Australian Mails via Suez 1852 to 1926

Author's Note

In my two earlier publications I demonstrated how the mails to Europe were carried from the East by vessels of the P. and O. Line. In this book I have also listed the mail voyages of the European and Australian Royal Mail Company, and those mail voyages of the Adriatic and Oriental Navigation company that impinged on the British mails.

I have given sufficient details of the Orient Line of packets and of the Eastern and Australian Mail Steamship Company to enable postal historians to identify the individual voyages themselves.

The mail voyages to and from Australia have been analysed in great detail, including connecting voyages from China and the Straits, from Bombay and from other places where a mail connection seemed either possible or inevitable.

This book is, and is intended to be, as factual as possible. Readers will be able to rely completely on the P. and O. dates and times which were obtained either from the valuable P. and O. Nautical reports or from Post Office Archives. The European and Australian dates at Aden, Galle and King George's Sound have been particularly hard to find-and in some cases not found at all. In over a decade of research, the facts about the European and Australian line have been hardest to find.

At no stage do I maintain this book will be easy to understnd- I can assure readers that I also found the facts hard to comprehend. But if I have understood them , I am sure that others will also do so-with patience.The manuscript for this book was completed and submitted in 1984.  As "British Maritime Postal History" volume 1 had been published a mere three years before I saw no reason to include in this book details of the early Australian service from 1852.

But now it is 1988 and many covers have been described and displayed since 1984. New and interesting records have been found and a host of queries have been satisfactorily answered. And volume 1 is now out of print. So a reader who has failed to buy a copy can only find the 1852 details if he has access to a suitable library.

Out of sympathy for such an unfortunate person I have included a summary of the said details again. Not at the beginning which would have required much reorganisation and labour but in Appendix 1. As readers know where they are they should have no problem.

Title, Contents, Author's Note, Acknowledgements. Map. v plus 324 pages text with supporting tables, illustrations,voyage detail,cachets, etc.

Very Good

ISBN 0 85377 018 2