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Lady McLeod

Paddle steamer ship that served as a private local post office

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 24, 2024
Entity authorityQ2043679
Source-derived summary

The Lady McLeod was a paddle steamer and a private local post. The ship sailed regularly between Port of Spain and San Fernando, on Trinidad island, now in Trinidad and Tobago from the end of 1845 until 1854. The private local post ran during the same time with the use of postage stamps on its mail from April 1847.

History

Coming from the Napier shipyard in Glasgow, the ship was christened in hommage of the Governor Sir Henry McLeod's wife and began its Port of Spain–San Fernando route in November 1845.

The 60-ton, 40 hp, steamer was bought by Turnbull, Stewart & Co. In 1846, David Bryce bought it and let it some years later to a San Fernando consortium.

At the beginning of the 1850s, the postal monopoly ended and American and Netherlands ships entered the competition. After a last purchase, the ship foundered near San Fernando in 1854. The Lady McLeod's bell was retrieved and has been regularly displayed by the Trinidad Philatelic Society.

Postage stamp

The private local post of the Lady McLeod began as soon as its service started in November 1845.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Lady McLeod” as paddle steamer ship that served as a private local post office. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lady, McLeod and Paddle.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1845, 1854, 1847, 1846—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1847-04. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Lady, McLeod and Paddle providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Lady McLeod”, the useful work is to connect “paddle steamer ship that served as a private local post office” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q2043679. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1845, 1854, 1847 and 1846.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lady McLeod”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lady McLeod primary sources, Lady McLeod archive and Lady research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lady McLeod”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Lady McLeod” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.