TCP-M/J 04 - The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada

Steamship Pioneers
twice a month for eight months
and monthly in winter on a Liverpool-Halifax-Boston
route. The
small ship Unicorn, intended for
the St. Lawrence River service,
brought the first Cunard mails in
May 1840. The first of the four
regular Cunard steamships, the
Britannia, departed from Liverpool
in July 1840, and took 14
days and 8 hours to reach Boston
via Halifax. The Liverpool-Halifax-Boston
service proved successful.
To save time, in 1845 the
Canadian mail route was
switched to go via Boston, not by
the St. Lawrence and overland to
Halifax. New York was added as
another western terminal in 1847,
and the voyages soon became
weekly. In September 1850 the
call at Halifax was dropped, and
in 1867 New York replaced
Boston for all Cunard sailings.
Cunard’s fleet grew, with new
ships that were larger and faster.
For example, the 3,300-ton Persia
(1856) was the first iron mail
steamer on the Atlantic. Cunard
had much competition; by responding
to this competition, the
company stayed at the forefront
of Atlantic steamship service.
In 1855, a syndicate led by
Hugh Allan obtained a Canadian
government mail contract for
fortnightly sailings Montreal-Liverpool
in summer and monthly
sailings Portland, Maine-Liverpool
in the winter, when the St.
Lawrence River was frozen. Portland
and Montreal had been connected
by a railway in 1853. The
Allan Line started operation on
this service in 1856, when the
North American sailed to Quebec.
The steamship service became
weekly in the summer of 1859.
The Allan Line competed with the
Cunard Line, and after some initial
setbacks was quite successful.
Starting in 1859, to speed up
mail delivery, both companies
called at an Irish port. Mails could
be taken more rapidly between
Ireland and London by rail and
mail ship across the Irish Sea than
by the transoceanic ships, saving
a full day in their transmission.
Both companies had postal facilities
on board the ships. Onboard
sorting and postmarking also
saved delivery time. By 1863, the
Allan Line was carrying 80% of
the Canadian mail overseas plus
some United States overseas mail.
Here are two examples of trans-
Atlantic mail, one carried by a
Cunard Line ship and the other
by an Allan Line ship. I have purposely
chosen examples bearing
postage stamps. Most of us find it
easier to interpret covers with
postage stamps rather than trans-
Atlantic stampless covers, with
their handwritten markings.
Figure 3 shows a cover addressed
to Montreal carried from
Liverpool to New York in the Cunard
ship Africa in 1856. The
cover is franked with a 6d lilac
and a 2d deep blue adhesive,
both tied by the Liverpool barred
numeral 466. The Africa departed
from Liverpool on November 23,
1861, the date of the Liverpool
postmark on the reverse (this is
the Liverpool P.L.O or Packet Letter
Office postmark). The cover
went by closed bag to Montreal,
where it was received on Decem-
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May - June / Mai - Juin 2004 153