British Mail Steamers to South America, 1851-1965

During the nineteenth century the British government and the Admiralty provided large subsidies to commercial companies to run international mail services. Concentrating on the service between Britain and South America, this book explores the economic, maritime and political aspects of the Royal Mail Lines company between 1851 and 1965, and reveals the impacts that a long-distance mail service had upon travel, trade, commerce and the changing patterns of global information exchange.

Robert E. Forrester spent twenty years at sea as cadet and deck officer, the last ten with Royal Mail Lines including frequent voyages to South America. In 1965 he left the sea and for the next twenty years was involved with press advertising and as managing director of a magazine publishing company. Following his retirement he studied for an MA (2001) in Maritime Studies at the Greenwich Maritime Institute followed by a PhD in 2006.

Chapter 1 1840: The West Indies Mail Contract; Chapter 2 1851: Across the South Atlantic; Chapter 3 A Decade of Contrasting Fortunes; Chapter 4 The Second Epoch; Chapter 5 Difficult Trading Conditions; Chapter 6 A Period of Uncertainty; Chapter 7 Focus on South America; Chapter 8 The First World War and its Aftermath; Chapter 9 Post-war Downturn and Collapse; Chapter 10 Royal Mail Lines Ltd; Chapter 11 The War Years, 1939'"45; Chapter 12 Post-war Recovery; Chapter 13 The End of the Line;