Not long since a shipowner of high reputation and on whose word I can implicitly rely, met another shipowner, who, complaining of the bad times, in the course of conversation said: “And to make matters worse I have also had a bit of very bad luck.” “What was it?” enquired my friend. “Oh!” said he, “a ship of mine I had just sold was lost the first voyage after I parted with her.” “Well,” replied my friend, “and where was the bad luck there?” “_Where?_” exclaimed this “unfortunate” shipowner, “why I bought her twenty years ago, and insured her at her full value, and had kept her so insured till I parted with her.” “And what made you do that?” enquired my friend. “Oh!” replied he, “she was an old ship, and an old-fashioned ship, and I thought that if she _did_ happen to go to the bottom I might as well have a good and a new one in her place.” In relating this incident, my friend added that he was not less taken aback by the _naïveté_ and apparent innocence with which these remarks were made, than by the story itself. CHAPTER VI. Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia Steamship Company—_City of Glasgow_, 1850—_City of Manchester_, 1851—Speed of _City of Paris_ and _City of Brussels_—Exertions of Mr. Inman to improve and facilitate cheap emigration to the United States—Large number of emigrants carried in the Inman steamers—_City of Chester_, 1873—_City of Berlin_, 1875—Ocean steamers to Canada, 1853—First mail contract, 1852—Allan line of steamers, 1856—Extent and capacity of its fleet—Speed of these vessels—Galway line a failure—Loss of _Connaught_, 1860—Rapid passage of _Adriatic_, 1861—Struggles between sailing-clippers and iron screw-ships—National Steam Navigation Company, 1863—Their splendid ships—Old Black Ball line—The Guion line, 1863—Mississippi and Dominion Company—White Star line, 1870—Strict regulations for safety—_Britannic_ and _Germanic_—Their great speed—Details of _Britannic_ and form of her screw—Difficulty of estimating real cost of steamers—Pennsylvania Company, 1873—Anchor line from the Clyde, 1856—Prodigious range of their trade operations—The _Victoria_—Hamburg American Steam Packet Company—North German Lloyd’s. [Sidenote: Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia Steam-ship Company.] The year 1850 proved somewhat remarkable in the history of steam navigation. But among the various undertakings commenced in the course of that year, the Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia Steam-ship Company, better known as the Inman line, was perhaps the most important. [Sidenote: _City of Glasgow_, 1850.]