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

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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

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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

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X The Great Republic was one of the largest paddle steamers of the Pacific Mail Line. This line managed to operate successfully, since it was in the protected coastal service, which no foreign ship might enter. .A EAP-.S UF DECLINE The advent of steel steamships and foreign subsidies were the principal causes of United States maritime decline in the 1870's and 780is. Great Britain, with her superior machine works, productive steel industry, and mail sub- sidy, was able to discourage American capital, which turned to railroads, oil, and mining. In this period, one shipbuilder had the cour- age to build ships. He was John Roach, who operated his own steel mill and shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania. Only one American transatlantic line operated in the latter years of the century. This was the Pennsylvania Railroad-sponsored American Line, with four iron ships of quality, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois. It truthfully boasted of never having lost a passenger or mail- bag, an unequaled safety record. XJ Zljff . K . x John Roach maintainerl his faith in I i n shiriinf and launclwll one 7' 1 rH5 '5 'Y ' 4lu'a-.fs -- A mer vu ' 11 1 .ter nl U0 '. H lu f lll V , x f - z- ' The above Iloinwr HH- AIll4 ' an Jn: in the 1880 3' lllllIlll'l'll and tim-nty-s1.x' vessels lwlwevrz ' 1 .' tn' U , -l nt mar 91 1872111141 High. sal I 6, ia lldllgi level of our null-L