It was only natural that, as soon as ever the West Indian service should have proved itself successful, a branch should be extended to the South American Continent. In 1846, therefore, the company organised a means of transit by mules and canoes across the Isthmus of Panama, which were in 1855 superseded by the Panama Railroad. Although we are departing from our historical sequence in the development of the steamship, it is convenient here to sketch very rapidly the progress of the Royal Mail Line farther still, for the evolution of a steamship company is not necessarily that of the steamship. A small company may be famous for having one or two ships that are always the last word in modern ship-building and marine engineering; a large company may possess a considerable aggregate of tonnage, but its ships may be behind the lead of others in improvements. For the moment we are considering the enterprise which enabled the early steamships to penetrate to distant, over-sea territories where the Elizabethan sailors had gone in their slow-going ships scarcely three centuries before. [Illustration: LAUNCH OF THE “FORTH” (1841). _By Permission of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co._] [Illustration: THE “WILLIAM FAWCETT” AND H.M.S. “QUEEN” (1829). _From the Painting by Frank Murray in the possession of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co._] In 1851 the Royal Mail Line service to South America began, and about 1869 those steamers which had stopped short at Brazil, and served the Argentine by transfer, continued their voyage to Buenos Ayres. In the course of time it was only to be expected that the heavy subsidy should be reduced. It dwindled down to £85,000 a year, and was finally allowed to vanish altogether as recently as June, 1905. Since then the Royal Mail Company has extended its West Indian service to New York via Jamaica. During the Crimean War some of the vessels of this line did good service as transports, and even more recently still during the South African War. It was on one of the vessels of this line that, during the American Civil War, an incident occurred which was of international importance. The ship which was brought so prominently into notice was the _Trent_, that had been launched at Northfleet. Some readers will doubtless remember that Messrs. Slidell and Mason were forcibly taken from this vessel by a Federal man-of-war, and that Lord Palmerston, by his action in the matter, set forth that valuable doctrine, still recognised, that an individual on board a British ship is as safe from foreign interference as if he were on British soil.