Amongst those who were present at the meeting held in the Water Street Committee Room was Sir John Tobin, who had a large steamer nearing completion on the stocks. It was agreed that this vessel should sail alternately with the ROYAL WILLIAM between Liverpool and New York. At her launch, Sir John Tobin’s steamer was named the LIVERPOOL. She was a vessel of 1,150 tons, with engines of 404 h.p. She started on her first voyage on the 20th October, 1838, but experienced such bad weather that she put back to Cork on the 26th, after having accomplished about one-third of her voyage. She remained at Cork for ten days, and again proceeded to sea on the 6th November, arriving at New York on the 23rd, after a passage of sixteen and a half days. It was on board this steamer that Mr. Samuel Cunard crossed the Atlantic, for the purpose of inducing British capitalists to take up his scheme of mail steamers between Liverpool, Halifax and Boston. After making a few voyages to and from Liverpool and New York, the LIVERPOOL was lengthened, her capacity being increased by 393 tons, and at the same time her name was changed to the GREAT LIVERPOOL. Her new owners, the P. and O. Co., employed her in their mail service between Southampton and Alexandria. Her career as a Royal Mail steamer was a short one, as she was lost off Cape Finisterre on the 4th February, 1846. The first great disaster in the Transatlantic steamship trade occurred in the spring of 1841. On the 12th March of that year, the steamship PRESIDENT sailed from New York, bound for Liverpool, with a full list of passengers. She was a new steamer, having been launched fifteen months previously (7th December, 1839) by Messrs. Curling & Young for account of the British and American Steam Navigation Co., of Bristol. The PRESIDENT was one of the largest and most powerful steamships of her day, her register tonnage being 2,366 tons, and her engines indicated 540 horse-power. On her first voyage, she sailed from Liverpool for New York at 2 p.m. on the 1st August, 1840, arrived at New York 2 p.m. on the 17th idem; sailed from New York 2 p.m. on the 1st September, and arrived at Liverpool 2 p.m. on the 17th of the same month, being exactly sixteen days on both her westward and her eastward passage. She apparently lay up for the winter, and resumed her sailings in the spring of the following year. She left New York for Liverpool on her third homeward voyage on the 12th March, 1841, having on board 136 passengers. After leaving New York she disappeared, with all her living freight, from human ken. As day after day passed, the utmost anxiety arose, both in the mercantile world and amongst the relatives of the passengers and seamen, as to the cause of her detention. Other steamers and ships reported very heavy weather in the Atlantic, and the presence of unusual quantities of ice in very low latitudes. The newspapers of the period were filled with references to the ill-fated vessel,