Note 13 — Chapter III · THE CUNARD LINE AND ITS FOUNDERS.

For at least a hundred and fifty years the Post Office Department had maintained a fleet of armed mail “packets.” They had stations at Dover, Harwich, Holyhead, Milford, Yarmouth and Falmouth, the last-named being the headquarters of the fleet. During the time of the American war, 1812-15, no fewer than thirty-two sanguinary battles were fought with American privateers by the Falmouth packets, which, in a majority of instances, successfully resisted their assailants.