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The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was a British shipping company founded in London in 1839 by a Scot, James MacQueen. The line's motto was ''Per Mare Ubique'' (everywhere by sea). After good and bad times it became the largest shipping group in the world in 1927 when it took over the White Star Line. The company was liquidated and its assets taken over by the newly formed Royal Mail Lines in 1932 after financial trouble and scandal; over the years RML declined to no more than the name of a service run by former rival Hamburg-Süd. ==History as Royal Mail Steam Packet Company== Queen Victoria granted the initial Royal Charter of Incorporation of "The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company" on 26 September 1839. In 1840 the Admiralty and the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company made a contract in which the latter agreed to provide a fleet of not fewer than 14 steam vessels for the purpose of carrying all Her Majesty's mails, to sail twice every month to Barbados in the West Indies from Southampton or Falmouth. 14 new steam vessels were built for the purpose, being ''Thames'', ''Medway'', and ''Isis'' (built at Northfleet); ''Severn'' and ''Avon'' (built at Bristol); ''Tweed'', ''Clyde'', ''Teviot'', ''Dee'', and ''Solway'' (built at Greenock); ''Tay'' (built at Dumbarton); ''Forth'' (built at Leith); and ''Medina'', (built at Cowes). In reference to their destination, these vessels were known as the West Indies Mail Steamers. The West Indian Mail Service was established by the sailing of the first Royal Mail Steam Packet, PS ''Thames'' from Falmouth on 1 January 1841. A Supplemental Royal Charter was granted on 30 August 1851 extending the sphere of the Company's operations. In 1864, the mail service to the British Honduras was established. A further Supplemental Royal Charter was granted extending the sphere of the Company's operations on 7 March 1882.〔 In the decade before the First World War the RMSP modernised its fleet, introducing a series of larger liners ranging from to on its Southampton – Buenos Aires route. Each had a name beginning with the letter "A", so collectively they were called the "A-liners" or the "A-series". The first was RMS ''Aragon'' in 1905, followed by sister ships , and in 1906, in 1908, in 1912, ''Andes'' and in 1913 and in 1915. Earlier members of the series, from ''Aragon'' to ''Asturias'', had twin screws, each driven by a four-cylinder quadruple-expansion steam engine. The final four members of the series, from ''Arlanza'' to ''Almanzora'', had triple screws, with the middle one driven by a low pressure Parsons steam turbine. After the First World War RMSP faced not only existing foreign competition but a new UK challenger. Lord Vestey's Blue Star Line had joined the South American route and won a large share of the frozen meat trade. Then in 1926–27 Blue Star introduced its new "luxury five" ships ''Almeda'', ''Andalucia'', ''Arandora'', ''Avelona'' and ''Avila'' to both increase refrigerated cargo capacity and enter the passenger trade. At the same time RMSP introduced a pair of new liners, in 1926 and in 1927, which at that stage were the largest motor ships in the World. Although these were the biggest and most luxurious UK ships on the route, RMSP Chairman Lord Kylsant called Blue Star's quintet ''"very keen competition"''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Royal Mail Steam Packet Company」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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