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Background

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  • Packet trade began in earnest with the Black Ball Line in 1818, and American sailing packets largely dominated the trade.
  • Cunard Line launched steamships for the packet trade in 1840. Heavily subsidized by the Admiralty. Quickly took over the packet trade as US could not compete with sail (except barely eastbound) and had no subsidies.
  • In 1845 Congress agreed to subsidize US steamship companies. Funding wasn't focused, so not much came of it.
  • Congress later decided to focus efforts on creating a NY-Liverpool steamship line. Signed contract with Edward Knight Collins and James and Stewart Brown of Brown Bros. & Co. on Nov 1, 1847, for subsidy of $385k/year. Contract details were for four steamships (Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific, and Baltic) to carry mail on 20 roundtrips per year. Collins & the Browns raised $1.2M initial capital.
  • "In 1849 they [the United States government] decided to subsidise a line of steamships of extreme speed, that should "run the Cunarders off the Atlantic," and "sweep the seas in war.""[1]
  • "Their cost, however, so far exceeded the estimate that the Government not only had to make the company an advance, but, influenced by the frequent appeals of Senator Bayard, 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 that paid to the Cunard Company at first), but they demanded increased speed."[2]
  • "Extraordinary interest was manifested in the [speed] competition on both sides of the Atlantic, and heavy bets were constantly made."[3]
  • "The most formidable opponent [for Cunard] was the Collins Line, which started with four fine ships [...] which, although all faster than the Cunard boats, for some reason or other never commanded the confidence of the public secured by the English line."[4]
  • "the deepening inroads of the subsidized British steamships on our unprotected sail-packet trade induced Congress, in 1845, to pass an Act authorizing the Postmaster-General to make contracts with the owners of American vessels, steamships preferred, for the regular transportation of the United States mails.[5]
  • "Not until national protection was offered in the form of generous subsidies, could our enterprising merchants and sailors see their way clear to enter the rivalry with the state-aided steam fleets of Europe."[6]
  • "President Polk, in the annual message to Congress in which he recounted the steps that had been taken in pursuance of the ocean mail legislation of the previous session, said: "The enlightened policy by which a rapid communication with the various distant parts of the world is established, by means of American-built steamers, would find an ample reward in the increase of our commerce, and in making our country and its resources more favorably known abroad; but the national advantage is still greater - of having our naval officers made familiar with steam navigation, and of having the privilege of taking the ships already equipped for immediate service at a moment's notice, and will be cheaply purchased by the compensation to be paid for the transportation of the mail, over and above the postage required. A just national pride, no less than our commercial interests, would seem to favor the policy of augmenting the number of this description of vessels.""[7]

Design

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  • Dimensions - in table, page 432 of The Atlantic Ferry
  • wood types - see pg 278 of The American Merchant Marine
  • Naval architect was George Steers, young (29) but well known at the time for his fast pilot boats and racing yachts. Later famous for designing America, first winner and namesake of the America's Cup.
  • "They were built chiefly of oak, and were planked with pitch-pine. They had straight bows and rounded sterns; each had three masts, and they were square-rigged on the fore and main-masts. They were by far the handsomest vessels that had yet been built for the Transatlantic service."[8]
  • "The paddles were 35 1/2 feet in diameter"[9]
  • "Cost was considered no object as long as they outstripped the best performances of the Cunard vessels. In this they were successful, but financially they were not, owing, no doubt, to the lavish expenditure."[10]

Construction

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  • "The Arctic was considered the finest ship [of the Collins Line]."[11]
  • "She was designed by George Steers, of New York (of America yacht fame), and built by W. H. Brown, of New York, at a cost of $700,000."[12]
  • "The engines were designed by Faron (a Government engineer), after a careful study of the Cunard boats, and built by the Novelty and Allaire Companies; side lever, cylinders 95 inches, with 9 feet stroke, 800 H. P. nominal, and the boilers carried 17.5 pounds of steam and consumed 87 tons of coal per day.(1)[13]
  • "Mr. Faron was sent to England to spy out the Cunard Company's engines and boilers, and nothing was left undone to ensure success."[14]
  • "The cabins, too, were superior in elegance and luxury to any British ship, and the state-rooms were fitted with electric bells, but the discipline was far inferior to the Cunard ships."[15]

Launch and maiden voyage

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  • Wm H. Brown's shipyard launched Arctic (and two other steamships) on Jan 28, 1850. Big spectacle. EK Collins sent invitations to press, sold tickets to view launch from his Atlantic docked nearby.
  • "It was estimated that there were 20,000 people to see the launching" [16]
  • "it was the first time more than one vessel had been launched from one yard in a day"[17]

In regular service

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  • Artic had fastest eastbound passage in 1852 at 9days 17h and 15 min[18]
  • Arctic became Eastbound Blue Riband holder in February 1852; her record stood for 4 years.
  • Captain Luce ran Arctic aground on Tuscar Rock off the south coast of Ireland in May 1854.[19]
  • During the Crimean War, eleven of Cunard's liners were employed as transports. "the Collins Line, for a time, took the Cunard days of sailing alternately"[20]
  • "While the world was applauding the apparent triumph of America in the great ocean race, Charles McIver wrote to Mr. Cunard: "The Collins Company are pretty much in the situation of finding that breaking our windows with sovereigns, though very fine fun, is too costly to keep up""[21]
  • "the establishment of the Collins Line had had a marked effect upon freights; as before the Collins Company started, freights were £7 10s. per ton between Liverpool and the States, whilst two years after the Collins boats had been running the price was £4.[22]
  • "These fine vessels [the four Collins ships] were a great advance upon the Cunarders then existing, and were the first to have straight sterns, and to be fitted up with smoking-rooms, specially set apart for the purpose; other luxuries were the spacious bath-rooms and barbers' shops"[23]

Sinking

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  • law precedent: 1842 United States vs. Alexander Holmes, Circuit Court of Philadelphia. Ruled in the event of shipwreck or "extreme danger", sailors were required to "sacrifice their lives" in the line of duty for the benefit of passengers. [24]
  • "233 passengers (of whom 150 were first-class) and a crew of 135"[25]
  • "only two [lifeboats], with 31 of the crew and 14 passengers, escaped."[26]
  • "Among those who perished were the wife of Mr. Collins, their only son, and a daughter."[27]
  • "Seventy-two men and four women sought refuge on a raft, hastily constructed, but one by one they were swept away, and at eight o'clock the following morning one human being alone was left, and after retaining his place for a day and a half after all his companions had perished, he was saved by a passing vessel.(1)"[28]
  • Vesta had 147 passengers and a crew of fifty.[29]
  • 13 passengers on Vesta died [30]

Reaction

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  • "News of the disaster did not reach New York until October 11, two weeks after it occurred" [31]
  • "On the other hand, the loss of the paddle steamer Arctic, a splendid unit of the New York & Liverpool United States' Mail Steamship Company, in September 1854 was one of the first great tragedies on the North Atlantic about which the newspaper-reading public learned a great deal. They were particularly horrified at the loss of life, which included all the women and children on the ship and a very high percentage of the passengers. Other steamships certainly had been lost earlier but often without a trace so that the gruesome possibilities remained a mystery. With the sinking of the Arctic, the single greatest disaster for an American-flag liner, a few passengers and crew survived to provide eyewitness tales, which were told and retold to horrify the public consciousness."[32]
  • "As many of the passengers were wealthy Americans, there was terrible grief throughout the United States over the disaster."[33]


Impact

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  • "The loss of the S.S. "Arctic", of the Collins line, in 1854, probably did more than any one other occasion to bring the question of an efficient fog signal before the public"[34]

Notes

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  1. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 66
  2. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 70
  3. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 70
  4. ^ Cornewall-Jones, p 135
  5. ^ Marvin, p 240
  6. ^ Marvin, p 241
  7. ^ Marvin, p 242
  8. ^ Cornewall-Jones, p 135
  9. ^ Maginnis, p 47
  10. ^ Maginnis, p 47
  11. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 69
  12. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 69
  13. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 69
  14. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 69
  15. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 69
  16. ^ Morrison, History of New York Ship Yards, p 122
  17. ^ Morrison, History of New York Ship Yards, p 122
  18. ^ Maginnis, p xv
  19. ^ Shaw, p 87
  20. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 73
  21. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 73
  22. ^ Cornewall-Jones, p 137
  23. ^ Maginnis, p 46
  24. ^ Shaw, p 137
  25. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 73
  26. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 73–74
  27. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 74
  28. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 74
  29. ^ Cornewall-Jones, p 137
  30. ^ Marvin, p 270
  31. ^ Whitney
  32. ^ Flayhart, Perils of the Atlantic, p 19
  33. ^ Fry, History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation, p 74
  34. ^ Morrison, History of American Steam Navigation, p 575

References

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  • Bonsor, N. R. P. (1975) [1955]. North Atlantic Seaway. Vol. 1. Arco Publishing Company. ISBN 0668036796.
  • Cornewall-Jones, R. J. (1898). The British Merchant Service: Being A History of the British Mercantile Marine. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company.
  • Flayhart, William H. (2003). Perils of the Atlantic: Steamship Disasters, 1850 to the Present. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393041552.
  • Fry, Henry (1896). The History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company.
  • Maginnis, Arthur J. (1900). The Atlantic Ferry. London: Whittaker and Co.
  • Marvin, Winthrop Lippitt (1902). The American merchant marine; its history and romance from 1620 to 1902. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
  • Morrison, John Harrison (1908). History of American Steam Navigation. W. F. Sametz & Co. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
  • Morrison, John Harrison (1909). History of New York Ship Yards. W. F. Sametz & Co. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
  • Shaw, David W. (2002). The Sea Shall Embrace Them. The Free Press. ISBN 0743222172.
  • Whitney, Ralph (February 1957). "The Unlucky Collins Line". American Heritage Magazine. Vol. 8, no. 2. Retrieved 2008-01-23.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
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