Isles of Scilly Steamship Company

The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company operates a seasonal passenger service from Penzance, in the English county of Cornwall, to the offshore Isles of Scilly, together with a year round cargo service. The name of the company's principal ferry, the Scillonian III, is perhaps better known than that of the company itself.

The company is based in the Isles of Scilly Travel Centre Penzance, and also owns Isles of Scilly Skybus Ltd, an operator of fixed-wing aircraft services to the Isles of Scilly, and Westward Airways, an operator of sight seeing flights.

History

From 1858 services were provide by the Scilly Isles Steam Navigation Company which was replaced in 1870 by the West Cornwall Steam Ship Company. This was wound up in 1907 and the services operated by John Banfield until 1917. For the rest of the war the services were operated by Government vessels.

The company was founded with £20,000 raised by selling shares, mostly in the Isles of Scilly. Initially services were operated by the Peninnis (ex-HMS Argus) from 1920 until 1927, which the company purchased for £7,000. (£ as of ),.

The original Scillonian was built for the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company in 1925 by Ailsa Shipbuilding Company Ltd of Troon, Scotland to carry 400 passengers and cargo. The first regular trip of this vessel took place on Thursday 2 February 1926 from St. Mary's to...
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