For several years prior to 1863, Mr. Stephen B. Guion, of New York, had established a line of clipper ships between that port and Liverpool. Finding it impossible to contend against screw steamers in the ocean trade, he entered (in the year named) into an arrangement to supply, through his old connections and agents in America, the Cunard and National Companies with steerage passengers and cargo for their steamers. This arrangement held good until 1866, when Mr. Guion, in co-partnery with others, formed a steamship company whose official title was “The Liverpool and Great Western Steamship Co.,” but which was popularly known as the Guion Line. The first steamer of the new line was the iron screw steamer MANHATTAN, which sailed from Liverpool to New York in August, 1866. This steamer was still afloat in 1903, being then the property of Messrs. W. H. Ross & Co., by whom she was renamed the CITY OF LINCOLN. The fleet of the Guion Line was speedily sufficiently numerous to maintain a regular weekly service from Liverpool to New York, and within six years of the formation of the Company it possessed eight first-class iron screw steamships, each of about 3,000 tons burthen. They were named after the Western States of America, viz., MANHATTAN, NEBRASKA, MINNESOTA, COLORADO, IDAHO, NEVADA, WISCONSIN, and WYOMING. In 1874 the MONTANA, of 3,500 tons, was added to the fleet, which was further increased in 1875 by the addition of the DAKOTA. None of the vessels named had distinguished themselves by their extraordinary speed; but in 1879 there was built for the Guion Line, by the Fairfield Shipbuilding Company, the steamer ARIZONA. She was an entirely new type of vessel. The older ships, though differing in their models, might be described generally as brig rigged screw steamers carrying a single funnel amidships, and having their saloons aft. The ARIZONA carried four masts, of which the fore and main were square rigged, and two funnels between the main and mizzen masts. The saloon was situated amidships, and was superbly furnished. The length of the ARIZONA was 450 feet, her breadth 45 feet, and her depth 35 feet. She sailed on her first voyage from Liverpool to New York on the 31st May, 1879, and is at the present date (1903) employed as a troopship by the U.S. Government, her name having been changed to the HANCOCK.