List of Weymouth–Channel Islands Sailing Packets (1794-1826)

The Channel Islands Post Offices were established in 1794. Thereafter cutters under contract to the Post Office Packet Service sailed weekly, and later twice-weekly, carrying mail between Weymouth, Dorset, and the Channel Islands.

Date from Newport:[1]

Vessel name	Built	Burthen (bm)	Notes
Royal Charlotte		80	Replaced June 1795 by Earl of Chesterfield
Rover	1794	67
Earl of Chesterfield	1795	78
Chesterfield	1806	80	Captured 1811[Note 1]
Francis Freeling	1811	80	Foundered c.6 September 1826[5]
Hinchinbrook	1811	80	Wrecked 2 February 1826

Note: The Falmouth packet service also sailed vessels named Chesterfield, Francis Freeling, and Hinchinbrook, but these were more than twice the size of the Weymouth packets.

From July 1827 steam vessels replaced the sailing vessels. In 1827 the Admiralty took over the packets. The service ended in 1845.[1]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

1. Lloyd's List reported that a French privateer lugger had captured Earl of Chesterfield off Alderney as Earl of Chesterfield was sailing to Guernsey.[2] Other reports give the vessel's name as Chesterfield.[3] Some of her passengers and crew were killed or wounded.[4]

Citations

1. Newport (1972), p. 21.
2. Lloyd's List 5 November 1811, №4612.
3. "Letters have been received from some of the passengers taken in the Chesterfield packet, from Weymouth." Times, 25 November 1811, p. 3. The Times Digital Archive. Accessed 25 Oct. 2019.
4. Duncan (1841), p. 268fn.
5. Lloyd's List 29 September 1826, №6155.

References

• Duncan, Jonathan (1841). The History of Guernsey: With Occasional Notices of Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, and Biographical Sketches. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.
• Lucking, J.H. (1971). The Great Western at Weymouth: a railway and shipping history. David & Charles. ISBN 978-0715351352.
• Newport, Oliver William (1972). Stamps and postal history of the Channel Islands. London: Heinemann.