History
From 1858 services were provided by the Scilly Isles Steam Navigation Company which was replaced in 1870 by the West Cornwall Steam Ship Company. This was wound up in 1907 and the services operated by John Banfield until 1917. For the rest of the First World War the services were operated by Government vessels. At the end of the war, a transport vacuum arose when the Ministry of Shipping withdrew the wartime service between St Mary's and Penzance.
On 26 March 1920 the current Isles of Scilly Steamship Company was founded with £20,000 (£600,000 as of 2012) raised by selling shares, mostly in the Isles of Scilly. The company was formed with the express purpose of securing a regular shipping service between the islands and the mainland. It came into service when the company received its Certificate of Incorporation, giving the right to commence business, dated 27 March 1920.
Initially services were operated by the Peninnis (ex-HMS Argus), which the company purchased from the Admiralty Disposals for £8,000 (£240,000 as of 2012). Following the necessary alterations at a cost of £5,000 (£150,000 as of 2012), this former fishery protection vessel served as the company's ship from 1920 until 1927 but it soon became clear that a purpose-built, new steamer was required.
During 1924 the directors of the Steamship Company began considering the purchase of a larger ship and at an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders on 16 June 1925, the directors were empowered to place the order with Ailsa Shipbuilding Company Ltd of Troon, Scotland. In order to keep their yard open during the economic slump, this work was undertaken at cost, the contract price was £24,500 (£1,040,000 as of 2012). The new ferry, built to carry 400 passengers and cargo, was launched on 17 November 1925 and named Scillonian by Mrs. A.A. Dorrien-Smith of Tresco Abbey. At 11 pm on 25 January 1926 she completed her maiden voyage from Troon and docked at St Mary's. She made her first time-tabled, commercial trip from on Thursday 2 February 1926 from St. Mary's to Penzance. It took her three and a quarter hours.
Following this ship Scillonian II entered into service in 1956, purpose built for the Steamship Company by John I. Thornycroft & Company of Woolston, Southampton, and was in service until 1977. A second ship operated for a while named Queen of the Isles. At approx 500 tons she was smaller than Scillonian II and was used to augment the larger ship at busy times. She was also used to run charter services to the Islands from other ports. On her sale she went to operate an inter-island service in the Pacific.
The present Scillonian III was also purpose built for the Steamship Company and entered into service in May 1977. Scillonian III is the third passenger ship of this name and currently in service for passengers and cargo 8 months of the year. Due to the number of tidal currents which meet off Lands End, and the need for a shallow draught to allow access to the Islands, the sea journey to Scilly can be rough. For this reason Scillonian III was fitted with a "Flume" antiroll stabilizer system.
On 1 September 2009, the Steamship Company took over the lease to operate and manage Penzance Dry Dock. Established in 1834, it is one of the UK’s longest established dry docks and provides facilities for vessels requiring repair and conversion. It takes in 15 to 20 ships a year.
At the AGM in September 2010, the following corporate figures were published: During the previous fiscal year, Steamship Company craft had carried 73,000 passengers to Scilly by air and sea. This accounted for 61.4% of the total passenger market on the route between Scilly and the mainland. Skybus Ltd had a market share to 50.2% of all passengers flying to St Mary's.
In May 2011, the Steamship Company acquired Nike Engineering at the Porthmellon Industrial Estate in St Mary's, which provides marine and mechanical engineering services to the Isles of Scilly.
Read more about this topic: Isles Of Scilly Steamship Company
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)