Communications with mainland Portugal

In the first years after the discovery of the archipelago, and in the early days of colonisation, communications with mainland Portugal were infrequent. A manuscript article states ‘that the King and the Infante (Henry the Navigator) had news of the island from year to year in the summer, because in those early days no one sailed in winter.’ Improvements in the art of navigation and the rapid commercial and agricultural development of Madeira made these communications less rare, not only with the mainland of the Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal) but, very particularly, with certain ports of Europe. A considerable number of outsiders, Portuguese and foreign, were drawn here by the fame of the soil’s great fertility; they settled in Funchal and amassed substantial fortunes. This helped to widen and multiply these communications, which were no longer very rare by the middle of the 15th century and could be called frequent by the beginning of the following century. The sugar trade, and later the export of our wines, which soon acquired a worldwide reputation, made Madeira an important commercial emporium and, consequently, made Funchal a port frequently sought by many vessels to carry those products. The same was not true of maritime relations between this archipelago and the mainland. Although less rare than in the early days of colonisation, they never became very frequent. The prelates of this diocese and the governors and captains-general almost always travelled to Madeira in state ships, not so much because of the rank of their office as because of the scarcity of vessels to carry them.

In the mid-19th century only one Portuguese vessel, the Galgo, made regular voyages between Madeira and Lisbon, but by that time the steamers of the Royal Mail Steam Company, the Compagnie Franco-Americaine and the Peninsular Steam Navegation Company were already calling both here and at the capital. The Galgo was a sailing ship of 250 tons with excellent passenger accommodation. It visited Madeira every month, taking 4 to 5 days on the voyage.

The Comet, of 260 tons, and the Eclipse, of 246, were two English sailing ships that visited Madeira regularly and had been built expressly to sail between England and this island. Besides them, the sailing ships of the African Steam Ship Company, which made voyages between Plymouth or Liverpool and the West Coast of Africa, also called here. The Royal Mail steamers were already calling at Madeira in 1838 (see Coal).

In 1858 there was an English steamer, the Barão de Catters, that made regular voyages solely between Lisbon and Madeira. The following year these voyages began to be made by the Portuguese steamer Visconde de Atoguia, which was followed by the Lusitania, the Lisboa in 1862 and the Maria Pia in 1863. By 1862 the steamers of the Africa line were already calling regularly at Funchal.