United States Merchant Marine Academy - Midships Yearbook (Kings Point, NY)

Page 24 text:

IN. X 41 3 s..-W , 1 ,f' use AMERICA TA BS Tal .c ll t. Z Jw N. 'rl 'f A 1777 I The first steamship built for Collins' United States Mail Steamship Com- pany was the Atlantic. The Atlantic delighted Americans by crossing to Liverpool in ten days and sixteen hours, clipping twelve hours from the Cunard record. Collins was dealt a heavy blow in 185-1. when the Arctic collided with a French steamer in the fog of Cape Race. The vessel sank with the loss of more than three hundred lives. Among those drowned were Collins' wife. son. and daughter. W W .4 .4 ,lL- Xl

Page 23 text:

tf s A A L8 DEEP WATER STEAM It is interesting to note that it was Robert Fulton,s Hudson River monopoly which hrought about the first ocean-going steamship. After operating his Phoenix on the Hudson and in Jer- sey waters for nearly a year, John Stevens decided to move to the Delaware River, far from Fultonis territory. This olved crossing one hundred and fifty miles of open which was accomplished in thirteen days, making the first sea-going steamship in the world. later, the Savannah, Moses Rogers, skipper, Atlantic under sail and steam. Although steam only three days of the twenty-nine day cross- was the first steamer to cross the ocean. Savannah was the frst steam- cross the Atlantic. This three days longer than time, but marks the be- ocean-going steamship

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THB LAD lx I I L, f- ,gh 1 -Elvin il X is In 1851 the Pacific made a single day's run of 330 miles. This stood as the record for a steamer until 1864. By 1840, three English companies, including the famous Cunard Line, controlled the transatlantic trade with their steam packets. Edward Knight Collins, operator of the successful Dramatic Line of sailing packets, swore the United States would not fall behind. By 1850 he had four vessels operating on the England- America run, the Baltic, Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific. These vessels consistently hested the Cunarders in fierce compe- tition by an average of nineteen hours and thirty-seven minutes per voyage. So it was the work of E. K. Collins which kept the United States the leader on the Atlantic for several years. ln fact, it took the disastrous loss of two vessels and sec- tional politics to strike the standard set by Collins, superior seamanship. The Pacific, sailing from Liverpool, disappeared with- out leaving a splinter behind, perhaps the victim of an iceberg. Swift ships like the Baltic kept the American flag in first place on the North Atlantic. 23