s
not renewed, the venture was abandoned. About the same time the owners of
one of the most famous packet lines, the Black Ball, tried the experiment
of supplementing their sailing service with a steamship, but it proved
unprofitable. Shortly after the New York and Havre Steamship Company, with
two vessels and a postal subsidy of $150,000, entered the field and
continued operations with only moderate success until 1868.

The only really notable effort of Americans in the early days of steam
navigation to get their share of transatlantic trade--indeed, I might
almost say the most determined effort until the present time--was that
made by the projectors of the Collins line, and it ended in disaster, in
heavy financial loss, and in bitter sorrow.

E.K. Collins was a New York shipping merchant, the organizer and manager
of one of the most famous of the old lines of sailing packets between that
port and Liverpool--the Dramatic line, so called from the fact that its
ships were named after popular actors of the day. Recognizing the fact
that the sailing ship was fighting a losing fight against the new style of
vessels, Mr. Collins interested a number of New York merchants in a
distinctly American line of transatlantic ships. It was no easy task.
Capital was not over plenty in the American city which now boasts itself
the financial center of the world, while the opportunities for its
investment in enterprises longer proved and less hazardous than steamships
were numerous. But a Government mail subsidy of $858,000 annually promised
a sound financial basis, and made the task of capitalization possible. It
seems not unlikely that the vicissitudes of the line were largely the
result of this subsidy, for one of its conditions was extremely onerous:
namely, that the vessels making twenty-six voyages annually between New
York and Liverpool, should always make the passage in better time than
the British Cunard line, which was then in its eighth year. However, the
Collins line met the exaction bravely. Four vessels were built, the
"Atlantic," "Pacific," "Arctic," and "Baltic," and the time of the fleet
for the westward passage averaged eleven days, ten hours and twenty-one
minutes, while the British ships averaged twelve days, nineteen hours and
twenty-six minutes--a very substantial triumph for American naval
architecture. The Collins liners, furthermore, were models of comfort and
even of luxury for the times. They averaged a cost of