The pioneer Bremen-Havre line began its service on the first day of June 1847, with two steamers. These were the _Washington_ and the _Hermann_, built in New York, strong and large, of 1640 tons and 1734 tons, respectively, side-wheelers, bark-rigged. At first they made the run to Bremen in from twelve to seventeen days, much better time than the average clipper.[GI] But up to 1851 they had no regular schedule of sailings, and, their speed being unsatisfactory, few mails were sent by them. The subsidy payments, therefore, were made for each voyage separately.[GJ] They had also ceased to command the patronage of travellers. Nevertheless, as a committee of the Senate in 1850 reported, they were believed to have been "profitable to their owners as freight vessels, and of essential service in promoting the interests of American commerce."[GK] The full service, with twelve trips to Bremen and twelve to Havre, was finally begun in 1851, when two more, and larger ships,--the _Franklin_ and the _Humboldt_, each of 2184 tons, were added to the Havre line. Four years before, the original company, because of financial difficulties, had organized a separate corporation for the Havre service. In 1852 Congress extended the contract to 1857;[GJ] and Southampton was made the point of shifting the mails. The New York and Chagres, the Charleston and Havana, and the Pacific line, were all under way before the close of 1848. The Pacific line was the first in operation. The service began with the three steamers called for by the contract, the first sailing from New York on the sixth of October, the other two early in December. They were the _California_, 1050 tons, the _Panama_, 1087 tons, the _Oregon_, 1099 tons, all built in New York. The New York and Chagres line was started also in December with the sailing of the _Falcon_, 1000 tons, a purchased steamer which the Navy Department accepted temporarily, while the new ships were building, that the service might be immediately begun. The opening of the new territory south of Oregon acquired through the Mexican War, and the beginning of the rush of the "Argonauts" to the newly discovered gold fields of California, had made all concerned anxious to get these connecting steamship lines a-going.