was ordered.[GQ] Only a few weeks after this action another disaster,
even more appalling than the first one, befell the company. On September
23 the _Pacific_ sailed from Liverpool for her homeward voyage with a
full complement of passengers; passed to sea out of sight; and was never
more heard of. She was replaced by the _Adriatic_, the fifth ship called
for by the contract, which was launched the year before, the largest,
finest, swiftest, and most luxurious then afloat; and the company
struggled on against accumulating odds.

At length, in 1858, Congress abandoned the subsidy system and returned
to the method of payment for foreign mail-carriage according to the
actual service rendered, with a proviso, however, favoring American
ships, such to receive the inland-postage plus the sea postage, while
foreign ships were to have the sea postage only.[GR]

This was the final blow. The last voyage of the Collins Line was made
in January, 1859. Then it perished. In April following, the ships were
seized by the mortgagees and sold. So closed the career of the pioneer
United States ship company in the transatlantic service. The splendid
_Adriatic_ passed to English ownership and the American flag gave way to
the British. For several years this ship "held the transatlantic record
with a passage of five days nineteen hours from Galway to St.
John's."[GS]

Of the other subsidized lines, the ships of the Bremen service were
withdrawn and laid up after the subsidy ceased. The Havre line continued
a while longer with two ships that had replaced the _Humboldt_ and the
_Franklin_, both of which had been lost,--the _Humboldt_ wrecked at
Halifax on December 5, 1853; the _Franklin_ stranded on Montauk Point on
July 17, 1854. Then with the charter of the two new steamers by the