72 Book of Steamships 



began in April, 1849, from New York 

 for Liverpool by the magnificently- 

 appointed wooden paddle-steamship 

 Atlantic, 282 ft. long, 45 ft. broad, 32 ft. 

 deep. This vessel and its sisters Baltic, 

 Pacific and Arctic, had a tonnage of 2,860, 

 side-lever engines, having cylinders 96 ins. 

 in diameter and 9-ft. stroke. There were 

 four large boilers, consuming 85 tons of 

 coal a day, giving a speed of i2| knots. 

 The paddle-wheels, by the way, attained 

 the huge diameter of 35! ft. about the 

 limit these wheels attained. 



In the point of speed they easily out- 

 distanced the Cunarders of the 'forties, 

 but the heavy cost of their building, plus 

 that of their running, resulted in them 

 proving unremunerative. 



The United States Government gave 

 them heavy subsidies, and it is possible 

 that their initial difficulties would have 

 been surmounted had it not been for two 

 terrible disasters which robbed the Collins 

 Company of two of their fine fleet. 



