By the middle of the 1850s a transition from sail to steam in maritime transport and communications was underway around the coasts of Europe and North America and on the shorter North Atlantic crossings. However, the steamship built of wood or iron and driven by paddle or screw propeller was still a rare sight in the Indian Ocean and its adjoining seas. Paddle steamers burning wood or coal could be found on the great rivers of western and southern Asia – the Tigris, Indus, Ganges and Irrawaddy – where pioneering investment in the new technology by the East India Company had helped to extend the Company's authority. This gave rise to regular river steamer services run by government or, increasingly, by private firms. Out at sea, however, steamships remained exotic creatures. They were used in small numbers by the Bengal Marine and the Indian Navy (Bombay Marine) for coastal communications, and by the Peninsular & Orient Steam Navigation Company for the mail service it operated from 1853 onwards through the Mediterranean, by the ‘overland route’ through Egypt, and then on from Suez to Bombay. The vast preponderance of cargo and passengers, between ports within the Indian Ocean as well as between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, still moved in the holds and on the decks of wooden sailing ships of various sizes and types. The infrequency of the steam vessel and its dependence, directly or indirectly, on government support reflected its commercial marginality beyond European waters. Although the steamship meant liberation from wind propulsion and consequently the ability to maintain regular sailing schedules – qualities much to be prized in the monsoon-dominated Indian Ocean – it was also still extremely costly to operate so far from the industrial and commercial conditions which had spawned it. The technology was new and raw. Engines were inefficient and consumed large quantities of coal, which was scarce and expensive beyond the North Atlantic basin, and skilled manpower for maintaining and repairing iron ships and marine engines was also in short supply outside Europe and North America. Only governments, or private companies supported by the public purse, could afford to brandish the new technology.