The Packets : 237 



York to Liverpool. Their first vessel to leave New York, the Meteor, 

 under command of Captain Nathan Cobb, carried a large red star 

 on her fore-topsail. This, therefore, became known as the Second 

 Line or the Red Star Line. The Black Ball responded by doubling its 

 services. 



On July 30th of the same year a fourth line was announced by Fish 

 & Grinnel which later became Grinnel, Minturn & Co. The reason for 

 its being known as the Fourth Line was that the additional fleet of 

 the Black Ball Line was considered to constitute an independent 

 service. The flag of the Grinnel, Minturn was a blue swallowtail, and 

 the Fourth Line was, therefore, popularly known as the Swallowtail 

 Line. Beginning in the autumn of 1844 the lines had sorted out their 

 services so that a Black Ball vessel left New York on the ist of each 

 month, a Swallowtail left on the 8th, another Black Bailer the i6th, 

 and a Red Star on the 24th. This arrangement continued for the next 

 sixteen years. 



It took only four years of operation for the new method of ship 

 management to establish itself. In fact, the development might have 

 come even more rapidly had it not been for a temporary financial 

 depression. The Black Ball kept rigidly to its schedule and through 

 reliability in operation secured the best of the business: the carrying 

 of news, the transport of specie and financial papers, fine freight and 

 important passengers in a hurry. When competition came it came 

 with a rush, but the line was so well established in public confidence 

 that it could afford to meet the competition by its own expansion 

 and it continued a busy life as long as the basic idea of the sailing 

 packet filled a useful place in maritime history. 



Very interesting is the fact that, in the midst of competition, the 

 lines arrived so rapidly at a sensible arrangement for providing serv- 

 ice and distributing the business. Noteworthy also is the length of 

 time during which the arrangement persisted. That the idea of a 

 scheduled line operation was badly needed was proved by its rapid 

 growth. During the next forty years the principle was extended to 

 operation between other ports in America and other ports in Europe. 

 It was extended also to coastwise shipping in the United States with 

 lines operating to all the ports of the Atlantic seaboard including the 

 gulf ports of Mobile and New Orleans. It was the combination of for- 

 eign and domestic service that gave New York the early leadership 

 which was never seriously challenged. The pattern has, in fact, been 

 repeated and accentuated in steamship operation and even travel by 

 air. 



