WAGHORN'S NEW OVERLAND ROUTE TO INDIA
Lieut. Waghorn, a most enterprising naval officer,
devoted a large portion of his valuable life to connect our possessions in India
more nearly in point of time with the mother country. On Oct. 31, 1845, he arrived
in London, by a new route, with the Bombay mail of the 1st of that month. His
despatches reached Suez on the 19th and Alexandria on the 20th, whence he proceeded
by steam-boat to a place twelve miles nearer London than Trieste. He hurried through
Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Prussia, and Belgium, and reached London at half-past
four on the morning of the first-mentioned day. The authorities of the different
countries through which he passed eagerly facilitated his movements. The ordinary
express, via Marseilles, reached London, Nov. 2, following.* Mr. Waghorn
subsequently addressed a letter to The Times newspaper, in which he stated that
in a couple of years he would bring the Bombay mail to London in 21 days. Death,
however, put a period to his patriotic career, January 8, 1850.
* The Overland Mail, which had left Bombay on the 1st of December, 1845, arrived
early on the 30th in London, by way of Marseilles and Paris. This speedy arrival
was owing to the great exertions made by the French government to show that
the route through France was the shortest and best.
Extracted from Haydn's Dictionary of Dates and Universal Reference,
Fifth edition 1851.
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Further reading...
Mr.
Waghorn's Route To India
