The "Dramatic" History of the Collins Line (1849 - 1858)

the collins line with their iconic paddle steamers all named after the oceans and seas of the world is a company that many maritime enthusiasts have heard of but never gave much thought to it's poorly documented shrouded in grey and its owner lies in an unmarked grave but the slow buildup explosive heyday and quiet demise of one of the leading shipping lines of the 1850s paved the way for most of the steamship lines to come in the later 19th century [Music] while the collins line was founded in 1847 its story began in 1818. the ig collins company was a modest operation run by former sea captain israel collins of new york and running primarily packet trade out of the eastern united states it wasn't until edward israel's young 21 year old son became a partner that the company began to really take off and obviously this is a much later photograph of edward edward knight collins was an accomplished mariner even at such a young age he went to sea at the age of 15 and had been around the world a few times surviving both shipwrecks and pirates he made a name for himself in early 1825 when the cost of american cotton exports was rising in england now news of this increased price had actually reached new york city where edward was before it reached the american south and seizing the opportunity he chartered the fastest new york clipper ship that he could find sailed to charleston south carolina and bought up every bale of cotton on the market to be sold for an upcharge in england ig collins and sun expanded significantly over the following years running routes down to mexico now in 1831 when his father died edward took over the company now none of this is really important to the history of the collins line as the ig collins company is not the collins line but it sets up the background for us and shows us exactly who edward collins is a master mariner and an accomplished businessman when he took command of his father's company he changed the way the ships were run the company's ships became bigger he offered higher quality voyages with better services better food and better quarters for both passengers and crew than any rivals of the day one of his ships the american-built ship shakespeare was praised by the british when it arrived over there as being the finest ship to ever make port in liverpool the shakespeare was big it was lavish so were other ships that he commissioned the company's ships became bigger and better and followed every modern trend that they possibly could some sources say that soda fountains were even installed aboard his vessels edward collins also had a flare for dramatics his ships became spectacles and he marketed his captains and officers as celebrities eventually his company came to be known as the dramatic line and he embraced this he even named some of his ships after figures in classical literature such as shakespeare the exciting image of the company was only bolstered by a streak of luck that put his ships very often at the right place at the right time to rescue so many people from various shipwrecks and his company grew and grew when the first steamboats were crossing the atlantic in 1838 edward collins was one of the first shipping magnets to abandon sail for steam and from that point on he never made another sailing ship again now we're still not up to the collins line proper jest yet but we've met edward collins now before we get to the collins line we're going to take a short detour and talk about the cunard line now american package ships continued to dominate the north atlantic trade and britain which pretty much single-handedly kept the american cotton industry alive in the south relied on these american packets to import that cotton for them and britain didn't like that at all in 1840 samuel cunard a man from halifax canada and the son of two former philadelphians who fled during the american revolution started a steamboat line at the time canada was dominion of britain and britain saw the new cunard line as the answer to america's dominance on the atlantic which was egg in the face for britain's navy the greatest navy on the seas the british post office gave cunard a large annual subsidy for carrying the mail and samuel cunard followed the successful formula of the regularly scheduled crossings pioneered by the american black ball line the united states had to respond quickly if it wanted to maintain its dominant position in the atlantic and it didn't respond quickly at all now content with not being quick at all the united states postal service saw no need to rely on heavily subsidized american steamboats to carry its mail but after almost 10 years of pressure most of which was led by edward collins himself the united states congress agreed to give in and award a contract and subsidy to an american steamship line to compete with cunard and edward collins was not picked the contract was given to a little chap named edward mills and his company the ocean steam navigation company not to be confused with the oceanic steam navigation company which would eventually become the white star line mills lead ship was the washington and he was given all he needed to compete with cunard and an open door to establish an american mail route between the united states and mainland europe and he fumbled it now i suppose the main problem was that his ships were simply too slow and therefore the cunard line continued to encroach and step upon american toes the mail contract with edward mills was revoked and later that year in 1847 they awarded that contract to another edward our edward edward collins he cashed out of his other shipping lines surveyed his competition and turned to the strategy that served him so well in his previous packet ships go bigger and be better and thus the collins line was formed he put together a proposal to the us government of a five-ship fleet running weekly voyages between new york and liverpool but the cost of a five-ship fleet was simply too much and the project was scaled down to a four-ship fleet running bi-weekly voyages these four ships were designed by master naval architect george steers who built them to be bigger and better than cunard in every conceivable way and supposedly they were also the first ships to have running water and steam heating who was george steers well it turns out he was the perfect man for the job a brilliant naval architect and the son of another shipbuilder named henry steers george and his brother built the yacht america which was so fast that it was actually barred from competing in some yacht races and in some cases sailed alongside those races nonetheless blowing the other ships away the americas cup a famous yacht racing trophy is named in her honor and now her builder was to partner up with edward collins to build some cutting-edge ocean liners as the collins fleet took shape in the shipyards of manhattan the first ship the atlantic was launched ever the showman that edward collins was the launch was a spectacle complete with cannon salutes edward collins even brought his family there to watch it along with him and shortly thereafter three more ships followed the pacific the arctic and the baltic i won't spend too much time detailing these ships individually or their careers but i will continue on with the collins line history after you've finished with this video if you are interested check out my other video companion to this documentary where i do explore those ships individually and tell their unique stories the four ships were an absolute sensation they had stolen away so many passengers from the cunard line and cut cunard's freight numbers in half the collins line became the way to cross the atlantic but they were so expensive to run due to the requirements in the government subsidy to maintain a minimal crossing time and therefore the ships were always operated at maximum speed they were breaking all speed records and winning them back to the united states but a collins line voyage consumed more than twice the coal of a cunard liner in fact the collins line ships were so uneconomical that they were losing over 17 thousand dollars per voyage in 1850s money or 600 000 today this was not because the ships were inefficient this was not because steers was an incompetent builder nor because collins ran the company poorly it's because the government had no understanding of how these ships worked and knew little of the shipping industry and had given the collins line an impossible mandate not to mention many of the people who attached this requirement to the subsidy were secretly hoping to see the company fold on the other hand the british subsidy given to the cunard line was significantly larger almost triple what the collins line was receiving and left the cunard line to operate as they saw most fit edward collins was about to fight a losing battle right out the gate at this point collins had to choose cut company costs and raise the fare on passengers or ask for an increased government subsidy he decided to ask for an increased subsidy almost twice his initial agreement for a total of eight hundred and fifty eight thousand eighteen fifties money annually after all much of cunard's funding came from the british government how could collins compete without the backing of the united states unfortunately for collins in 1852 the united states was well on its way towards civil war and most of the american congressmen were wondering why southern states should be taxed to pay for a new york company collins pressured congress and even used his international fame as a tool for his cause he was well liked and generally speaking a very nice man who treated his employees and customers well and he was a celebrity for a southern secessionist however he was still a new yorker and an industrialist but for those who favored the union they saw him more by his role on the world stage he was the embodiment of how the united states should be seen by other countries and quite importantly he was a consistent thorn in the side of british shipping to draw support both within congress and publicly he took his baltic and steamed it up the potomac inviting politicians to come out and tour this wonder because he realized that most people in the south had only seen small river boats they had never seen a massive collins ocean liner at this point in an effort to bring down the fuel costs the engines were heavily modified and even partially replaced and they did indeed cut fuel consumption in half by 50 percent however they were so much of a strain on the ship's wooden hulls that they ended up spending almost everything that they saved on coal on maintaining the hulls completely unrelated there was a great lake steamer named the ek collins to honor edward collins by an admiring shipbuilder and that ship burned down in 1854 within a day of that disaster the news broke that the collins liner arctic which was two days late arriving in new york had wrecked off newfoundland with at least 319 dead including collins wife and two children you'll find a full video of the loss of the arctic on my channel a year and a half later there was a schooner named in edward collins's honor the ek collins and it wrecked in a storm now within a few days of that the pacific departed liverpool bound for new york and was never seen again the collins line was in serious financial trouble the stock price had never increased above the initial asking bid and the company never turned a profit and now half of its fleet was gone and edward was a widower using the insurance money from the iraq of the arctic collins commissioned his shipbuilder to make him an even larger steamer this would be the adriatic things went according to plan but bad luck eventually came back for collins the subsidy was cut back down to its initial agreement price of 385 000 a year and news had gotten out that cornelius commodore vanderbilt the richest man in the united states was putting in a bid to steal the us mail contract away from collins and his shipping line and then george steers who was overseeing the construction of the adriatic who was a close friend of collins was killed by a runaway horse the construction of the adriatic was delayed a year george's funeral had a massive procession with over 1200 people and 70 carriages weakened and standing on its last financial legs the collins line held out until the maiden voyage of the adriatic on november 21st 1857. by this point edward's uncle the celebrity captain of the collins line john collins had become one of the supervisors of the company and then on the very same day that the adriatic was to depart john died now john collins had become a bit of a father figure to edward his death hit edward very hard in mourning the departure of the adriatic was delayed by two days but she set sail on november 23rd 1857 the baltic was moored not too far from her and as the adriatic was sailing out another steamer the web rounded around the tip of the baltic not knowing that the adriatic was coming and got hit by the adriatic spun around now fortunately it doesn't seem that any significant damage was done to either vessel but the adriatic was delayed a few minutes and then commenced on her maiden voyage it would turn out that this voyage would be the only voyage that the adriatic would sail under the collins line the collins line went broke and folded in early 1858 the remaining fleet was sold off with two of the ships gaining a new life during the american civil war more about that in my video about the collins line fleet with the collapse of the collins line there was no more significant competition against the cunard line and the united states which had dominated the sailing packet era bowed out of the transatlantic steam competition to fight its civil war edward collins lost his house and most of his estate from then on he lived a quiet modest life no longer the exciting cheerful man who was friends with p.t barnum but instead he lived the life of a lonely man in a new york city apartment when he died in 1878 his family was too busy fighting over the scraps of his estate to even mark his grave the collins line was america's answer to the rapidly growing cunard line which was heavily subsidized by the british government financed by increasingly reluctant subsidies from the united states congress mccollins line attempted to recapture american supremacy in the north atlantic and likely would have succeeded but was ultimately stifled by the increasing division that would eventually become the american civil war i think the thing that touches me the most about the history of the collins line is edward himself such a theatrical and passionate man who put his whole life and his whole soul into this company and making it happen but everything was taken away from him by things out of his hands half of his fleet sank his wife and two of his kids were killed and eventually he lost his house as a result of it the man as i said is not even marked in a grave now some of you may remember about a year ago that frank from shrouded veterans was putting together an effort to put a grave marker on reverend ancient a hero of the atlantic disaster up in nova scotia and with the help of many of the viewers here we were able to contribute over a thousand dollars towards that with his help now we want to put a marker on edward collins grave there's going to be another video about that but if this is something that touched you please check that video out as well i want to thank ralph whitney for his excellent article in the american heritage magazine way back in 1957 which was the basis for much of this video considering how little information there is on the collins line aside from that article thank you very much for watching please check out my playlist on the collins line including a video about the collins line fleet and a video each exploring the two company disasters the arctic and the pacific a huge thank you to all of my supporters on patreon for helping cover the cost of these rather large collins line documentaries especially kaiser wilhelm the second air wicca zack sterosu tom shavada rob m amos mayhew corey andrews dakota charbonne zolt bognar and nicholas masella if you enjoyed this video and want to support my ongoing research into maritime stories and lost history please consider becoming a patron yourself with the link below in the meantime be sure to like and subscribe

Channel: Part-Time Explorer

Views: 82,606

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Id: sUC0jXo5K_4

Length: 18min 2sec (1082 seconds)

Published: Sat May 07 2022