The Fleets

General Screw Steam Shipping Company 1848-1857

The General Screw Steam Shipping Company was founded in 1848 by James Laming, who for some 30 years previously had owned sailing ships plying between England and the Netherlands.
In the autumn of 1849 the 500 ton iron screw BOSPHORUS inaugurated the new company's service from Liverpool to Gibraltar, Malta and Constantinople (Istanbul), the HELLESPONT and PROPONTIS of similar size joining her as soon as completed. The Company was contracted in November 1850 to carry the mails monthy between Plymouth and Cape Town for £30,000 a year. The BOSPHORUS opened the service in December 1850 and reached Cape Town in 40 days; 5 more than the contract time.
Almost at once orders were placed with C. J. Mare & Co. of Blackwall, London, builders of the earlier ships, for the QUEEN OF THE SOUTH, which was followed by the sister ships LADY JOCELYN, INDIANA, CALCUTTA, MAURITIUS and HYDASPES. On 29 May 1852 an agreement was reached for the Company to provide a monthly mail service from England to Madras and Calcutta, via St. Vincent, Ascension St. Helena, Cape Town, Mauritius and Ceylon.

The Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company started a mail service between England and Australia in June 1852 which proved so unreliable that the contract was withdrawn in April 1853.
The General Screw Company had already despatched two steamers to Australia early in the year and decided to step in with a regular service. The new steamer ARGO sailed from Southampton on 8 May 1853 and reached Melbourne in 64 days, calling only at St. Vincent; she returned via Cape Horn and after a passage of similar duration received considerable publicity as the first steamer to encircle the globe.
Unfortunately, the Indian service had been a disastrous failure owing to a number of serious breakdowns of the steamers, the unexpectedly high cost and consumption of fuel and the disappointing passenger and cargo results. There was no alternative but to withdraw the service, the last sailing being taken by the PROPONTIS on 15 March 1854. Despite the award of a short-term mail contract, the Australian service did not last much longer, and the ARGO took the final sailing from Southampton on 4 October 1854. The problem of what to do with the superfluous units of the fleet was partially solved by chartering the new steamers GOLDEN FLEECE, JASON and THE PRINCE to carry troops to the Mediterranean.
The INDIANA left Calcutta on 16 March 1854 on her third homeward voyage from India and arrived at Plymouth on 27 May. A fortnight later that she would inaugurate a new service for the General Screw Company from Le Havre and Southampton to New York, under the management of Croskey & Co., agents for the American owned Ocean Navigation Company, which was running a monthly service between New York, Southampton and Bremen with two wooden paddle steamers and for the New York & Havre Steam Navigation Company, whose monthly service between New York, Southampton and Havre was being undertaken temporarily by chartered wooden paddle steamers.
The intention was that the INDIANA and MAURITIUS should sail once a month between Le Havre, Southampton and New York, and the CROESUS and the QUEEN OF THE SOUTH once a month between Bremen, Southampton and New York on alternate dates with the American steamers, thereby providing a combined weekly sailing from Southampton.
All the units of the fleet were chartered as a Crimean War transport in 1854-1855. Disaster befell three of the transports, as THE PRINCE was wrecked in the Crimea in November 1854 during a hurricane, the CROESUS was destroyed by fire in April 1855 when carrying Sardinian troops to the Crimea and 2 months previously the MAURITIUS was badly damaged by fire in drydock at Southampton.

The entire fleet was sold after the war and in 1857 to the European & American Steam Shipping Company, four of them were chartered in 1859-1860 to the Galway Line.

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:
  • Gibraltar-Malta-Constantinople
  • Plymouth-Cape Town
  • monthly mail service from Plymouth to Calcutta via St. Vincent, Ascension, St. Helena, Cape Town, Mauritius, Ceylon, and Madras
  • Southampton-Melbourne
  • Le Havre-Southampton-New York

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Last updated: September 03, 2007 and maintained by and M. Kohli