The spectacular Cape Codder and his partner established the Dramatic
Line, to run packets between New York and England. Capt. Lorenzo D.
Baker of Wellfleet, Cape Cod, was scoffed at when he announced he was
going to popularize the banana in the United States and so was Collins
when shipping men heard he was building ships of 1000 tons. His critics
argued there would not be cargoes large enough to fill them, nor
would merchants trust their goods in them. So, in their hoots, they
coined a name for the Dramatic Line. They called it the “Theatrical
Line” because Collins named his vessels for famous authors and actors:
Shakespeare, Siddons, Garrick, Sheridan and Roscius, to mention a few.
Collins had become one of New York’s richest men when the curtain
raised on the era of steam. He visioned the possibilities and watched
closely after England gave Samuel Cunard a subsidy mail contract in
1838. The Cunard Line berthed its first ship at this shore on July 18,
1840. Collins, according to the record at this point, saw a challenge
in the British enterprise. He barged into a financing spree, determined
“to drive the Cunarders out of business.”
Collins went to the nation’s capital for the money he needed. There
he began on a grandiose scale and gradually descended with a series
of headaches to ultimate ruin. His first triumph was the granting of
a government subsidy of $385,000 a year for a period of ten years.
He and his associates were pledged to build five steamers in the
Collins-style, which would make twenty round trips annually, carrying
the mails. In 1852 fortnightly service was established and the subsidy
was increased to $858,000 annually.
The Collins Line prospered for two years. Then the clouds began to
gather.