WEST INDIAN MAIL STEAMPACKETS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 14, 11 June 1842, Page 55

WEST INDIAN MAIL STEAMPACKETS.

[From the United Service Gazette.'] A daily paper hub given such erroneous statements connected with these packet steamers that we have been at some pains to obtain the truth, and the following facts, from the best authority, may be relied on :—: — It has been stated, in the first place, that by a clause in the act of Parliament incorporating the company, Government is empowered at any time to take possession of these vessels for the ■public service as vessels of war, and that with this view they were frigate built, and ready at a moment's notice to be transformed into very formidable engines of offence. This is not the case. There is no clause empowering Government to take possession of these steamers without a regular sale on the part of the company. It is true that there is a clause which declares that the vessels shall each be built " to carry guns of the largest calibre," but it does not specify what number of guns. The vessels have been all built expressly under the direction -of the company, without any interference whatever on the part of the Government ; and so far from costing £80,000, as stated, the amount has been somewhere about £60,000 each. We were also gravely told by the same print that Government paid £240,000 per annum to the company for the conveyance of the mails to and from the West Indies, but that this sum did not remunerate them for the expense of coals ! We would scarcely have noticed these puerilities but that such reports are calculated to do much mischief and to fetter our intercourse with the Transatlantic states of minor importance as well as with America. Government has certainly agreed to pay to the company £240,000 per annum during peace, and 25 per cent, additional in case of war, but not on the grounds stated in the paper to which we have above alluded. The general summary of the routes of these packets may thus be stated : — A packet will sail on the Ist of January, 1842. On the 15th of the same month another will start, and afterwards on the Ist and 1 5th of every month at midnight. The periods (of departure and arrival) are estimated by the average speed in which the work in each particular district may reasonably be expected to be performed by steamers of 450 horse power, and 1,400 tons burden each, and built on the most approved principles of naval architecture. After atarting from Southampton the packet will proceed to Barbadoes (the arrangements for calling at Corunna and Madeira have not been finally settled), a run of 3,920 miles, which will be accomplished in seventeen days and two hours. From Barbadoes she will proceed to Nassau, 1,393 miles, where she will arrive on the 23d day and nime hours from England, and from Nassau to Southampton back again, 3,895 miles, on the 4 1st day and fourteen hours. The total number of miles traversed, therefore, will be 9,208 in the 942 hours and a quarter, or somewhat more than nine miles per hour. These, however, are only the grand points. At Barbadoes she will deliver mails to a steamer in waiting for the following places : Tobago, De•merara, Berbice, Surinam, and Paramaribo, and take in return -mails from all those places to the rest of .the West Indies, North America, and Europe. To another steamer in waiting she will deliver mails for the northern islands — St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Guadaloupe, An- ( tigua, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitt's, Tortola, St. Thomas's, St. Juan's, and Turk's Islands. She will then proceed to St. Vincent's, and thence to Grenada, there to deliver to and receive from the steamer in waiting the mails to and from Grenada and Curacoa. The mails from Grenada are — Laguayra, Porto Cabello, Curacoa, Mayaguess, St. Juan's, St. Thomas's, Santa Cruz, &c. From Curacoa — Bahia, Honda, Maracaibo, Santa Martha, and Carthagena. These mails, or "the Carthagena- and Santa Martha district" bags, are conveyed in two . sailing schooners, and it is calculated that the schooners can return from Bahia and Honda to Curacoa within fifteen days. The object of this communication is to enable Santa Martha and Carthagena to receive their outward European letters sooner by two day 6 than those two places could, receive them by way of Jamaica. From Grenada the steamer will proceed by places already mentioned to St. Thomas's, landing and taking in European and intercolonial mails. From St. Thomas's she will proceed to Turk's Island ; there deliver to and take in mails from the steamer from^the Jamaica district, which comprises Turk's Island, Cape Nichola, St. Jago, Kingston, Carthagena, Chagres, and the River St. Juan. It was originally intended to touch also at Savanna-la-Mar, on the southwest coast of Jamaica, but the Post-office has dispensed with the steamers stopping at this port, and in consequence she goes round the north of Cuba instead of the south, by which a saving of fifteen 2~ } s is gained to all places in the. Gulf of Mexico ; while the windward and eastern islands and places receive their, mails at the same time as if the first plan had been adhered to. Having delivered mails for the Jamaica district, she will deliver those for the Turk's Island and Honduras district, viz., Havanna, Belize, and Nassau. For the first Gulf of Mexico district, Havanna, Vera Cruz, Tainpico, and New Orleans ; also the second Gulf of Mexico district mails, viz., from Havanna to New Orleans, New Orleans to Tanipico, Tampico to Vera Cruz, and Vera Cruz back to Havanna. From Turk's Island she will proceed to Nassau, there land and take in the mails to and from the Bahamas, and also take in from the steamer from the Havanna the inward European mails from the Gulf of Mexico, ;and deliver to her the mails from all the eastern West Indies., and the Jamaica district included, for North America. The Havanna and North American station mails are those of Havanna;

.Nassau, Savannah, Charleston, New York, Halifax, and from the latter to New York and back again by the same route to the Havanna. From Nassau, as before stated, she will proceed to England by Bermuda, landing at Fayal all the mails, &c, which may be on board from the West Indies for the Azores and Madeira. It is not to be supposed tbat the same steamer will perform the entire voyage as we have described, but a steamer will be always coaled and ready at given points — say, Barbadoes, Grenada, Turk's Island, and Nassau, to go on when another reaches these places. There are now four steam-ships, of great magnitude and power, fitting out in the East India Dock, at Blackwall, and are nearly ready for sea. These fine vessels were built at Northfleet, and are each of 1,690 tons burden, and will shortly join other steamers built in Scotland and Liverpool, for the Royal West India Mail Steam-packet Company. The whole fleet, twelve in number, are expected to meet in the Southampton river before the expiration "of the present year, and a regular intercourse by steam will be kept up between England and the West India colonies. The four steam-ships at Blackwall are named respectively after four of the principal rivers in England — the Thames, Medway, Isis, and Trent. The utmost activity prevails in getting them ready for sea. The paddleboxes are of enormous dimensions, and the tops of them will form life-boats, which can be removed and made available, in case of necessity, in a few minutes. The building and fitting out of these ships, and the formation of the engines and machinery, has given regular employment to 1,000 men in the metropolis and at Northfleet for the last twelve months. Another of the West India mail steamers, the Tay, under the command of Captain Hayden, came into the river at Southampton on Monday, and the following day, in company with the Forth, Captain Ferrer, made an experimental trip as far as Calshot Castle, to give the Government inspector, who was on board the Tay, an opportunity of testing her engines and power. She passed the Forth, and beat her considerably on their return, which was supposed to arise in some measure from the latter being very much by the head, and out of trim. There are now five of these splendid frigates in the river, and all hands busily engaged in preparing for their departure, which it was intended should have taken place on the 1 5th instant, but is now postponed for a few days.