Sailing Tables for the PacificHere, we present sailing tables for the voyages of steamships that carried mail between Canada and the Orient and Canada and Australasia. The tables on these pages extend only to 1914. Longer tables will be in the book Canada's Pacific Maritime Mails, to be published by the PHSC. Canadian-Pacific LineFrom 1887 to 1941, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) provided steamship service between Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and Hong Kong with calls at Japan and China, and later at Manila, Philippine Islands and Honolulu, Hawaii. For the first few years, chartered steamships were used. In 1891, the route was taken over by three specially designed Empress liners. At this time, a contract between the CPR and the British government took effect, subsidizing mail service between Britain and Hong Kong via Canada. These three CPR Empresses and their subsequent offspring carried mail, passengers, and freight speedily across the Pacific for over half a century. 
The CPR liner Empress of Japan (I) departing from Vancouver Harbour. 
Cover carried from Vancouver to Japan in the CPR Empress of India, departing from Vancouver on August 2, 1897. The cover bears a Yokohama backstamp dated August 16, 1897, the date that the Empress arrived there. The cover was mailed on the C. R. Ry. Port Arthur & Winnipeg Mail Car on July 23 and is franked with a 2¢ and a 3¢ 1897 Jubilee commemorative stamp. Canadian Australasian LineThe Canadian-Australian Steamship Company (the C-A Line, later called the Canadian Australasian Line Limited) operated between Sydney, Australia and the two British Columbia ports from 1893 to 1953. The CPR was affiliated with this company, and from 1931 was half owner of it. In the first 18 years of service, the route changed a few times. Finally, in the summer of 1911, Auckland, New Zealand was added as a permanent port of call. The route established then remained the same until service ceased in 1953, serving six ports: Sydney, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Suva, Fiji; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia. 
The C-A Line Aorangi (I) entering Vancouver harbour. 
Cover mailed to Tasmania at Dawson, Yukon Territory on December 21, 1904. It was received in Vancouver on January 5, 1905 and departed the next day in the C-A Line steamship Aorangi (I). The 2¢ Empire rate was paid with a Numeral booklet-pane stamp; these booklets were commonly used in the Yukon. SourcesDeparture and arrival dates for the CPR and the C-A Line have been obtained from contemporary newspapers of Vancouver and Victoria, the Fiji Times, the Melbourne Age, and the London Times and other sources. We are anxious to obtain any missing dates; please send them with their source to the author, Gray Scrimgeour. Ships
Here is a list of the CPR and C-A Line steamships. The ships are listed in the
order of their entry into service with each company. The Years of Service column
lists the dates when these ships operated across the Pacific from ports in
the Pacific Northwest.
Canadian Pacific (CPR)
Canadian-Australasian Line (C-A Line)
Canada's Pacific Maritime Mails
The histories and postal histories of the CPR and C-A Line steamship operations
form the basis of a two-volume book entitled Canada's Pacific Maritime Mails.
This monograph is scheduled for publication in 2007. Here is an outline of its
contents. A number of appendices will be presented, including lists of the
fleets of all companies serving the Pacific Northwest and sailing tables for
both the CPR and C-A Line. Here is an outline planned for this work:
Shipping Tables
Canadian-Pacific Line - eastboundCanadian-Pacific Line - westboundCanadian Australasian Line - northboundCanadian Australasian Line - southboundReferences with Dates of Ship Movements Related to Canadian Mail
Copyright © Gray Scrimgeour 2006. All rights reserved. |
Benefits of Membership
» What's new! Utilities
» PHSC Symposium |
