This vessel took the place of the _City of Glasgow_, which in March 1854 disappeared in mid-ocean with 480 souls on board. In September of the same year the _City of Philadelphia_ was wrecked off Cape Race, but there was no loss of life. “Inman’s iron screws,” as they were dubbed, were attracting attention, and it was recognised as merely a question of time when steamers of this type would prove successful rivals to the paddle-boats. Mr. Inman became sole managing director in October 1854, as the result of the offer of the British Government to charter certain of the steamers as transports during the Crimean War, the use of the vessels for this purpose being disapproved by Messrs. Richardson, who were Quakers. About this time the company purchased the _Kangaroo_ from the Pacific and Australasian Company, and ordered the _City of Washington_ from Messrs. Tod and McGregor. The _Kangaroo_ was 257 feet in length, 36 feet in breadth, 27 feet depth, and had a gross tonnage of 1719 tons. The _City of Washington_ was 358 feet in length, 40 feet in breadth, and 26 feet depth, with a gross tonnage of 2870 tons. The Crimean War saw a great demand by the Allies for transports, and as the French Government offered better terms than the British Government, the _City of Manchester_ was chartered to the French, and was followed by the _City of Baltimore_, and six months later, when she had concluded her trial trips, by the _City of Washington_. Upon the termination of their engagement as transports these vessels returned to the Liverpool and Philadelphia service. For some time Mr. Inman had been considering the advisability of making New York his American port instead of Philadelphia, and when the _Kangaroo_, with all her passengers on board, was frozen up in the Delaware and her departure for Liverpool was delayed for five weeks, he inaugurated, in December 1856, a monthly service to New York with the _City of Washington_. Two months later the Inman sailings were increased to fortnightly, the sailings in the alternate weeks being undertaken by the Collins liners. This arrangement was very short-lived, for in the same month the Collins Line service was withdrawn. In 1857 also, the title of the organisation was changed to “The Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia Steamship Company,” to mark the extension of the service to New York. In October 1857 Mr. Inman’s Company bought up the Glasgow and New York Steamship Company, and placed two of the vessels, the _Edinburgh_ and the _Glasgow_, in the trade between Liverpool and New York. By 1860 the demands upon the resources of the line were such that the first _City of New York_ was ordered from Tod and McGregor. She was 336 feet in length, by 40 feet beam, and 28 feet depth, and was of 2360 tons gross. Her engines were of the horizontal, trunk type, and she was the first vessel of this line in which engines of this design were installed.