The regularity of the passages of the _Great Western_ satisfied the British Government as to the superiority of steam over sailing-packets, and, in October 1838, the Admiralty issued advertisements for tenders for the conveyance of the North American mails by steamers. Much to the annoyance of the _Great Western_ Company, who did not contemplate any serious opposition to their offer, the tender from Mr. Cunard, as the lowest and, in many other respects the most favourable in its conditions for the public, was accepted, the contract being entered into in the name of Samuel Cunard, George Burns, and David MacIver; and from this sprung the vast private maritime undertaking now popularly known as the Cunard Company. [Sidenote: Conditions.] The original conditions of the contract were that, for the sum of 55,000_l._ per annum, Messrs. Cunard, Burns, and MacIver should supply three suitable steam-ships and perform two voyages a month from Liverpool to the United States, leaving England at certain periods; but, afterwards, it was thought desirable to have fixed days in America as well as in England for departure. By a subsequent arrangement, four boats were required by the Admiralty to be provided by Mr. Cunard instead of three, subject to certain other conditions, for which the subsidy was increased to somewhere about 81,000_l._[178] per annum. [Illustration: THE “BRITANNIA.”] [Sidenote: Names and particulars of first steamers in this mail service.] [Sidenote: The _Britannia_.] For the performance of this contract Mr. Cunard and his co-partners placed on the line four steam-ships[179] in every way adapted for the service so far as the knowledge of the period extended, and from the commencement of the company until the present day the Cunard Company have without exception supplied vessels greatly exceeding the stipulated power required by their postal contracts. The whole of the first four vessels were constructed of wood on the Clyde by its leading shipbuilders, and the engines were supplied by Mr. Robert Napier, long celebrated in his profession. They were nearly alike in size and power, and, that my readers may compare them with the steam-vessels of to-day a drawing of the _Britannia_ (which commenced the service by sailing from Liverpool on 4th July, 1840) is furnished (page 182); the particulars of her construction, in all essential details, are likewise herewith supplied.[180] These vessels commenced the mail service in 1840 between Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston, performing it with great regularity out and home at an average speed of about 8½ knots an hour, and giving complete satisfaction to the public on both sides of the Atlantic; indeed, when the _Britannia_, on her first voyage, was frozen up in the harbour of Boston, the inhabitants of that city, at their own expense, cut her through the ice into clear water for a distance of seven miles. (See illustration, page 182.)