The Short C Class Empire flying boats were designed in 1934 to implement the Empire Air Mail Scheme, carrying un-surcharged letter mail throughout the British Empire and Dominions between the terminals at Southampton, Durban and Sydney – later continuing to Auckland, New Zealand. Some of the payload was also available for small numbers of passengers and freight. Short Brothers built forty-two – nearly forty-three – Empire flying boats at their works on the river Medway at Rochester in Kent. The 43rd was nearly three-quarters complete when it was scrapped. Sixteen of the original 42 Empires survived the war, to be broken up for scrap. The very last Empire ‘boat remained as a landlocked exhibit in Auckland until it, too, was hauled off for scrapping sometime in 1954.