Two remarkable points of difference between them and the Cunarders and all British steamers at that time were their rounded sterns and straight cutwaters without bowsprits. Powerfully engined though they were, they depended considerably on sail-power. Their paddles, like those of so many American steamers, were placed rather far aft, the idea being that a more uniform immersion of the blades was thus obtained. The Collins steamers were all built with flat floors (a departure in the shape of the hull to which considerable exception was taken but which was justified by events), long, wedge-like bows, and a long, easy run to the stern. The frames were of white and live oak, and the stout timbers were filled in solidly to the turn of the bilge. The huge oak keelsons were specially heavy under the boilers and engines. The planking was hard pine, metal-fastened below the water-line by copper bolts and above by galvanised iron. The frames were strengthened by a latticework of iron bands. Their wood construction was more massive than that of a line-of-battle ship. In his patriotic efforts to gain the Atlantic supremacy for his country Collins did far more than the Government required. The _Arctic_ and _Atlantic_ were built by W. H. Brown of New York, and their construction was superintended by G. Steers, who modelled the schooner-yacht _America_, the winner of the cup which has not yet been “lifted.” Mr. Faron, of the firm Sewell and Faron, chief engineer to the United States Government, was the chief engineer of the company, and designed the _Arctic_ and _Baltic_ boilers. These were arranged with double furnaces and had lower water-spaces connected by a row of tubes, round which the heated gas circulated; there was also a hanging plate which checked a too rapid flow to the funnel and increased the combustion. The _Arctic_ burned about 83 tons of coal in 24 hours, which gave her a speed of 316·4 knots for the day. Her gross consumption was 87 tons when she covered 320 knots in 24 hours. The funds subscribed were exhausted long before the construction of the boat was finished, and the Government not only granted the company’s appeal for assistance, but went further and released the company from its obligation to build the fifth steamer. It increased the subsidy to 33,000 dollars per round voyage, but in return it demanded an increased speed, which, according to Mr. Bayard in Congress, would enable the Collins steamers to overtake any vessel they wished to pursue, and escape from any vessel they wished to avoid.