The Packets : 241 



But he was in Swallowtail London in the 1830's when he established 

 the westbound speed record of fifteen days, eighteen hours from 

 Portsmouth to Sandy Hook. When he retired to a business life ashore 

 he became one of the original directors of the Wamsutta Cotton 

 Mills. 



Captain William H. Allen, Bridgeport, Connecticut, commanded 

 several Liverpool Red Star Liners from 1840 to i860 and then retired 

 to serve as an officer of an insurance company. He lived in Brooklyn 

 and served as a trustee in the Brooklyn City Hospital. 



Nathan Cobb, of Stonington, Connecticut, commanded the first 

 Liverpool Red Star Liner. After his retirement from the line he be- 

 came the owner and operator of his own ships. After operating in 

 the interest of the Black Ball Line, he became part owner in the line 

 and later participated with Marshal in reorganizing the Hne. He was 

 owner of a coastal steamer and organizer of a project to establish an 

 ocean steamship service. Throughout his long life he was financially 

 interested in many packet and steamship lines. 



On occasion wealthy travelers individually, or all the cabin passen- 

 gers banded together, would make a gift to the captain presented 

 with a testimonial to his skill on the completion of what they re- 

 garded as a particularly noteworthy crossing. 



The captain, who had to be courteous in dealing with passengers, 

 had also to be a forceful driver in handling tough crews. Operating a 

 sail ship on the stormy North Atlantic winter and summer was rough 

 and dangerous work in itself. All the rigor and risk was multiplied 

 when every crossing of every packet was at least an effort to keep to 

 schedule, and frequently also an attempt to break the record. The 

 endurance of the crew was tested as severely as the skill of the cap- 

 tain. In the beginning there were many experienced seamen to draw 

 on and the packets attracted them. As competition increased and 

 the volume of transatlantic shipping rose, the relative number of 

 skilled seamen fell even though the absolute number increased. 



Often packets sailed and made fine passages with depleted and inex- 

 perienced crews. The process of making records usually involved also 

 the process of taking some landlubbers aboard and making seamen of 

 them before the voyage was over. The process had to be fast and 

 could not afford to be gentle because many lives and fortunes might 

 depend on the outcome. 



In the nineteenth century all sailors were tough — they had to be 

 to survive; the packet sailors were tougher than the others — also 

 because they had to be. This at least is their reputation. 



