other companies were interested in bidding for the Mail Contract, Currie approached the Union Line with a view to merging both Castle and Union Lines.
By December the agreements were in place for both companies to merge, the new company was named Union Castle.
From 1900 until 24th of October 1977 (when the Southampton Castle arrived in Soton) the Mail Ships left Southampton on a weekly service heading for the Cape. Initially the ships left Soton at 16:00 hours on the Thursday but with acceleration of the service in the late sixties the mail ship left Southampton a Friday at 13:00 hours.
From henceforth the mail would be now carried in a container on one of the new box boats.
Much has been written by others regarding the demise of the Mail Ships; they were profitable and did carry a large number of passengers.
By the early 70’s the container ship was looming over the horizon as means of transporting cargo by sea.
Companies in the South African Conference line decided by about 1975 that general cargo ships should be phased out and replaced by container ships, ten ships would replace the mail ships and the countless number of reefers employed in the carriage of South African fruit. At the same time a conscious decision was taken by B&C that Mail ships would unprofitable relying only on passenger trade, and that replacing them with passenger only ships would not be ideal. Therefore the decision was taken to end the carriage of passengers between the UK and the Cape and return.
Although the agreement was for ten container ships, due to many factors only nine were ordered and employed on the UK – RSA routes.