Collins Line

Collins Line
Also called	New York & Liverpool United States Mail Steamship Company
Type	Ocean-going transport
Routes	Transatlantic; Gulf of Mexico
Founded	1818 (1818)
Founders	Israel Collins, Edward Knight Collins
Bankers	Brown Bros. & Co.
Main office	New York
Ships owned	Arctic, Baltic, Pacific, two others.
Ports of call	Liverpool, New Orleans, Veracruz
Competitors	Cunard Line
Govt contracts	Mail contract
Govt subsidies	$385,000 annually (occasionally more)
Defunct	1858 (1858)
Disposition	Bankrupt following recession and termination of government subsidy.

The Collins Line (New York & Liverpool United States' Mail Steamship Company) is the common name for the American shipping company started by Israel Collins and then built up by his son Edward Knight Collins. Under Edward Collins' guidance, the company grew to be a serious competitor on the transatlantic routes to the British Cunard shipping company.

Early days

The Collins Line, as it was commonly known at the time, were the ships and lines run by the shipping company, I. G. Collins (later I. G. Collins and Son). Israel Collins had left the sea in 1818 to establish the shipping company in New York. The firm traded in a fairly small way. In 1824, Israel was joined by his son Edward. In January 1825, Edward took advantage of a cotton shortage in England to charter a schooner in order to get to Charleston, South Carolina, ahead of his competitors and corner the market in cotton. This was the turning point in the company. In 1827, the company started a line of packets sailing between New York and Veracruz on the Mexican coast. The line prospered. Israel Collins died in 1831, and Edward took over management of a New York-New Orleans packet line. He made a great success of this venture as well.^[1]

Transatlantic freight trade

Up until 1835 the company had not seriously competed in the transatlantic trade, but in that year it received a new ship, the Shakspeare. The ship was dispatched to Liverpool and returned with the largest cargo yet brought to New York. From then on, the company was a serious competitor for the transatlantic trade. At that time, all of the competing shipping firms were American. Collins' ships predominantly carried cotton for the English cotton industry. The firm continued to commission the largest ships that it could, and three vessels, Garrick, Sheridan, and Siddons, were added to the fleet. In 1838 the 1,030-ton Roscius was added, larger than any competitor. At that time, Collins' main rival was the Black Ball Line, also of New York.^[1]

Transatlantic mail and passenger service

In 1838, the SS Great Western, owned by the British Great Western Steamship Company, crossed the Atlantic in 15 days and heralded a new age in the transatlantic trade. Two years later, the British & North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, commonly known as Cunard Line, began transatlantic steam packet service between Liverpool and Halifax, after winning the tender for subsidies from the British admiralty. In 1840–41, four ships were delivered to Cunard for this service, with two additional ships following in 1844.^[2][3]

Dissatisfied with the dominance of British companies in the transatlantic mail packet trade, the US Congress decided to begin a state-subsidized service of their own in 1845. The United States Postmaster General Office invited tenders from US-based shipping companies for a service from New York to ports in Northern Europe. Four companies, including a group led by Collins, submitted their proposals. A five-year tender of carrying mail from New York to Bremen was eventually awarded to the Ocean Steam Navigation Company, led by Edward Mills, which began service in 1846.^[3]

In 1849, the US Postmaster General Office invited companies to submit bids for a 10-year federal government-subsidized mail service contract between New York and Liverpool, in direct competition with Cunard, which had opened a similar service in 1848.^[3][4] Collins submitted his ambitious plan to operate a weekly service on the route with five ships superior to those of Cunard in every way.^{[citation needed]} Collins' proposal convinced the authorities and the tender was awarded to his New York & Liverpool United States' Mail Steamship Company, commonly known as the Collins Line. Due to the financial constraints of building five ships, the service was eventually scaled down to a bi-weekly operation using four ships. Collins hired the young George Steers, who later designed the famous yacht America, to design his new ships. Named edit] Disasters

On 21 September 1854, the Arctic left Liverpool with 233 passengers, including Collins' wife, their only daughter 19 year old Mary Ann and youngest son 15 year old Henry Coit. The ship had a good crossing until she encountered thick fog less than sixty miles from the US coast. In the fog off Cape Race, Newfoundland, she collided with the 250-ton French iron propeller ship SS Vesta, and was holed in three places. The Arctic had no watertight compartments and began to fill with water. The captain tried to reach land before the ship sank, but only fifteen miles from shore, the ship rolled over and sank. 322 passengers are said to have perished. The next day Collins went to meet his family, but received a letter from the captain telling him that his wife and two children were dead. ^[2]

Grief stricken though Collins was, he did not give up his determination to dominate the transatlantic trade. He began to plan a new ship that would be bigger, faster and more luxurious than the rest, the Adriatic.

In 1856, before the new ship had been completed, the Pacific disappeared without trace while on a voyage from Liverpool. It was believed that she most probably hit an iceberg, and that about 240 people perished.^[2] In 1991, the Pacific was reported to have been found off the coast of Wales.^{[citation needed]}

End of the company

“	The Collins Line–Yet unconquered, it has only itself to beat.	”
—A toast on April 17, 1856 from Mayor Fernando Wood, at a New York City banquet honoring the shipwrights of the SS Adriatic.[6]

The Adriatic was launched on April 7, 1856. She was 355 feet (108 m) long and was 3,670 tons, with a maximum speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). She was intended to begin service in November, but due to technical problems, she did not run her sea trials until 1857. In August 1857, shortly before the onset of a brief but severe depression, Congress finally gave the required six-month notice of a subsidy reduction to the pre-1852 amount of $385,000 yearly for only twenty trips. By the next February, the Collins Line had suspended operations, and on 1 April 1858, in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, its remaining vessels were sold at auction. The Adriatic only made one voyage for Collins’ company under these circumstances.^[7] The Atlantic made a sailing in December 1857 and Baltic made one in January 1858, but in February the planned sailing of the Atlantic was cancelled and the company was wound up. The Adriatic, in the service of her new owners, made a crossing from Galway to Newfoundland in only 5 days 19¾ hours. The collapse of the Collins line left Cunard with very little opposition in the Atlantic, as the Great Western Steamship Company had already ceased trading.^[2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} The Unlucky Collins Line from AmericanHeritage.com
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Bernard Dumpleton, “The Story of the Paddle Steamer”, 1973, The Uffington Press, ISBN 0854750576
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Dawson, Philip (2005). The Liner: Retrospective & Renaissance. Conway. pp. 19–21. ISBN 978-1-84486-049-4. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d e} Ulrich, Kurt. Monarchs of the Sea: The Great Ocean Liners. pp. 43–44. ISBN 1 86064 3736. 
5. ^ le Goff, Oliver (1999). Ocean Liners. Greenwitch Editions. pp. 14. ISBN 0 86288 274 5. 
6. ^ "The Workmen of the Adriatic". The New York Times. April 18, 1856. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50B15F834591B7493C7A8178FD85F428584F9. Retrieved 2011-03-13. 
7. ^ The Baltic Goes to Washington: Lobbying for a Congressional Steamship Subsidy, 1852, by Edward W. Sloan, The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du nord, V, No. 1 (January 1995), 19-32

Resource

• Whitney, Ralph. American Heritage.com "The Unlucky Collins Line" http://www.americanheritage.com/content/unlucky-collins-line (retrieved Sept 23, 2011).
• "The Ship List"
• McKee, Marguerite M. "The Ship Subsidy Question in United States Politics," Smith College Studies in History, VIII (October, 1922).