“The pillars between are inlaid with mirrors, framed with rosewood, and at the top and bottom are bronzed sea-shells of costly workmanship. In the centre of each are groups of allegorical figures, representing the ocean mythology of the ancients, in bronze and burnished gold. The ceiling is elaborately wrought, carved and gilded.” The vessel was steam-heated, an improvement introduced for the first time in steam-ships.
The Atlantic left New York on April 27, 1850, with about a hundred passengers on board and a valuable cargo. Outside Sandy Hook she met some drifting ice which damaged her paddles, and she had to proceed at reduced speed across the ocean as the weather was too tempestuous to permit of the floats being repaired. On May 8, one of her condensers gave way, and the steamer was hove-to for forty hours, after which she resumed her voyage still at reduced speed. She arrived at Liverpool on May 10. The Pacific sailed from New York on May 25, and was followed by the Arctic, Baltic, and Antarctic. Their beam was such that they could not enter any existing docks at Liverpool, and a dock at the North End was therefore constructed for their accommodation.
Special interest attached to the arrival of the Atlantic owing to the presence in the river of the new Cunarder Asia, just built by Messrs. Steel at Greenock, and engined by Robert Napier. An opportunity was thus afforded of comparing these two representative vessels, as the Asia, outward bound, steamed past her rival and exchanged salutes.
The Atlantic and her sister ship the Arctic excelled in dimensions every steam-ship hitherto built. The length was 276 feet on the keel and 282 feet on the main deck, beam 45 feet, breadth across paddle-boxes 75 feet, depth of hold 31 feet 7 inches, diameter of paddle-wheels 36 feet, diameter of cylinder 96 inches, stroke 9 feet; the side-lever engines were of 1000 horse-power, and the tonnage 2860. The saloons were 67 feet long by 20 feet wide, and the dining saloons 60 feet long by 42 feet wide.
Two remarkable points of difference between them and the Cunarders and all British steamers at that time were their rounded sterns and straight cutwaters without bowsprits. Powerfully engined though they were, they depended considerably on sail-power. Their paddles, like those of so many American steamers, were placed rather far aft, the idea being that a more uniform immersion of the blades was thus obtained. The Collins steamers were all built with flat floors (a departure in the shape of the hull to which considerable exception was taken but which was justified by events), long, wedge-like bows, and a long, easy run to the stern. The frames were of white and live oak, and the stout timbers were filled in solidly to the turn of the bilge. The huge oak keelsons were specially heavy under the boilers and engines. The planking was hard pine, metal-fastened below the water-line by copper bolts and above by galvanised iron. The frames were strengthened by a latticework of iron bands. Their wood construction was more massive than that of a line-of-battle ship. In his patriotic efforts to gain the Atlantic supremacy for his country Collins did far more than the Government required. The Arctic and Atlantic were built by W. H. Brown of New York, and their construction was superintended by G. Steers, who modelled the schooner-yacht America, the winner of the cup which has not yet been “lifted.” Mr. Faron, of the firm Sewell and Faron, chief engineer to the United States Government, was the chief engineer of the company, and designed the Arctic and Baltic boilers. These were arranged with double furnaces and had lower water-spaces connected by a row of tubes, round which the heated gas circulated; there was also a hanging plate which checked a too rapid flow to the funnel and increased the combustion. The Arctic burned about 83 tons of coal in 24 hours, which gave her a speed of 316·4 knots for the day. Her gross consumption was 87 tons when she covered 320 knots in 24 hours.
The funds subscribed were exhausted long before the construction of the boat was finished, and the Government not only granted the company’s appeal for assistance, but went further and released the company from its obligation to build the fifth steamer. It increased the subsidy to 33,000 dollars per round voyage, but in return it demanded an increased speed, which, according to Mr. Bayard in Congress, would enable the Collins steamers to overtake any vessel they wished to pursue, and escape from any vessel they wished to avoid.
For some years the Collins Line seemed to have secured the premier position in the Atlantic trade. Its vessels eclipsed the Cunarders in size, speed, and luxury. The company, however, was expensively, almost wastefully, managed, and the steamers were run extravagantly. Great though its income was, its expenditure was greater. At its best the Collins Line never paid a dividend and its fall was hastened by two terrible disasters. Its first great calamity was the loss of the Arctic, which was rammed by the French iron steamer Vesta in a very thick fog between sixty and seventy miles from Cape Race. The Arctic was so well built that, although three large holes were torn in her side, through two of which the water poured, no apprehension was felt for her safety, and her captain sent a boat in charge of one of his officers to the other vessel to rescue those on board if necessary. One of the Vesta’s crew was killed in the collision, and several others on board were injured. The rest of the crew and passengers made a rush for her boats and launched two, one of which was swamped; the other was occupied by two of the crew and several passengers, who, disobeying their captain’s orders, cut their boat adrift and were soon lost to sight in the fog.
Meanwhile on the Arctic it had been discovered that the steamer was sinking. Preparations were made to save the lives of the passengers and crew by means of the boats. One of the tackles of the first boat to be filled gave way while it was being lowered to the water, and all her occupants, except one sailor who seized the other tackle and a lady who clung to him, were precipitated into the sea and drowned. Among those who lost their lives at this time were Mrs. Collins, the wife of the managing owner, and their son and daughter. The second boat was lowered without mishap and was provisioned and quickly filled with passengers. The water continued to pour into the ship, and she was headed for the nearest port, but in about a quarter of an hour the furnaces were put out. All the other boats but one left the ship, the exception being a large lifeboat which there were not sufficient seamen left on board to launch.
This boat is believed to have been filled by passengers, who thought that it might be left afloat when the ship went down. It is probable that it was so crammed that it had no chance of floating, and that it was sucked down with its occupants in the vortex caused by the sinking of the steamer.
The loss of life is variously stated. One version is that the Arctic had three hundred and sixty-five persons on board of whom only eighty-seven survived. An American writer, however, states: “The Arctic foundered with two hundred and twelve of her passengers and one hundred and ten of her crew.”[66] The Vesta left St. Peter’s the day before the disaster with one hundred and forty-seven passengers and a crew of fifty, of whom thirteen were reported missing when she reached St. John’s.