On the 15th September, 1845, Messrs. Forbes & Co. despatched from New York their auxiliary steamship MASSACHUSETTS. She was practically a full-rigged ship, 751 tons O.M., fitted with an engine of 170 horse-power. This engine had two cylinders each 3 feet stroke and 26 inches diameter. Steam was generated in two “waggon boilers,” each 14 feet long, 7 feet wide and 9 feet high. Her propeller was made of composition metal, and could be raised out of the water when not required. Her engine room, boilers, bunkers, &c., were situated in the lower after hold, and occupied a space equal to one-tenth of the cubic capacity of the ship. Her engines were capable of driving her in smooth water at the rate of about 8 knots per hour, on a consumption of 9 tons anthracite coal per 24 hours. The length of the MASSACHUSETTS was 161 feet, her beam 31 feet 9 inches, and her depth of hold 20 feet. She had a full poop, extending to the mainmast (and consequently forward of the funnel), in which there was accommodation for 35 first-class passengers. Her entire cost with machinery complete in all respects was £16,000. She made two round voyages between New York and Liverpool, and in June, 1846, was chartered to the U.S. Government to carry troops to the Gulf of Mexico. The Government were so well pleased with her that they afterwards purchased her, and she took part in the siege of Vera Cruz. Subsequently her name was changed to the FARRALONES, and she continued in the U.S. Navy until about 1870, when she was again sold. Her new owners removed her machinery and renamed her the ALASKA. Obviously the MASSACHUSETTS was not intended to compete against full-powered ocean steamships, and it was not until 1847 that the first American line of steamers to Europe was established. This was a line of steamships to run between New York and Bremen, calling at Southampton. The pioneer steamer of the line, the WASHINGTON, sailed on her first voyage from New York for Southampton on the same day (June, 1847) that the BRITANNIA, belonging to the Cunard Company, sailed for Liverpool. This was the first ocean race between American and British steamships. Theoretically the American steamer was incomparably superior to the other. She was much larger and had double the power; she was new, while her rival had been buffeted by the Atlantic billows for seven years. Quoth the editor of the “New York Herald”: “We have to say that if the BRITANNIA beats the WASHINGTON over (and they both, we understand, start the same day), she will have to run by the deep mines, and put in more coal.” The BRITANNIA did not “run by the deep mines and put in more coal,” but she won the race by two full days.