Transatlantic - OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY, New York, 1846-1857

The OCEANSTEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY was the first United States flag Transatlantic steamship company to offer regularly scheduled transatlantic service to continental Europe. The company was founded in response to a U.S. government decision to subsidize a steamship operation by means of mail contracts in an attempt to compete with British government subsidies to British CUNARD LINE. The mail line should serve the ports of Le Havre and Bremen. In 1783 Bremen was amoung the first states to acknowledge diplomatic the new formed United States of America. 
by Earl of Cruise

WASHINGTON of OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY - own collection

Bevor the advent of usable steam engines, sailing packets dominated the Northatlantic, e.g. BLACK BALL LINE. This line and other sailing packets from the USA dominated the market with their more or less frequent crossings depending on the winds - sometimes up to 10 weeks westbound.

BLACK BALL LINE was a freight, mail and passenger line founded by a group of New York Quaker merchants headed by Jeremiah Thompson, and included Isaac Wright & Son (William), Francis Thompson and Benjamin Marshall. All were Quakers except Marshall. The line initially consisted of four packet ships, the AMITY, COURIER, PACIFIC and the JAMES MONROE. All of these were running between Liverpool, England and New York. This first scheduled Transatlantic service was founded in 1817 and operated for some 60 years, it took its name from its flag, a black ball on a red background. Further all sailing packets had a black ball on their top sails. BLACK BALL LINE dominated the Northatlantic packet traffic, even an equal named British rival was no threat.  BLACK BALL LINE sailing packet A real competitor rose with SHAKESPEARE of DRAMATIC LINE of Edwward Knight Collins. Up until 1835 the company had not seriously competed in the transatlantic trade, but in that year it received with SHAKESPEARE a new ship. The ship was dispatched to Liverpool and returned with the largest cargo yet brought to New York. From then on, the company was a serious competitor for the transatlantic trade. At that time, all of the competing shipping firms were American. Collins' ships predominantly carried cotton for the English cotton industry. The firm continued to commission the largest ships that it could, and three vessels, GARRICK, SHERIDAN, and SIDDONS, were added to the fleet. In 1838 the 1,030-ton ROSCIUS was added, larger than any competitor. At that time, Collins' main rival was the BLACK BALL LINE, also of New York.

During the time of the sailing packets, US lines dominated the mail transport on the Northatlantic. This caused the founding of BRITISH and NORTH AMERICAN ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET COMPANY, later reduced to CUNARD LINE, and inauguration of British mail packet line in 1840. Being secure and efficient, CUNARD dominated the mail traffic on the Northatlantic from now on. This forced the US postmaster signing contracts with CUNARD, and no longer with US companies. But it caused initiatives for founding an US shipping line, because of independence, for transporting US mail on US ships.
The relation between the former colony of Britain and UK was not easy, the last war was from June 1812 till Dec. 1814 - known as the 2nd War of Independence.
Edward Mills, a novice in the shipping business, led the syndicate that received the contract for mail delivery to Le Havre and Bremen for five years and founded with his associates C.H. Sand, Mortimer Livingston, John L. Stephens and German investors OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY in May 1846 but was unable to attract sufficient capital to carry out his original business plan to built four ships and instead ordered two ships from Westerfeld & McKay of New York.
The lack of fonds, which originated from the US, Bremen and other German territories, had other results, that hindered in the future. The war with Mexico put other interests in the foreground of investors and the stock market in Germany was underdeveloped to non existant, except amoung tradesmen and governments, as the Prussian. Of the expected investments of US$ 950,000.00 Mills could only collect US$ 950,000.00. With US$ 650,000.00 from the USA and 300,000.00 from Germany, collected by Hermann Henrich Meier and Gustav Kulenkampff. A share was US$ 100.00. With US$ 950,000.00 only the ships had to be built cheaper than originally planed.
The third vessel, FRANKLIN, had be sold during completition and the forth vessel was never contracted.
Edward Collins was amoung the bidders in the mid 1840s for the mail contract to Bremen and continental Europe.
Bremen initiated a series of infrastructure developements for the new line to come, such as a new telegraphic line to Hannover and Berlin, new port facilities in Bremen and Bremerhaven, a new rail track between Hannover and Bremen and Bremen and Bremerhaven and a new trade deal with the USA.

HERMANN after rebuilding - courtsey by Peabody Museum of Salem

The new line began operations with WASHINGTON, its first ship, in June 1847, the second ship HERMANN followed in March 1848. Both wodden paddle steamers of 75 meters and 1,700 / 1,600 GT were poorly designed ships, slow because of lacking power, mechanical problems, and with insufficient cargo space, and the government soon revoked the Le Havre portion of the mail contract because of the line’s poor performance. WASHINGTON suffered on its inaugural crossing severe mechanical trubbles, that caused a maintenance stop in Southampton and a much delayed entrance in Bremerhaven.
OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY recieved an anual subsidy of US$ 400,000.00. In the beginning of steamship lines it was more or less a neccessity having these subsidies, as for the huge investments for constructing these new vessels and maintain them.
In 1848 OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMAPNY was transporting 79,637 letters from New York to Bremen, the number grew in 1853 to 354,470 letters. The US postoffice made Bremen to the sole mail station for US mail in Germany, as they did not want to deal with 17 independent post offices in the German territory.
From Bremen a letter to the USA was 15 Silbergroschen, which was the half of the pice for letters via UK. 

letter from 1851 - copy from a broshure of ÜBERSEEMUSEUM, Bremen

From October 1850 till March 1851 the HERMANN was withdrawn from service for modifications; two original boilers were replaced by four smaller ones, the short single funnel tucked in between the paddle boxes was replaced by two much taller funnels, very close together, further HERMANN got new paddle wheels and bigger paddle boxes and the service speed was increased to 10.5 knots. The WASHINGTON was also withdrawn from service for modifications made to her machinery and boilers. These modifications did not much improve the performance of the two ships; the voyage times were not much better than in previous years. Despite the new boilers the fuel consumption was above all expections and the speed was below that of CUNARD´s BRITANNIA Class steamers.
Upon the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, France and England began taking control of vessels from their susidised lines for transporting men and supplies to the Crimea in Black Sea.
The CUNARD LINE lost, as for its mail subsidiaries, so many steamships to Crimean war service that CUNARD abandoned for New York half of its operations after December 1854. As a result of the withdrawal of British and French ships, the OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY's Bremen service gained freight and passengers, and 1855 became the most successful year in the line's history. The dividend was 10% per share.

However, with the end of hostilities, the vessels, chartered by the Royal Navy and French Navy, returned home, their interrupted routes were resumed, and many new services planned and introduced.
Worthening the financial situation for OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY, in June 1856, the HAMBURG AMERIKA LINIE (HAPAG), founded in 1848, initiated a steamship service between Hamburg and New York. But they too chartered their first two ships to the British for service in the Crimean War. And in December 1856, a consortium of Bremen merchants founded NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD, ordering four screw steamships of over 2,000 tons apiece, to be placed in service in 1858.
Both shipping lines ordered ships of the most advanced technology of those days - iron hulled screw driven steam ships from the then innovative most ship builders in Britain.

COLLINS LINE is the common name for the American shipping company started by Israel Collins and then built up by his son Edward Knight Collins, formally called the NEW YORK and LIVERPOOL UNITED STATES MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY. Under Edward Collins' guidance, the company grew to be a serious competitor on the transatlantic routes to the British CUNARD shipping company. COLLINS LINE, as it was commonly known at the time, were the ships and lines run by the shipping company, I. G. Collins (later I. G. Collins and Son). Israel Collins had left the sea in 1818 to establish the shipping company in New York City. The firm traded in a fairly small way. In 1824, Israel was joined by his son Edward. In January 1825, Edward took advantage of a cotton shortage in England to charter a schooner in order to get to Charleston, South Carolina, ahead of his competitors and corner the market in cotton. This was the turning point in the company. In 1827, the company started a line of packets sailing between New York and Veracruz on the Mexican coast. The line prospered. Israel Collins died in 1831, and Edward took over management of the New York-New Orleans and Northatlantic packet line. He made a great success of this venture as well.

In 1857 the United StatesPostmaster General had awarded the contract to carry mails from New York to Bremen to Cornelius Vanderbilt´s 1855 founded NORTH ATLANTIC MAIL STEAMSHIP LINE with its more modern fleet and the OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY ceased operation in July 1857, but because of a severe business depression, caused by the Railway bubble resulting in a Stock Crash, the vessels were not sold until 1858 for further service in the Pacific.

VANDERBILT of Cornelius Vanderbilt´s NORTH ATLANTIC MAIL STEAMSHIP LINE - scan from my collected copy

The newest vessel or NORTH ATLANTIC MAIL STEAMSHIP LINE was the 1856/57 at Jeremiah Simonson in Greenpoint, Long Island built VANDERBILT.

Vessel	Built	Years in Service	Tons
Hermann	1848	built by Westerfelt & McKay, New York | 1858 sold to California, New York & European Steamship Co., 1866 sold to Pacific Mail Steamship Co., 13 February 1869 wrecked on Point Kwatzu, Japan with the loss of 275 lives.	1,734
Washington	1847	built by Westerfelt & McKay, New York | 1858 sold to California, New York & European Steamship Co., 1863 scrapped.	1,640

OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY can be seen as the initial spark for founding NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD.

"She [the OSNC] had broke the track for a later company [the North German Lloyd], had learned from the Ocean Steam Navigation Company how to get better results, and how to do it. The train of the goods and persons had been directed to Bremen, mail contracts were arranged, calculated on this steamship line, and negotiated in all directions, so that the company, even if it had fallen later, laid the foundation on which later on could be built." Arnold Duckwitz Denkwürdigkeiten aus meinem öffentlichen Leben, Bremen 1877