Pacific Mail Steamship Company Overland Route to Great Britain Through America

A ‘Handbook of Information for Passengers & Shippers’ interested in traveling from Australia to the United Kingdom.

This ephemeral pamphlet was published in the late 19th century to advertise the transportation services of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. The company ran regular trips every 28 days from Sydney to London via Auckland and San Francisco. The trip was a relatively economical one (it was a mail service first, after all) and offered little in the way of luxury – a mere six-hour stop to catch your breath in Auckland! However, several tours are suggested for the transcontinental rail trip across the United States and layover options are provided for extended stays.

Travel information includes timetables, baggage limitations, and pricing. Through rates from Australia to Europe range from 37 GBP for third-class to upwards of 75 GBP for first-class (depending on specific line and route). The booklet includes a fold-out map of the world titled Pacific Mail Steam-Ship Company Chart Shewing the Route of the Company’s Australian Mail Service. The combination of steamer line and railroad is highlighted in bright red, with a total mileage given as 13,576!

Issued in Sydney in 1880 by Gilchrist, Watt, & Co., General Agents of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Printed by W.E. Smith. An interesting piece of Victorian-era advertising from an American company to an overseas British audience.

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was established in 1848 with a lucrative U.S. mail contract, and the California Gold Rush of 1849 immediately turned its Panama-to-San Francisco route into one of the most profitable businesses in the American West. Leveraging its success, the launched the world’s first regularly scheduled trans-Pacific steam service to Asia in the late 1860s. They also won a postal contract with the Queen, as the front cover notes ‘carrying Her Majesty’s Mails.’