The Fleets

European & American Steam Shipping Company, 1857-1859

The European & American Steam Shipping Company was founded in 1857 with the purchase of eight iron screw steamers from the General Screw Steam Shipping Company, which were paid for with shares in the new concern.
The new company was managed by T.R. Croskey, American Consul at Southampton. Four of the ships the GOLDEN FLEECE, HYDASPES, CALCUTTA and the LADY JOCELYN were used for a service to South America, and the remainder the QUEEN OF THE SOUTH, INDIANA, ARGO and JASON were placed in a fortnightly service between Bremen, Southampton and New York.
The service from Europe to North America was merely a repetion of the General Screw Steam Shipping Company and the QUEEN OF THE SOUTH, INDIANA, ARGO and JASON in that order sailed between Bremen, Southampton and New York at fortnightly intervals starting on 25 April 1857. The sailings were interspersed between those of the wooden paddle steamers of the American owned Ocean Navigation Company and the New York & Havre Steam Navigation Company on the New York - Southampton - Le Havre route.

The GOLDEN FLEECE sailed from Hamburg on 20 April 1857 via Southampton for Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco in a joint service with the Hamburg Brasilianische Packetschiffahrt Gesellschaft and was followed by the HYDASPES and CALCUTTA, although they sailed instead from Antwerp via Southampton on 30 May and 30 June, respectively. The LADY JOCELYN was intended to sail for South America a month later but, in fact, left Southampton on 8 August for Calcutta as she had been taken up by the East India Company as an Indian Mutiny transport. The other three ships were similarly chartered as soon as they returned to Southampton from South America.
Unfortunately, the Company lost £11,602 on the three Brazilian voyages, while a further £899 was lost on 11 voyages undertaken to New York, while the value of the fleet was shown on the balance sheet as £564,623, whereas the fleet was eventually sold for only £250,000 to J.O. Lever, independently of his interests in the Galway Line. In one respect only, the European & American Company had not done so badly as the total of seven steamers chartered to the East India Company made them a profit of £17,000.

The European & American Steam Shipping Company service was never resumed after the chartering to the East India Company for the Indian Mutiny, instead J.O. Lever transferred three ships to the Real Companhia de Navegacao a Vapor Anglo-Luso-Brasileira in 1859 to sail under Portuguese flag and four ships were chartered to the Galway Line in 1859 and 1860, but already in 1861 he sold the six of the remaining seven ships to the East India & London Shipping Company.

Many thanks to Henk Jungerius and Ted Finch for their assistance in collecting this data. The following list was extracted from various sources. This is not an all inclusive list but should only be used as a guide. If you would like to know more about a vessel, visit the Ship Descriptions (onsite) or Immigrant Ship web site.

• Routes:
  • Bremen, Southampton and New York
  • Le Havre, Southampton and New York
  • Southampton, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco

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Last updated: September 02, 2007 and maintained by and M. Kohli