LOSS OF THE "ARCTIC." 107 



there was hardly depth of water for an Indian canoe; indeed, it was proverbially said, 

 in honour of their skill in the art, that their vessels would traverse valleys if only 

 moistened by the morning dewsr" "Why should they not have a great ocean line? It 

 was looked upon in Congress and by the country generally as almost a national 

 question, and it resulted in a heavy mail subsidy to Mr. Collins and his colleagues. 

 They immediately made arrangements for the construction of four large vessels. 

 Later, the Government increased the subsidy by over one-third (from 19,250 per 

 trip to $33,000) but increased speed was required in return. How much this may 

 have had to do with the two terrible disasters about to be related will no doubt strike 

 the reader. The Collins Line commenced its voyages in 1850. 



"A voyage across the Atlantic, " says Lindsay, "must ever be attended with 

 greater peril than almost any other ocean service of similar length and duration; 

 arising, as this does, from the boisterous character and uncertainty of the weather, 

 from the icebergs which float in huge masses during spring along the northern line 

 of passage, and from the many vessels of every kind to be met with either employed 

 in the Newfoundland fisheries, or in the vast and daily- increasing intercourse between 

 Europe and America. 



" In such a navigation the utmost care requires to be constantly exercised, especially 

 by steam-ships. Nevertheless, although the Collins Line of steamers performed this 

 passage with a speed hitherto unequalled, they encountered no accidents worlhy of notice 

 during the first four years of their career; but terrible calamities befell them soon 

 afterwards." 



On the 21st of September, 1854, the Arctic, according to the usual course, left 

 Liverpool for New York. She had on board 233 passengers, of whom 150 were first- 

 class, together with a crew of 135 persons and a valuable cargo. At mid-day on the 

 27th of that month, when about sixty miles south-east of Cape Race, and during a 

 dense fog, she came in contact with the French steamer Testa. By this collision the 

 1 esta seemed at first to be so seriously injured, that in their terror and confusion, her 

 passengers, amounting to 147, and a crew of fifty men, conceived she was about to 

 sink, and that their only chance of safety lay in their getting quickly into the Arctic. 

 Impressed with this idea many of them rushed into the boats, of which, as too frequently 

 happens, one sank immediately, and the other, containing thirteen persons, was swamped 

 under the quarter of the ship, all on board of her perishing. When, however, the 

 captain of the Vesta more carefully examined his injuries, he found that though the 

 bows of his vessel were partially stove in, the foremost bulk-head had not started. He 

 therefore at once lightened his ship by the head, strengthening the partition by every 

 means in his power, and by great exertions, courage, forethought, and seamanship, 

 brought his shattered vessel, without further loss, into the harbour of St. John's. 



In the meantime a frightful catastrophe befell the Arctic, and was so little anticipated 

 that the persons on board of her supposing that she had only sustained a slight injury 

 by the collision, had launched a boat for the rescue of the passengers and crew of the 

 J csla. It was soon, however, discovered that their own ship had sustained fatal injuries, 

 and the sea was rushing in so fast through three holes which had been pierced in the hull 



