Royal Mail Ship (or Steamer), usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS, is the ship prefix used of any seagoing vessel that carries mail under contract to the BritishRoyal Mail.
The designation has been used since the 1840s. It was used by a large number of companies, but is often associated in particular with the Cunard line, which held a number of high-profile mail contract business, and which traditionally prefixed the titles of all its ships with the initials "RMS". The best-known ship carrying the prefix is almost certainly the RMS Titanic, of the White Star Line.
Technically, a ship would use the prefix only while contracted to carry mail, and would revert at other times to a standard type designation such as "SS".
In recent years the shift to air transport for mail has left only a few ships with the right to the prefix; notably RMS St. Helena, which serves the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, and RMS Queen Mary 2.
RMMV, for Royal Mail Motor Vessel, and RMMS, for Royal Mail Motor Ship, are also sometimes seen, but are much less common.
She was the first mail packet to sail to the West Indies for the new RoyalMail Steam Packet Company, her maiden voyage from Southampton beginning on December 31, 1841.
Coinciding with the initiation of the RoyalMail Steam Packet Company contract, and the establishment of its new routes to the West Indies, postal agencies were opened at consular offices in various non-British possessions.
The RoyalMailsteamer Thames, in Havana harbor, had been loaded with mail from the British consulate on February 15, and was ready to sail, when a Spanish complaint was received that this action was not in compliance with Spanish regulations.
RoyalMailShip (or Steamer), usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS, is the ship prefix used of any seagoing vessel that carries mail under contract to the British RoyalMail.
It was used by a large number of companies, but is often associated in particular with the Cunard line, which held a number of high-profile mailcontract business, and which traditionally prefixed the titles of all its ships with the initials "RMS".
Helena in the South Atlantic, and RMS Queen Mary 2.
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