A mail tender is a small steamboat used to carry mail. As a tender it only carries mail for short distances between ship and shore, ferrying it to and from a large mail steamer. The use of tenders for loading passengers and their luggage was well established even before the Edwardian heyday of ocean liners as the major means of intercontinental transport. They avoided the need to wait for these large ships to enter harbour and be docked, sometimes involving the wait for suitable tides. Tenders were also used by intermediate ports, where they could stand out to sea beyond a harbour bar and exchange passengers, without the large ship needing to enter port. In the Victorian times of several postal deliveries a day, speed was of the essence in transporting mails and the slightest time advantag