The act directed the secretary of the navy to accept on the part of the Government certain proposals that had been made for the carriage of the United States mails to foreign ports in American-built and American-owned steamships. These proposals had been submitted to the postmaster-general (March 6, 1846) by Edward K. Collins and associates (James Brown and Stewart Brown) of New York, and A.G. Sloo of Cincinnati: one for mail transportation by steamship between New York and Liverpool, semimonthly, the other between New York and New Orleans, Havana, and Chagres, twice a month. The secretary was directed to contract with Messrs. Collins and Sloo in accordance with the provisions laid down in this act. These required that the steamers be built under the inspection of naval constructors and be acceptable to the Navy Department; that each ship carry four passed midshipmen of the navy to serve as watch-officers, and a mail agent approved by the postmaster-general. Mr. Sloo's ships for his West India service were to be commanded by officers of the navy not below the grade of lieutenant. The secretary was further directed to contract for mail-carriage beyond the Isthmus,—from Panama up the Pacific coast to some point in the Territory of Oregon, once a month each way; but this service could be performed in either steam or sailing ships, as should be deemed more expedient.[[FZ]]
All the contracts thus provided for were concluded the same year. Each was to run for ten years. The first executed was that with Mr. Sloo. It called for five steamships of not less than 1500 tons, and a semi-monthly service. The line was to touch at Charleston, if practicable, and at Savannah. The ships were to have engines by direct action; and each ship was to be sheathed with copper. The subsidy was fixed at two hundred and ninety thousand dollars a year, a rate of $1.83-1/2 per mile, the distance to be sailed out and back being 158,000 miles.[[GA]] Mr. Sloo immediately set over his contract to George Law, Marshall O. Roberts, and Bowes McIlvaine, of New York.[[GB]] The second contract was for the Pacific service, connecting with the mail by the Sloo line across the Isthmus. This was made with Arnold Harris of Arkansas. It provided for a monthly service between Panama and Astoria, Oregon, calling at San Diego, Monterey, and San Francisco, with a subsidy of one hundred and ninety-nine thousand dollars per annum. Three steamers were to be furnished, two of not less than a thousand tons each. Upon receiving the contract Mr. Harris immediately transferred it to W.H. Aspinwall of New York, representing the newly formed Pacific Mail Steamship Company.[[GC]] The third was the Collins contract. This stipulated for a semi-monthly service between New York and Liverpool during the eight open months of the year, and a monthly service through the four winter months, with five steamers, each of not less than 2000 tons and engines of a thousand horsepower. The first ship was to be ready for service in eighteen months after the date of the contract, November 1, 1847. The subsidy was fixed at $19,250 per twenty round trips, or three hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars a year, a rate of $3.11 a mile for sailing about 124,000 miles.[[GD]]
By subsequent acts the secretary of the navy was authorized to advance twenty-five thousand dollars a month on each of the ships called for by these several contracts from the time of their launching to their finish; and the date of the completion of the first Collins steamer and the opening of the New York and Liverpool service was extended to June 1, 1850.[[GE]]
At the same time that the secretary of the navy was executing these contracts the postmaster-general under the authority of an act "to establish certain Post Routes and for other purposes," also approved March 3, 1847,[[GF]] was contracting for a steamship mail-service between Charleston and Havana, with a subsidy of forty-five thousand dollars per annum. This contract was entered into with M.C. Mordecai of Charleston, who agreed to furnish steamships suitable for war purposes, and to perform a monthly service.[[GG]] Several other propositions for steamship service to various foreign countries were made to the postmaster-general at this time, but none was accepted.[[GH]]
The pioneer Bremen-Havre line began its service on the first day of June 1847, with two steamers. These were the Washington and the Hermann, built in New York, strong and large, of 1640 tons and 1734 tons, respectively, side-wheelers, bark-rigged. At first they made the run to Bremen in from twelve to seventeen days, much better time than the average clipper.[[GI]] But up to 1851 they had no regular schedule of sailings, and, their speed being unsatisfactory, few mails were sent by them. The subsidy payments, therefore, were made for each voyage separately.[[GJ]] They had also ceased to command the patronage of travellers. Nevertheless, as a committee of the Senate in 1850 reported, they were believed to have been "profitable to their owners as freight vessels, and of essential service in promoting the interests of American commerce."[[GK]] The full service, with twelve trips to Bremen and twelve to Havre, was finally begun in 1851, when two more, and larger ships,—the Franklin and the Humboldt, each of 2184 tons, were added to the Havre line. Four years before, the original company, because of financial difficulties, had organized a separate corporation for the Havre service. In 1852 Congress extended the contract to 1857;[[GJ]] and Southampton was made the point of shifting the mails.
The New York and Chagres, the Charleston and Havana, and the Pacific line, were all under way before the close of 1848. The Pacific line was the first in operation. The service began with the three steamers called for by the contract, the first sailing from New York on the sixth of October, the other two early in December. They were the California, 1050 tons, the Panama, 1087 tons, the Oregon, 1099 tons, all built in New York. The New York and Chagres line was started also in December with the sailing of the Falcon, 1000 tons, a purchased steamer which the Navy Department accepted temporarily, while the new ships were building, that the service might be immediately begun. The opening of the new territory south of Oregon acquired through the Mexican War, and the beginning of the rush of the "Argonauts" to the newly discovered gold fields of California, had made all concerned anxious to get these connecting steamship lines a-going.
At first the service was halting because of unavoidable circumstances. The Pacific Company were unable at once to meet the demands. Sufficient or competent crews could not be obtained on the California coast during the gold excitement,[[GL]] at fever heat in 1849. But it was not long before more ships were put on, and the service improved and prospered. By September, 1849, the Chagres company had their first completed ship in commission. This was the Ohio, 2432 tons, built in New York. By June, 1850, the second, the Georgia (and the third of the line, for the Falcon was retained) was running. Soon afterwards the Illinois was added. At about the same time the Pacific company had added two more to their fleet—the Columbia and the Tennessee. In 1851 the postmaster-general was authorized to increase the Pacific trips to semi-monthly; and the subsidy was increased. An additional contract (March 13) was then made with Mr. Aspinwall, as president of the Pacific Mail.[[GM]] This called for the enlargement of the line within a year, to six steamers; and for semi-monthly trips from Panama to Oregon and back, with stops and mail delivery at named points in California; and increased the company's subsidy by one hundred and forty-nine thousand two hundred and fifty dollars per annum. Thus the yearly total became three hundred and forty-eight thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. Before the semi-monthly trips were begun, San Diego and Monterey were dropped for the regular service, to be served by a slower line.[[GN]] Also this year (1851) two more steamers were added to the fleet.
By this time on the Atlantic side the Collins Line was in promising operation. The service had auspiciously begun in 1850 with four of the five steamships called for by the contract. These were the Atlantic, 2845 tons, the Arctic, 2856 tons, the Baltic, 2723 tons, and the Pacific, 2707 tons, each some seven hundred tons larger than the measurement stipulated—"at least 2000 tons." All were built in New York ship-yards; were especially designed for fast sailing; and in size, model, finish, and fittings were pronounced to be "such steamers as the world had never seen."[[GO]] In all respects they were superior to the Cunarders with which they were aggressively to compete; and it was the boast of the Americans that they would "beat the English in steam navigation, as they had beaten them in fast sailing." All associated with the enterprise were of large experience in maritime affairs. Mr. Collins, a native of Truro, Cape Cod, and long a shipping merchant of New York, had been at the head of fast clipper-ship lines—the New Orleans and Vera Cruz packet line, and the more famous "Dramatic line" (the ships named for plays and players) of transatlantic sailers. The commanders of the steamers were all tried clipper captains.
The Atlantic made the initial voyage, steaming gallantly out of New York harbor on the twenty-seventh of April, a month before the contract time for the beginning of the service. The Pacific followed in June, the Baltic in November, the Arctic in December. They beat the Cunarders' time on the average by a day. Their popularity was immediately established. Their passenger traffic rapidly increased. But the severe condition of the mail contract, with their quick sailings allowing only short stays in port, made it impossible for the company to secure a profitable share of the freight business without a heavy outlay for slower cargo boats. Within a few months after the start of the line the Cunard Company had cut freight rates from seven pounds ten shillings per ton to four pounds. So, while the Collins ships continued steadily to outsail the Cunarders and got the bulk of the passenger traffic, the Cunarders got most of the freighting. Moreover, the Collins ships were far more expensive to run. Indeed, the cost of the rapid service was enormous. Mr. Collins stated before a committee of Congress that to save a day or a day and a half in the run between New York and Liverpool cost the company nearly a million dollars annually.
Accordingly more subsidy was asked for. This was granted in 1852, the act being stimulated by England's move late in 1851 in raising the Cunards' subsidy to £173,340 ($843,000), for forty-four trips a year: about nineteen thousand dollars per voyage. The extra allowance lifted the Collins subsidy to $853,000 for twenty-six trips a year, thirty-three thousand dollars per voyage, a rate of upward of five dollars a mile.[[GP]]