3-021-642 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-ship Deccan, 1869. 'The Deccan...is one of the large class of steam-ships provided by the Peninsular and Oriental Company to meet the requirements of their new postal contracts in the East...She is fitted with engines of 600 nominal horse-power...The Deccan was built by Messrs. William Denny and Brothers, of Dumbarton, who also constructed the engines. The trial of her speed took place in Stokes Bay...the Deccan's head was put to sea, and she ran round the Isle of Wight, steaming from the Warner Light (a stiff westerly breeze which was found to be blowing outside the Wight compelling her to run several miles out to sea) to the Needles in two hours thirty-five minutes. The Deccan, which is commanded by Captain J. R. Kellock, has since left Southampton for the Indian Ocean, where she will take up her station on the Suez and Calcutta line...The steam fleet owned by the Peninsular and Oriental Company comprises a total of forty-eight oceangoing vessels, having an aggregate tonnage of 85,632 tons and 18,620 horse-power'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.