Although the Home Government was so strongly impressed with the necessity of establishing a line of steamers between Calcutta and Suez, as well as from Bombay, it was only after considerable pressure had been brought to bear on the Court that the East India Company reluctantly consented to a contract with the Peninsular Company for this special service; and, on the 24th September, 1842, its new ship _Hindostan_, of 1800 tons and 520 horse-power, was sent from Southampton to open a line between Calcutta, Madras, Ceylon, and Suez. It may be desirable to state here that this originally small concern had, two years previously, been formed into a joint stock company with a charter of incorporation from the Crown, which enabled the directors to obtain the additional capital required for the Indian services; and, as they had now received the co-operation of most of those parties who, under the designation of the East India Steam Navigation Company, had been endeavouring to effect the same objects, they proceeded with all possible speed to fulfil the conditions and carry out the objects of their charter of incorporation. [Sidenote: Further proposals made by the East India Company and Government,] [Sidenote: but finally rejected by the East India Company.] [Sidenote: Further contracts for mail service to China and Singapore.] Though the _Hindostan_ proved vastly superior to the vessels of only 250 horse-power employed by the East India Company in the mail service between Bombay and Suez, which cost no less than 105,200_l._ per annum to maintain, the Court of Directors declined to listen to the further suggestions of the Home Government to transfer this branch of the postal service into the hands of any private undertaking and, indeed, retained it until 1854. In the meantime Government entered into another contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Company for a monthly service from Ceylon to Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong. For the service between Suez, Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta, the company received 115,000_l._ per annum or at the rate of 20_s._ per mile, and, for the latter, 45,000_l._ per annum or about 12_s._ per mile. When it became known that the Peninsular and Oriental Company had engaged to perform a service to India and the leading ports of China at the average rate of 17_s._ per mile in vessels of 500 horse-power, while the service between Suez and Bombay was costing upwards of 30_s._ per mile in vessels of not half that power, and, at the same time, of greatly inferior speed and accommodation, the public naturally demanded that the Bombay branch of the service should be placed in the hands of persons competent to carry it out more efficiently and economically than had been done by the East India Company. [Sidenote: Peninsular and Oriental Company undertake the line between Bombay and Suez, 1854.]