they purchased in 1850 the first iron paddle steamer of the fleet. This steamer was named the FOYLE, and was one of the finest vessels afloat in her time. The following year witnessed an extension of the Company’s operations, a regular service being established between Liverpool, South of England ports, and London; and also between Limerick and London. The latter was maintained by the auxiliary screw steamer ROSE, and when this vessel was sold in 1852, the service was discontinued. To meet the increased requirements of the trade, two large screw steamers, the LADY EGLINTON and the NILE, were added to the fleet in 1852. On the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, two of the B. and I. steamers, one of which was the new steamer LADY EGLINTON, and the other the FOYLE, were chartered by the Government for the conveyance of troops and stores. In consequence of the withdrawal of these two steamers from the Company’s service, and of the loss of the NILE off the Cornish Coast, the Liverpool to London sailings were abandoned. In addition to her Government service in the Black Sea, the LADY EGLINTON, in 1858, was employed for a short time as a Trans-Atlantic liner, making, in this capacity, two trips from Galway to Quebec and Montreal. In 1865, this famous steamer was placed in the hands of Messrs. Walpole, Webb & Bewley, shipbuilders, Dublin, by whom she was lengthened thirty feet. Prior to the declaration of War between the Northern and Southern States of America, in 1861, the B. and I. Co. had maintained a regular service between Dublin and Wexford. The vessel employed in this service was a small paddle steamer named the MARS. In 1863 the MARS was sold, crossed the Atlantic, and began the exciting career of a blockade runner.