The steampacket CITY OF LONDONDERRY, built in 1827 for a local company, was sold by auction on the 8th October, 1829, and purchased by the City of Dublin Company. Her new owners took up the station vacated by the Derry Company, and maintained a weekly service between Liverpool and Londonderry for a number of years. The Clarence Dock having been opened in September, 1830, the City of Dublin Company were allotted loading and discharging berths in it on the 25th March, 1831, which berths they have used continuously to the present date (1903), a period of over seventy years, when they were transferred to the Nelson Dock. It will be remembered that in the early history of the company their most powerful trade competitors were the St. George Steampacket Company. One of the steamers of the latter company (the LORD BLANEY), while on a voyage from Liverpool to Newry, was lost with all hands. With a chivalry unusual in commerce (ignoring the fact that the vessel belonged to a rival company) the City of Dublin Company headed a list for the benefit of the relatives of the drowned seamen and others with a subscription of one hundred pounds. Civil war had been raging in Portugal for a number of years, the leaders being Don Miguel (the usurper) and Dom Pedro, on behalf of his daughter, Donna Maria (Legitimist). Two at least of the company’s steamers, the LEEDS and BIRMINGHAM, were chartered as transports to Dom Pedro; and it was the latter vessel, under the command of Captain Beazley, which, on the 16th July, 1833, brought to England the news of the complete defeat and capture of the fleet of Don Miguel. On the 6th November, 1834, the LEEDS struck on Furlong Rock. No lives were lost, the crew and passengers being taken off by the company’s steamer COMMERCE. The LEEDS having got off the rock, sank inside the jetty at Holyhead, but was subsequently raised. In 1836 the company built four steamers to compete against the Government mail steamers. They were the QUEEN VICTORIA, DUCHESS OF KENT, ROYAL ADELAIDE, and the famous ROYAL WILLIAM. In June of this year (1836) a bill in Parliament for increasing the capital of the company was read three times and passed.