Early in the year 1836 several Waterford merchants determined to run steamers between Waterford and Liverpool in opposition to the steamers owned by the Messrs. Pope, of the former port. Accordingly, on the 11th January, 1837, there was launched from Mr. John Laird’s yard, Birkenhead, the DUNCANNON, a small iron paddle-steamer of 200 tons burthen, to the order of the Waterford Commercial Steam Navigation Company, represented in Liverpool by Archer, Daly & Co., of 2, Cook Street. Three years later (1840) a second steamer, the WM. PENN, was added to the service. The new company was so successful in its venture that in a short time the Messrs. Pope either abandoned the trade, or were absorbed by their rivals, who thereupon appear to have adopted the title of the Waterford Steamship Company. There had been for years keen rivalry between the St. George Steampacket Company and the City of Dublin Steampacket Company, and when the business of the former was transferred to the Cork Steamship Company, the directors of the City of Dublin Company were by no means favourably disposed to the new management. This unfriendly feeling was extended to the Waterford Steamship Company, because Mr. Joseph Malcomson (chairman of the latter company) was offered, and accepted, a seat on the board of the Cork Steamship Company, and his firm (Messrs. Malcomson Brothers) invested largely in the Cork Company’s shares. The following year the Waterford and Kilkenny Railway was opened from Waterford to Thomastown. The directors asked the Waterford Steamship Company to change their loading berth from the south side of the River Suir to the north side, adjacent to the railway company’s terminus. This the steamship company refused to do. In consequence of this refusal, the Waterford and Kilkenny Railway Company induced the City of Dublin Company to put on steamers between Waterford and Liverpool. But, as the City of Dublin Company had no steamers of their own available, they chartered steamers from the British and Irish Steampacket Company, which they placed on the Liverpool and Waterford station. Meantime, the Waterford Steamship Company had not been idle. The late Liverpool agent of the company (Mr. George K. Payne) was detailed to organise an opposition to the railway company, with emphatic instructions not to permit a single passenger to be carried by the railway company between Waterford and Thomastown, or _vice versa_. The distance was only twelve miles, and an efficient car service was at once established between the two towns. Not only was the service an efficient one, but, rather than permit passengers to travel by the railway company, the drivers of the cars would take them for nothing. Of course, there were not wanting those who prophesied that the Waterford Company and the Messrs. Malcomson (who had acquired the whole of the steamship company’s shares) would be ruined by the opposition. Malcomson Brothers, however, referred inquirers as to their stability to Messrs.