West Cornwall Steam Ship Company

The West Cornwall Steam Ship Company was established in 1870 to operate ferry services between Penzance, Cornwall, and the Isles of Scilly. It became the West Cornwall Steamship Company in 1907 and was wound up in 1917.

The company was formed on 5 February 1870, principally by the shareholders in the West Cornwall Railway. The following year it took over the "Little Western" from the Scilly Isles Steam Navigation Company which had been operating on the route since 1858.

An advertisement in The Cornishman newspaper on 25 July 1878 gives the timetable for the Royal Mail Steamers Queen of the Bay and the Lady of the Isles. Depending on ″wind and other circumstances″ there were sailings from Penzance to Scilly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 11:15 am and from Scilly to Penzance on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 09:30 am. Fares were 7s (equivalent to £30.64 in 2015), for the saloon (10s 6d (equivalent to £45.95 in 2015) return) and fore-cabin 5s (equivalent to £21.88 in 2015) (7s 6d (equivalent to £32.82 in 2015) return). The sailings for the 1878/79 winter service was Penzance for Scilly on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 11:15 am, and leaving Scilly on Mondays and Thursdays at 9:30 am. For the first time, each of the ferries sailed daily (bar Sunday) from either Hugh Town or Penzance in 1879. On Thursday 22 May 1879 the Lady of the Isles made record time for the journey from Hugh Town to Penzance with a time of 3 hours 12 minutes.

Following financial problems the company was acquired by John Banfield who set up the West Cornwall Steamship Company in 1907. He already operated two steam launches around the islands, Seagull and Siva, to which he added a 120-ton sailing ship, the Golden Light. The company sold the remaining ferry operating to Penzance and was wound up in 1917.

Steam services to the islands were hastily arranged by the Government chartering the Lapwing from a Clyde operator until a new Isles of Scilly Steamship Company could take over in 1920.

The Little Western had been launched in 1858, and transferred from the Scilly Isles Steam Navigation Company to the West Cornwall company in 1871 for the sum of £2,640 (equivalent to £221,687 in 2015). Captain Tregarthen was captain of the Little Western from 1859-1870. He had introduced the first sloop, Ariadne, to service Hugh Town from Penzance in 1849.Tregarthen's Hotel stands on the site of his home and is a Hugh Town icon. Little Western was wrecked on the Wells Reef on 6 October 1872.

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