In reality it is all traceable to the year 1840, though the establishment of Lloyd’s Register in 1834,[5] the founding of the Marine Department of the Board of Trade in 1846 and the repeal of the Navigation Laws in 1849 have also to be reckoned as having powerfully contributed to the improvement of British shipping. Some time since I had in my hands the log of the sailing ship _Elizabeth_, which sailed from the Thames in the spring of 1833, arrived in China the following January, left there in March, called at St. Helena in June, then crossed the Atlantic and reached Halifax in August. She was, I believe, the last of the ships owned by the Honourable East India Company to leave China before the monopoly ended. Now, as showing the interlocking of human affairs, it is interesting to observe that at Halifax she went alongside Mr. Cunard’s wharf, for he was the East India Company’s agent in that port. Curiously, five years previously, in reply to a letter sent to his firm by Messrs. Ross & Primrose, Cunard had written: “We have received your letter of the 22nd inst. We are entirely unacquainted with the cost of a steamboat, and would not like to embark in a business of which we are quite ignorant. Must, therefore, decline taking any part in the one you propose getting up.” Now in those days the arrangements for postal contracts were in the hands of the British Admiralty, who were so impressed by the wonderful steamship achievements of 1838 that they proceeded to issue circulars inviting tenders for the carrying of American mails by steamers. It so happened that one of these circulars fell into the hands of Samuel Cunard of Halifax, who owned a number of sailing ships trading between Boston, Newfoundland and Bermuda. He had been one of the shareholders of the first _Royal William_, which had crossed in 1833 from Nova Scotia to Cowes. Having read the circular and made up his mind, he came to London in order to raise the required money, but the merchants would have nothing to do with the scheme. From the secretary of the East India Company he obtained a letter of introduction to Mr. Robert Napier, a Clyde shipbuilder and engineer, who in turn introduced him to Mr. George Burns, and the latter introduced him to Mr. David MacIver. Each of these two last mentioned was an expert in the shipping business, and in a few days the necessary capital of £270,000 was subscribed. A tender was then made to the Admiralty for the conveyance of Her Majesty’s mails once a fortnight between Liverpool, Halifax and Boston. This was accepted in competition, and a contract was signed for seven years. It was agreed that the service was to be carried on by four ships, that fixed dates of sailings should be adhered to, and that the company should be subsidised to the extent of £81,000 a year.