In October 1851 the City of Pittsburg was built at Philadelphia and was the first American-built screw-propelled steamer in the North Atlantic service. The City of Philadelphia was delivered by Messrs. Tod and McGregor in 1853, being of slightly greater tonnage than her predecessor from the yard; but she was eclipsed by the City of Baltimore ordered the same year, the dimensions of the last named being: 326 feet in length, 39 feet breadth, 26 feet depth, 2472 tons gross and 1774 net.
This vessel took the place of the City of Glasgow, which in March 1854 disappeared in mid-ocean with 480 souls on board. In September of the same year the City of Philadelphia was wrecked off Cape Race, but there was no loss of life.
“Inman’s iron screws,” as they were dubbed, were attracting attention, and it was recognised as merely a question of time when steamers of this type would prove successful rivals to the paddle-boats.
Mr. Inman became sole managing director in October 1854, as the result of the offer of the British Government to charter certain of the steamers as transports during the Crimean War, the use of the vessels for this purpose being disapproved by Messrs. Richardson, who were Quakers. About this time the company purchased the Kangaroo from the Pacific and Australasian Company, and ordered the City of Washington from Messrs. Tod and McGregor. The Kangaroo was 257 feet in length, 36 feet in breadth, 27 feet depth, and had a gross tonnage of 1719 tons. The City of Washington was 358 feet in length, 40 feet in breadth, and 26 feet depth, with a gross tonnage of 2870 tons.
The Crimean War saw a great demand by the Allies for transports, and as the French Government offered better terms than the British Government, the City of Manchester was chartered to the French, and was followed by the City of Baltimore, and six months later, when she had concluded her trial trips, by the City of Washington. Upon the termination of their engagement as transports these vessels returned to the Liverpool and Philadelphia service.
For some time Mr. Inman had been considering the advisability of making New York his American port instead of Philadelphia, and when the Kangaroo, with all her passengers on board, was frozen up in the Delaware and her departure for Liverpool was delayed for five weeks, he inaugurated, in December 1856, a monthly service to New York with the City of Washington. Two months later the Inman sailings were increased to fortnightly, the sailings in the alternate weeks being undertaken by the Collins liners. This arrangement was very short-lived, for in the same month the Collins Line service was withdrawn. In 1857 also, the title of the organisation was changed to “The Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia Steamship Company,” to mark the extension of the service to New York.
In October 1857 Mr. Inman’s Company bought up the Glasgow and New York Steamship Company, and placed two of the vessels, the Edinburgh and the Glasgow, in the trade between Liverpool and New York. By 1860 the demands upon the resources of the line were such that the first City of New York was ordered from Tod and McGregor. She was 336 feet in length, by 40 feet beam, and 28 feet depth, and was of 2360 tons gross. Her engines were of the horizontal, trunk type, and she was the first vessel of this line in which engines of this design were installed.
The rivalry between the Inman and Cunard Lines was intense, and neither company produced a steamer which the other did not seek to surpass, but the Inman Company forged ahead both in the matter of speed and passenger accommodation and became for a time the premier company on the Atlantic. The White Star Line, however, entered the “ferry” with vessels of a different type, and the competition between the three great companies became keener than ever. The first City of Paris was added to the fleet in 1866. Her Cunard rival was the Russia. The City of Brussels, of 3081 tons, began her sailings in October 1869. She was the last of the Inman Line to be fitted with the long wooden deck-house which was a conspicuous feature of so many ocean-going steamers. Her average speed was between 14 and 15 knots, which was slightly increased when she was re-engined in a few years’ time. In December 1869 she made the voyage from New York to Queenstown in 7 days 20 hours 33 minutes, a record which remained unbeaten until September 1875, when the City of Berlin made the westward passage in 7 days 18 hours and 2 minutes, and the homeward run in 7 days 15 hours 48 minutes. The City of Brussels was the first vessel, apart from the Great Eastern, in the North Atlantic trade, in which McFarlane Gray’s steam-steering gear was introduced.
The dangers inseparable from the North Atlantic traffic led to the adoption by the company in 1870 of the “lanes” or routes across the ocean as suggested by Lieut. Maury of the United States Navy, a more southerly course being taken during the months from January to August, to avoid the icebergs from the northern regions. The Cunard and other steam-ship companies adopted the system about the same time.
The City of Berlin was contracted for by Messrs. Caird and Co. in 1873, and when she was launched the Inman fleet counted up thirty-one vessels with a total of 76,766 tons. The rivalry between the builders of the great ocean-going liners, no less than between the firms owning the ships and the officers of the ships themselves, was very great, and Messrs. Caird were successful in their endeavour to turn out a vessel which should be admitted to be the finest ocean-going steamer afloat. The rapid acquisition of one first-class vessel after another placed the Inman Company in the front rank. This steamer was 489 feet long on the keel, and 513 feet over all, by 45 feet beam and 36 feet depth. Her speed was about 16 knots. She was of 5491 tons gross and 3139 tons net. She had a pair of engines of the inverted direct-acting compound type, with high- and low-pressure cylinders, and of 1000 nominal horse-power, but on her trial trip the indicated horse-power was 5200, and this was sometimes exceeded in her voyages. Her low-pressure cylinder was 120 inches in diameter, and the high-pressure was 72 inches. Her twelve boilers were heated by thirty-six furnaces, the boilers being so arranged that any number of them could be cut off.