The Orient Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1877 by two well-known shipping firms—Anderson, Anderson & Co. and F. Green & Co. The first steamer to leave London under the flag of the Orient Line was the _Garonne_, acquired by purchase, and followed by the _Chimborazo_, _Lusitania_ and _Cuzco_. Two of these are now used on exclusively pleasure cruising voyages in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, while a number of large and powerful ships have been built for the mail line. The _Orient_, built by Robert Napier & Sons, Glasgow, in 1879, was the largest steamer constructed on the Clyde up to that time. She was 400 feet long, 5,365 tons register, and with engines of 6,000 indicated horse-power. Her speed was seventeen knots on her trial trip. The latest additions to the fleet are the _Ophir_, 6,057 tons; _Orizaba_, 6,077; _Oroya_, 6,057, and the _Ormuz_, 6,031 tons. The _Ophir_ is 482 feet long, 53 feet beam, and 37 feet moulded depth. She is fitted with triple expansion engines and twin screws, and all the other modern improvements which go to make up a “floating palace.” The company receives a subsidy from the Imperial Government of £85,000 sterling per annum for carrying the mails, which are despatched fortnightly from London calling at Plymouth, Gibraltar, Naples, Port Said, Suez, Colombo, Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, Australia. * * * * * The British India Steam Navigation Company dates from 1855, when the East India Company first took steps to establish a mail service between Calcutta and Burmah. In 1862 the name was changed from the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company to that which it now bears. Since then the business has greatly increased, and it now boasts of having more steamers than any company trading to the East. Its fleet consists of 106 vessels with a total tonnage of about 270,000. They are nearly all called by Eastern names, such as the _Golconda_, 6,036 tons; _Matiana_, 5,000 tons; _Okhla_, 5,283 tons; _Onda_, 5,272 tons, and _Obra_, 5,456 tons. The distance annually travelled by ships of this line counts up to 5,000,000 miles. The sailings are about fortnightly from London to Colombo, Madras and Calcutta. The fares to Madras and Calcutta are from £47 10s. to £52 10s., according to accommodation. The first steamers of the line—the _Cape of Good Hope_ and the _Baltic_—were despatched to India _via_ the Cape. The _India_ of this line is said to have been the first steamer to pass through the Suez Canal. In 1872 a contract was entered into with the East India Company for a monthly service from Aden to Zanzibar. Then a coast line was established from Bombay to Calcutta, calling at eighteen intermediate ports, with a branch line running up the Persian Gulf. In 1880 arrangements were made with the Government of Queensland for a mail service that soon developed into a large trade. At the breaking out of the mutiny in 1857, a detachment of