Note 340 — Chapter X

The mean rate of the sailing-packets on the average for a considerable number of voyages to the Mediterranean had been 2·7 miles per hour, the average length of the voyage from Falmouth to Malta, Corfu, and back to Falmouth being three months. The first of the Admiralty steam-packets, the Meteor, left Falmouth on this service 5th February, 1830, and she performed the round in about half the time of the sailing-packets. The African, Carron, Columbia, Confiance, Echo, Firebrand, Hermes, and Messenger followed and were regularly employed in this Mediterranean mail service. The average length of the voyages of steamers during a period of two and a half years to Corfu and back to Falmouth, was about forty-seven days including all stoppages—twice at Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Malta—which consumed about thirteen out of the forty-seven days engaged on the voyage.