At first they made the run to
Bremen in from twelve to seventeen days, much better time than the
average clipper.[GI] But up to 1851 they had no regular schedule of
sailings, and, their speed being unsatisfactory, few mails were sent by
them. The subsidy payments, therefore, were made for each voyage
separately.[GJ] They had also ceased to command the patronage of
travellers. Nevertheless, as a committee of the Senate in 1850 reported,
they were believed to have been "profitable to their owners as freight
vessels, and of essential service in promoting the interests of American
commerce."[GK] The full service, with twelve trips to Bremen and twelve
to Havre, was finally begun in 1851, when two more, and larger
ships,--the _Franklin_ and the _Humboldt_, each of 2184 tons, were added
to the Havre line. Four years before, the original company, because of
financial difficulties, had organized a separate corporation for the
Havre service. In 1852 Congress extended the contract to 1857;[GJ] and
Southampton was made the point of shifting the mails.
The New York and Chagres, the Charleston and Havana, and the Pacific
line, were all under way before the close of 1848. The Pacific line was
the first in operation.
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