The Line began with a fleet of four magnificent wooden paddle-wheel steamships, the Atlantic, Arctic, Baltic and Pacific, each 282 feet in length, and of 2,680 tons burthen. They were built by W. H. Brown, of New York, and combined in their construction and machinery the then latest improvements. The passenger accommodation was far superior to that of the Cunard steamers of the period. Each of them cost $700,000, an amount so far exceeding the original estimate that the Government had to make the company an advance. The credit of the country being in a sense at stake, provision was made for a liberal subsidy. $19,250 per annum had been the original sum specified for a service of twenty round voyages, but that was found to be totally inadequate, and the Government eventually agreed to increase the subsidy to $33,000 per voyage, or $858,000 per annum for only twenty-six voyages, which was more than double what had been paid to the Cunard Company for a like service. The Collins Line, however, promised greater speed than their rivals, and that counts for much in popular estimation.
THE “ATLANTIC,” OF THE COLLINS LINE, 1849.
The Line soon came into favour, and its success seemed to be assured. The first voyage was commenced from New York by the Atlantic, April 27th, 1849. The Arctic followed, making the eastward voyage in 9 days, 13 hours and 30 minutes; and the westward, in 9 days and 13 hours from Liverpool. Thus they had broken all previous records for speed which, added to their luxurious appointments, caused them to be loyally patronized by the Americans. For a time they carried 50 per cent. more passengers from Liverpool to New York than their opponents. The last addition to the fleet was the Adriatic, in 1857, by far the finest and fastest vessel afloat at that time. She was built by Steers, at New York: was 355 feet long, and 50 feet broad; her gross tonnage being 3,670. Her machinery, which was constructed at the Novelty Iron-Works, New York, consisted of two oscillating cylinders, each 100 inches in diameter, working up to 3,600 indicated horse-power, with a steam pressure of 20 lbs. to the square inch. Her paddles were 40 feet in diameter, and, at seventeen revolutions per minute, gave her a speed of thirteen knots on a daily consumption of eighty-five to ninety tons of coal.
Owing to financial embarrassments, resulting from losses by shipwreck, the company soon after broke up, and the richly-endowed fast line, that was to drive the Cunarders off the ocean, itself came to grief. The Adriatic was laid up after making a few fine voyages, and finally came to an ignominious end as a coal-hulk in West Africa. In September, 1854, the Arctic collided with a small steamer, the Vesta, off Cape Race, in a dense fog, and sank, with the loss of 323 lives. Captain Luce went down with his ship, but rose again to the surface, was picked up by one of the boats and landed in safety. Among those who were drowned were the wife, the only son, and a daughter of Mr. Collins, and many other prominent Americans. The loss of the Pacific, which followed two years later, proved the death-knell of the Collins Line. She sailed from Liverpool on June 26th, 1856, in command of Captain Eldridge, with forty-five passengers and a crew of 141, and was never afterwards heard of. The Atlantic and Baltic were sold and converted into sailing ships.
Mr. E. K. Collins was a native of Massachusetts, where he was born in 1802. When a youth he went to sea as supercargo. Some years later he joined his father in the general shipping business, and eventually became head of the New York firm, celebrated for its magnificent line of sailing packets. He died in 1878.
“CITY OF PARIS,” 1889.
Now (1898) a U. S. armed cruiser and renamed Harvard.