“What may be the ultimate fate of this excitement—­whether or not the expenses of equipment and fuel will admit of the employment of these vessels in the ordinary packet service—­we cannot pretend to form an opinion; but of the entire feasibility of the passage of the Atlantic by steam, as far as regards safety, comfort, and dispatch, even in the roughest and most boisterous weather, the most skeptical must now cease to doubt.”

Unfortunately for our national pride, the story of the development of the ocean steamship industry from this small beginning to its present prodigious proportions, is one in which we of the United States fill but a little space.  We have, it is true, furnished the rich cargoes of grain, of cotton, and of cattle, that have made the ocean passage in one direction profitable for shipowners.  We found homes for the millions of immigrants who crowded the “’tween decks” of steamers of every flag and impelled the companies to build bigger and bigger craft to carry the ever increasing throngs.  And in these later days of luxury and wealth unparalleled, we have supplied the millionaires, whose demands for quarters afloat as gorgeous as a Fifth Avenue club have resulted in the building of floating palaces.  America has supported the transatlantic lines, but almost every civilized people with a seacoast has outdone us in building the ships.  For a time, indeed, it seemed that we should speedily overcome the lead that England immediately took in building steamships.  Her entrance upon this industry was, as we have seen, in 1838.  The United States took it up about ten years later.  In 1847 the Ocean Steam Navigation Company was organized in this country and secured from the Government a contract to carry the mails between New York and Bremen.  Two ships were built and regular trips made for a year or more; but when the Government contract expired and was not renewed, the venture was abandoned.  About the same time the owners of one of the most famous packet lines, the Black Ball, tried the experiment of supplementing their sailing service with a steamship, but it proved unprofitable.  Shortly after the New York and Havre Steamship Company, with two vessels and a postal subsidy of $150,000, entered the field and continued operations with only moderate success until 1868.

The only really notable effort of Americans in the early days of steam navigation to get their share of transatlantic trade—­indeed, I might almost say the most determined effort until the present time—­was that made by the projectors of the Collins line, and it ended in disaster, in heavy financial loss, and in bitter sorrow.