his associates, and thereby created the most famous of the
Atlantic steamship companies.

Four of these liners began running in 1840--an event which
foretold the doom of the packet fleets, though the warning was
almost unheeded in New York and Boston. Four years later Enoch
Train was establishing a new packet line to Liverpool with the
largest, finest ships built up to that time, the Washington
Irving, Anglo-American, Ocean Monarch, Anglo-Saxon, and Daniel
Webster. Other prominent shipping houses were expanding their
service and were launching noble packets until 1853. Meanwhile
the Cunard steamers were increasing in size and speed, and the
service was no longer an experiment.

American capital now began to awaken from its dreams, and Edward
K. Collins, managing owner of the Dramatic line of packets,
determined to challenge the Cunarders at their own game. Aided by
the Government to the extent of $385,000 a year as subsidy, he
put afloat the four magnificent steamers, Atlantic, Pacific,
Baltic, and Arctic, which were a day faster than the Cunarders in
crossing, and reduced the voyage to nine and ten days. The
Collins line, so auspiciously begun in 1850, and promising to
give the United States the supremacy in steam which it had won
under sail, was singularly unfortunate and short-lived. The
Arctic and the Pacific were lost at sea, and Congress withdrew
its financial support after five years. Deprived of this aid, Mr.
Collins was unable to keep the enterprise afloat in competition
with the subsidized Cunard fleet. In this manner and with little
further effort by American interests to compete for the prize,
the dominion of the Atlantic passed into British hands.