Beautifully engraved certificate from the Intercolonial Royal Mail Steam Packet Company issued in 1861. This historic document has an ornate side border with the company's name on top center and has an embossed corporate seal with a sailing ship. This item has the signatures of 3 of the Company's Directors, and its Secretary J. A. Wolsey (Lord Wolsey) and is over 145 years old. PHOEBE was built in 1851 by one of the Denny shipyards at Dumbarton with a tonnage of 613grt, a length of 172ft 8in, a beam of 25ft 5in and a service speed of 9.5 knots. She was built for Preston & Co. of Glasgow and acquired by the company in 1857 to replace the Union (1) on the Cape Colony mail service. A good weather ship she was fast and a good schedule keeper with a passage time of 37 days. In 1861 she was sold to the New Zealand Steam Ship Co. and then to Union S.S. Co.of New Zealand. By 1865 she was owned by the Intercolonial Royal Mail Steam Navigation Co. of London and deployed on their Sydney-Auckland service. When, in 1866, the newly formed Australia Royal Mail Company Ltd introduced the Kaikoura, Rakaia and the Ruahine on the Sydney-Wellington- Panama service to connect with the Royal Mail ships the Pheobe was transferred to the London-South America service. She was sold in 1878 to J & A Brown of Newcastle, N.S.W, hulked in 1901 and dismantled in 1904. The painting of the 19th century mail ship was commissioned to commemorate Union Castle's centenary in 1953.