l86 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



watched with intense interest on the American side. 

 I recollect, although imperfectly, how such once was 

 shown. The Arctic, I think it was, had sailed for 

 New York. She did not arrive in due course, part of 

 her machinery having failed. The Cunard boat which 

 followed brought no tidings ; even the succeeding 

 Collins boat had not sighted the sister- ship. Anxiety 

 for her safety rose in New York and throughout the 

 States to fever-heat. At length, early one Sunday 

 morning, a large steamer slowly hove in sight. She 

 flew the Collins flag. 



The battery thundered forth salutes, and as though 

 by electric impulse divining the occasion, all the bells 

 in New York's steeples clashed into jubilant peal ; 

 and on that Sunday morning, in the city itself and 

 as far as the telegraph could carry the news, the 

 safe arrival of the Arctic pointed the text of many a 

 sermon. 



I would that her subsequent history had been no 

 more tragic ; but the fate of the Arctic and Pacific, 

 if not the Atlantic, all vessels of the same line, is a 

 very sorrowful tale, as told in the records of marine 

 disaster. 



Too little, in my opinion, has been made of the 

 services of Cunard as the indomitable pioneer of 

 Transatlantic mail-packet lines, unless, indeed, the 

 grant of a baronetcy is held to be a sufficient recog- 

 nition of conspicuous merit. It is true that he did 

 not accomplish his great work unaided. Without the 

 organizing genius and high mercantile reputation of 



