The Washington was 236 feet in length, by 39 feet beam, 31 feet depth, and of about 2000 tons gross. The Hermann was slightly larger. The Washington, on her first voyage eastward in June of that year, was pitted against the Britannia, which the Americans expected to beat easily, but though the American boat had twice the engine-power, and the Cunarder was seven years old, the latter arrived two days ahead.
The New York and Havre Steam Navigation Company, another American enterprise, was founded in 1848 to carry the mails between those ports for a subsidy of 150,000 dollars per annum and to touch at Southampton. Its first vessel was the wooden paddle-steamer Franklin, 263 feet in length, of about 2184 tons, and 1250 indicated horse-power. She sailed on her first voyage in 1850, and was joined in the service by the Humboldt, a slightly larger vessel, in the following year. In December 1853 the Humboldt was wrecked near Halifax, and the Franklin went to pieces on Long Island in 1854. The company ordered two other vessels, the Arago and Fulton, which were launched in June 1855 and February 1856 respectively. They were rather larger than the Humboldt, but instead of lever engines had oscillating cylinder engines, the cylinders being 65 inches diameter with a 10-foot stroke. Until they were ready the company maintained the service, after the loss of its earlier boats, with chartered vessels.
The New England Ocean Steamship Company, formed by Messrs. Harnden and Co. of Boston, placed the iron screw-steamer Lewis of 1105 tons on the service between that port and Liverpool in October 1851, but withdrew her the next year.
By 1850 there were no fewer than seven or eight lines of steamers trading between New York and Liverpool. The Cunard Company had eight of the finest steamers in the world, and the ninth, the Africa, was expected shortly to arrive from the builders at Glasgow.
An agitation had been maintained for some years in America for a subsidised American steam-ship service, which should surpass the British line. The Government at last was prevailed upon to promise financial support to a line of steamers under certain conditions, and the necessary legislation was passed by Congress in March 1847. The vessels were to be of the highest class, of great speed, and of superior passenger accommodation, and so fitted that they could be turned into war steamers at small expense. Mr. K. Edward Collins of New York, owner of the well-known Dramatic Line of sailing ships, so called because they were named after famous theatrical people, organised the line and was well supported by American capitalists and influential commercial men generally.
The Collins Line, as the organisation was called, undertook, by a contract signed in November 1847, to provide a mail service between New York and Liverpool, fortnightly in summer and monthly in winter, with five first-class steam-ships, for which 19,250 dollars per trip for twenty round trips, or 385,000 dollars a year, were to be paid, but as the first four ships built for the line were very much larger, swifter, and more expensive and more valuable to the nation[65] than the exact terms of the contract required, the Government in 1852 increased the subsidy to 858,000 dollars a year.
[65] Marvin’s “American Mercantile Marine.”
The “Atlantic.”
Money was spent upon the Collins liners like water, and everything in every department was of a most costly and luxurious description. Indeed, so lavish was the expenditure upon the Collins boats that even had they not met with the series of disasters which afterwards befell them, and had the line not been deprived by the United States Government of its subsidy for carrying the mails, it is doubtful whether it would ever have been a commercial success. Thus a description of the Atlantic says: “Her interior fittings are truly elegant, the woodwork being of white holly, satin wood, rosewood, &c., so combined and diversified as to present a rich and costly appearance. In the drawing-room the ornaments consist of costly mirrors, bronze-work, stained glass, paintings, &c. On the panels between the stateroom passages are the arms of the different States of the Confederacy painted in the highest style of art, and framed with bronze-work.