The Alderney Steam Packet Company provided shipping services between Alderney

Alderney

Alderney is the most northerly of the Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The area is , making it the third-largest island of the Channel Islands, and the second largest in the Bailiwick...

 and Sark

Sark

Sark is a small island in the Channel Islands in southwestern English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. It is a royal fief, geographically located in the Channel Islands in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. It has a population...

, Guernsey

Guernsey

Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...

 and Cherbourg from 1897 to 1931.

Courier I and Courier II

The origins of the company lie with the construction of the initial vessel Courier I which was launched on 26 February 1876 by the residents of Alderney and Courier II in 1883. Courier II cost £8,000.(£ as of ),. The Couriers were built by Day and Summers, Northam in Southampton.

In 1897 the owners of the two Courier vessels formed the Alderney Steam Packet Company to operate these shipping services.

On 30 April 1906, Courier II struck Les Anons a rock south of Jethou

Jethou

Jethou is a small island that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is privately leased, and not open to the public.It is immediately south of Herm and has an area of approximately .-History:...

. There were 29 survivors and 10 deaths. The ship was salvaged on 1 August 1906 and returned to service after repairs.

In 1913, the Courier I had been sold to Italian owners. She was renamed the Aydon and sailed from Guernsey on 3 February 1913 bound for Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 via Dartmouth

Dartmouth, Devon

Dartmouth is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the banks of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes...

. She was then to proceed to Turkey to be used as a passenger steamer in and around Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

.

Helper

In 1920 they purchased Helper, and a regular service to Sark started on 1 April. Helper had been built for the West Cornwall Railway

West Cornwall Railway

The West Cornwall Railway was a railway company in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, formed in 1846 to operate the existing Hayle Railway between Hayle and Redruth and extend the railway to Penzance and Truro....

 in 1873 by William Allsup of Preston as the Sir Francis Drake. She was renamed Helper in 1908 when a new Sir Francis Drake was introduced. During the First World War she ferried service personnel to Portland Naval Base. In 1919 Helper was sold to Cosens & Co for seasonal excursions out of Weymouth to Lulworth Cove

Lulworth Cove

Lulworth Cove is a cove near the village of West Lulworth, on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site in Dorset, southern England. The cove is one of the world's finest examples of such a landform, and is a tourist location with over 1 million visitors a year...

 and Lyme Bay

Lyme Bay

Lyme Bay is an area of the English Channel situated in the southwest of England between Torbay in the west and Portland in the east. The counties of Devon and Dorset front onto the bay,-Geology:...

. Helper was withdrawn in 1926 and broken up for scrap.

RMS Riduna

In 1926 they purchased the RMS Peninnis

HMS Argus (1904)

HMS Argus was a Royal Navy ship built in 1904 for the His Majesty's Coast Guard.-Naval service:After launch the steam coastguard cruiser Argus was delivered to Sheerness to replace two sailing cruisers . She was armed with two 6-pounder guns.In 1905 she captured seven Dutch coopers inside the...

 from the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company and renamed her the RMS Riduna. She was sent for scrap in 1931.

Closure

In 1929 the Alderney Steam Packet Company entered liquidation, but a new company of the same name was registered in Guernsey. However, this new company did not trade for long, as in March 1931 its goodwill and Courier II was acquired by the St. Malo & Binic Steam Ship Company

St. Malo & Binic Steam Ship Company

The St. Malo & Binic Steamship Company operated shipping services to and from the Channel Islands from 1897 to 1938.-History:In 1897 the Pipprell family formed the St. Malo & Binic Steamship Company...

Ltd., which became the Guernsey, Alderney & Sark Steam Ship Company Ltd. to reflect its current trade in May 1933.

Vessels

• Courier I 1883 - 1913 (Sold to Italy and then Turkey)
• Courier II 1883 - 1931 (survived with another company after 1931)
• PS Helper 1920 - 1926
• RMS Riduna 1926 - 1931