The first proposal to use Galway was made in 1851, when some of the Irish railway authorities and an American named Wagstaff visited the port, and in June of that year sent the steamer _Viceroy_ to New York via Halifax. She was a wooden cross-channel boat and not suited for the work, and nothing more was done in the matter until 1857, when the project was revived by a Manchester man named Lever. Two steamers, the _Indian Empire_ and _Propeller_, were chartered for the enterprise and sailed for New York via Halifax in the next year. In the autumn of that year, the Newfoundland Government contracted with the promoters of the line to carry the mails monthly from Galway to St. John’s, and a service of six steamers was to be established. The British Government and the company entered into a contract whereby the company was to carry the mails from Galway to Portland (Maine), and to Boston and New York. Four steamers were ordered but were not up to the requirements of the postal authorities in respect to speed, and one or two were not perfectly seaworthy, and the effort to maintain the service with chartered steamers not being satisfactory--only the last of the Collins liners, the _Adriatic_, which had been purchased, being able to run to stipulated time--the company, after a series of misfortunes which probably constitutes a record, went into liquidation, and the mail contract was cancelled, after resulting in a heavy financial loss to every one who had anything to do with it. CHAPTER VII THE DEVELOPMENT OF STEAM AUXILIARY