The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company

What was a Packet Ship?

The Packet Service was part of the postal system, carrying mail across the sea on sailing ships powered by wind. Falmouth, England, was the main port due to its deep harbour, which allowed large ships to dock safely. Lots of different types of letters were carried on packet ships and delivered around the world.  

The Postal Museum’s collection includes around 90 letters sent from managers of sugar plantations in Jamaica to owners in Britain. These exchanges focus on the business of running the plantations. They also reveal glimpses of the lives of the enslaved people held captive and forced to work.  

By the 1830s, the majority of sugar plantations in Jamaica were owned by people who did not live on the island. Many owners never visited their plantations but they benefitted from the profits made. British plantation owners used mail, which was carried on packet ships, to communicate with their managers in the Caribbean. The postal service allowed enslavers to distance themselves from the plantations’ violence. 

Despite the British abolition of transatlantic slavery in 1833, British postal ships continued to exploit enslaved labour. Enslaved people were forced to refuel Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ships on the island on St. Thomas.

Royal Mail Steam Packet Company’s Founding Board

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was set up by James MacQueen. As a young man, he had managed a plantation in Grenada, where many people were enslaved. He had seen first hand how the slow mail service between the Caribbean and Britain impacted business. He suggested coal powered steamships run a quick and reliable mail service. MacQueen believed that his mail plans would boost trade and increase the power of the British Empire. In 1838, he published his ideas for a new postal system in his General Plan for Steam Communication. 

Manuscript of James MacQueen’s General Plan for Steam Communication, 1837, The Postal Museum, Post 29/23C

Connections to the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans

Alongside James MacQueen, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company’s first board included nine other men with connections to the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans: Thomas Baring, Russell Ellice, George Hibbet junior, James Cavan, Andrew Colvile, Henry Davidson, John Irving the younger, Patrick Maxwell Stewart, John Irving the elder.  

After the abolition of slavery in 1837, the British Parliament decided enslavers should be given money in exchange for freeing the people they held captive. This is the same year that James MacQueen wrote his steam communications manuscript. 

Nine of the founding board members of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, plus James MacQueen, were awarded over £300,000 between them by the British government. This was in exchange for freeing the enslaved people they held captive, estimated to be worth around 20 million pounds today.

Just a few years later, they invested significant sums of money to create the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. James MacQueen and other founding board members were vocal pro-slavery campaigners. John Irving the Younger had enslaved people in the Virgin Islands, which may have influenced the company’s decision to fuel their ships in St. Thomas, one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.  

The Royal Charter and a new fleet of ships

In 1839 the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was awarded a Royal Charter and the official contract to transport mail to the Caribbean, North America, and eastern parts of the British Empire. The company quickly set about building a new fleet of 14 ships, all named after rivers close to their builders: 

RMS Thames, RMS Medway, RMS Isis, RMS Solway, RMS Trent, RMS Clyde, RMS Tweed, RMS Tay, RMS Teviot, RMS Dee, RMS Severn, RMS Avon, RMS Medina and RMS Forth. 

RMS ‘Severn’ in the Bristol Channel, Joseph Walter (1783-1856)

The ships had to be fast and able to survive attack from enemies. At first, the ships were made of wood, but the metal steam engines could overheat and catch fire. This wasn’t the only risk. Half of the first fleet was destroyed in ten years because of storms and misnavigation. Many sailors and passengers died.

James MacQueen lost his job at the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in its early years of operation, blamed for problems with the timetable. 

In order to make these dangerous voyages across the Atlantic, the mailing ships had to be fueled with coal. This was done by enslaved people and free workers in St Thomas. Read our next article to find out about the gruelling labour they did and why St. Thomas was chosen as the main fueling hub.

Our exhibition Voices of Resistance: Slavery and Post in the Caribbean runs from 5 April 2025 – 5 January 2026.