The _Pacific_ followed in June,
the _Baltic_ in November, the _Arctic_ in December. They beat the
Cunarders' time on the average by a day. Their popularity was
immediately established. Their passenger traffic rapidly increased. But
the severe condition of the mail contract, with their quick sailings
allowing only short stays in port, made it impossible for the company to
secure a profitable share of the freight business without a heavy outlay
for slower cargo boats. Within a few months after the start of the line
the Cunard Company had cut freight rates from seven pounds ten shillings
per ton to four pounds. So, while the Collins ships continued steadily
to outsail the Cunarders and got the bulk of the passenger traffic, the
Cunarders got most of the freighting. Moreover, the Collins ships were
far more expensive to run. Indeed, the cost of the rapid service was
enormous. Mr. Collins stated before a committee of Congress that to
save a day or a day and a half in the run between New York and Liverpool
cost the company nearly a million dollars annually.
Accordingly more subsidy was asked for. This was granted in 1852, the
act being stimulated by England's move late in 1851 in raising the
Cunards' subsidy to L173,340 ($843,000), for forty-four trips a year:
about nineteen thousand dollars per voyage.
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