These ships were all flush deck, with a caboose or galley and the housed-over long-boat between the fore-and main-masts. The long-boat, which was, of course, securely lashed, carried the live stock,--pens for sheep and pigs in the bottom, ducks and geese on a deck laid across the gunwales, and on top of all, hens and chickens. The cow-house was lashed over the main hatch, and there were also other small hatch-houses and a companion aft leading to the comfortable, well-appointed cabins, which were lighted by deck skylights, candles, and whale-oil lamps. The steerage passengers lived in the between-decks amidships, and the crew’s forecastle was in the fore-peak. The stores, spare sails, gear, etc., were kept in the lazarette abaft the cabins, with a small hatch leading to the main-deck. The hulls were painted black from the water-line up, with bright scraped bends, which were varnished, and the inner side of the bulwarks, rails, hatch-houses, and boats were painted green. It was said that some of the early Black Ball captains had commanded privateers during the War of 1812. At all events, these little ships, with their full-bodied, able hulls, and their stout spars, sails, and rigging, were driven outward and homeward across the Atlantic, through the fogs and ice of summer and the snow, sleet, and gales of winter, for all the speed that was in them. They were in their day the only regular means of communication between the United States and Europe. Their captains were the finest men whose services money could secure, and to their care were entrusted the lives of eminent men and women, government despatches, the mails and specie. Rain or shine, blow high, blow low, one of the Black Ball liners sailed from New York for Liverpool on the first and sixteenth of each month, and for many years these were the European mail days throughout the United States. In 1821, Thomas Cope of Philadelphia started his line of packets between that port and Liverpool with the ships _Lancaster_, of 290 tons, and _Tuscarora_, of 379 tons, which were soon followed by larger vessels, among them some of the finest ships on the Atlantic. The Red Star Line of Liverpool packets from New York was also established in 1821 with the _Panther_, _Meteor_, _Hercules_, and second _Manhattan_, and soon after, the Swallow Tail Line of Grinnell, Minturn & Co., came into existence with the _Napoleon_, _Silas Richards_, _George_, and _York_. Grinnell, Minturn & Co.’s London Line was established in 1823 with the _Brighton_, _Columbia_, _Cortes_, and _Corinthian_, of less than 500 tons each, and during this year John Griswold’s London Line was also started with the _Sovereign_, _President_, _Cambria_, _Hudson_, and the second _Ontario_. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 gave a great impetus to commerce, causing New York to become the eastern gateway of the United States, and from that date to 1850 may be counted the glorious years of the Atlantic packet ships.