Sentry Page Protection
Extract from The Rangoon Times Christmas No., 1912

BURMA’S RIVER FLEET
 
The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company
​​
What the Irrawaddy is to Burma; the Irrawaddy Flotilla Service is to the river itself – an indispensable feature.  For many years now have the paddle steamers “chunked” their way from Rangoon to Mandalay, all the time extending, improving and popularising their service, until today it is undoubtedly the largest and most palatial river steamboat service in the world and the life blood of the great riverine districts of the Province.  With its head office in Glasgow the Company was formed and commenced plying steamers on the Irrawaddy river early in the “sixties” its first vessels being acquired from Government.  In 1868 the fleet consisted of seven small steamers, the only regular service then being between Rangoon and Thayetmyo.  Then after the lapse of a few years operations were extended to Mandalay and later to Bhamo, 1000 miles from the sea.  The position at the present day [1912] is an index of the great strides the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company have made. 
 
The fleet now comprises about 500 vessels from the palatial Mail steamers to the launches – useful but small – which flit hither and thither in the lesser creeks of the great stream.   The neighbourhood of Godwin road and adjacent streets, at the point where such roads join the Strand at Rangoon, discloses a perfect forest of steamers of all sizes having the black funnel with the red band so familiar to all riverive dwellers and travellers in Burma. 
 
Cargoes by lighters and steamers come and go to and from Rangoon and the upper reaches of the great river and the Chindwin in never ending succession.  Burma’s rivers are particularly delightful from November to February and even the Royal Family have not been adverse to a trip on the Irrawaddy, for in 1906 the present King-Emperor and Queen Empress, then Prince and Princess of Wales and party journeyed from Mandalay to Prome, accepting the hospitality of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, who put at their disposal the palatial Mail steamer “Japan.”  The Express steamers measure 326 feet in length and 46 feet in breadth and all are fitted with searchlights to permit of navigation at night.  To ensure a safe and comfortable passage a large staff of river pilots is employed by the company and a number of launches are exclusively engaged in surveying and buoying the various channels.
 
The Company’s record of freedom from mishaps is remarkable, for which in a large measure the careful selection by the Company of Commanders, Officers and Engineers is responsible.  All services – whether the short river trips to Henzada or Bassein, or the long runs to Mandalay and from Mandalay to Bhamo – are run to time tables and the times are accurately kept.  The Company also have well equipped dockyards for keeping the fleet to the highest pitch of mechanical efficiency and safety, at Dalla, Ahlone, Mandalay and Moulmein, all of which places are busy hives of industry.  The Foundry and Saw Mill at Rangoon, necessary concomitants of a large shipping industry, are also replete with up to date appliances and machinery. 
 
The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company have played a great part in opening out the Province ; in fact the annexation of Upper Burma, which was proclaimed on January 1st 1886, was only rendered possible by the utilisation by Government of the Company’s fleet of steamers and barges, by which means an army of about 20,000 men and the requisite horses, ammunition and stores etc. were transported without accident or loss within a period of 18 days.  The Express steamers, a photograph of one of which is here depicted [not reproduced but is of the “Japan,”] with spacious and well appointed accommodation for first and second class passengers and fitted with electric light, leave the Lanmadaw Jetties in Rangoon twice weekly for Mandalay ; while two steamers (one Express and one Cargo) leave Mandalay Shore for Bhamo weekly, the round trip by Express steamer to Bhamo and back taking six days. 
 
Passages can be booked and all information obtained at the Chief Office of the Company in Burma, No. 4 Phayre Street, Rangoon and its principal agencies, at any of Messrs. Thos. Cook & Son’s Agencies, or at the head Office of the Company , 15 St. Vincent Place, Glasgow.
​