She was conceived as a part of an American fleet which would break the monopoly that European steamers, notably the Cunard Line, had on trans-Atlantic trade.

[2] He won the contract and established the New York and Liverpool United States Mail Steamship Company, which was universally shortened in common parlance to the Collins Line.

United States Navy personnel supervised the design and construction of the Collins fleet, including Atlantic, so as to enable its vessels to be readily converted to warships, should the need arise.

[12] She proved that she could achieve these respectable speeds all the way across the Atlantic when she reached New York in July 1850 only 10 days and fifteen hours after leaving her dock in Liverpool.

[13] This was just an hour and twenty minutes behind Cunard's Asia which, at the time, held the blue riband for the fastest trans-Atlantic voyage.

Consequently, traveling on them was more expensive than on lesser ships, one newspaper commenting that, "The superior comforts she offers will cause the extra $10 passage money to be disregarded.

[23] For most of her career with the Collins Line, Atlantic rotated with Pacific, Baltic, and Arctic in regular ocean crossings.

On January 6, 1851, the drive shaft for her starboard paddlewheel broke, and in doing so, wrecked several related pieces of machinery before the engine was shut down.

[27] She arrived back in New York on August 3, 1851, to resume her monthly sailings,[28] and although she was withdrawn from service periodically for repairs and upgrades, Atlantic continued them with regularity through 1857.

On April 1, 1858, Dudley B. Fuller, acting on behalf of the Brown brothers, was the sole bidder for Atlantic, Baltic, and Adriatic at a sheriff's auction.

[39][40] He bid only $50,000 which left various government and private creditors seeking recompense, mired in failed sale attempts and litigation for years.

When these contracts were due for renewal in 1859, the U.S. Mail Steamship Company chose to sell its assets and retire from the business.

She had on board perhaps 1,000 people, including 250 troops from the U.S. Army's Fourth and Ninth Regiments bound for General William Harney's command in the Pacific Northwest.

[48] She arrived back in New York on November 10, 1859 with 340 Californians returning to the eastern United States, and $1.6 million of their gold.

[51] On April 6, 1861, Atlantic sailed from the former Collins Line wharf on Canal Street in Manhattan with 358 troops, 78 horses, artillery, food, and other supplies.

Confederate sympathizers refused to sell her coal, so Atlantic sailed to Havana for fuel on the return journey to New York.

[54] In July 1861, Atlantic sailed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Washington, D.C., with ordinance supplies, including eight heavy guns.

[56] The expedition was successful, and Atlantic sailed a second round-trip to Port Royal carrying supplies for the troops ashore.

She carried Major General David Hunter, the new commander of the Department of the South, on her outbound trip, and 85 Confederate prisoners of war captured at Fort Pulaski, on her return.

[67] Several creditors of the Collins Line sought and failed to obtain injunctions to stop this trip as the bankruptcy litigation continued in its fifth year.

[68] Within a month of her return, the Army had chartered her again, and the ship spent the rest of the war shuttling among New York and the other Union-controlled ports on the Atlantic coast.

Perhaps her final dramatic mission of the war was to carry the 112th New York Infantry Regiment to the second assault on Fort Fisher in January 1865.

[72] Having eliminated its competitor, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company faced a sudden increase in the number of passengers it served between New York and Aspinwall.

The company had two large steamers under construction, but until they were completed, Atlantic was pressed into service on her pre-war Panama route.

By February 1866, Atlantic fit this description and the Rugers bought the ship for their North American Lloyd Steamship Company.

The North American Lloyd Steamship Company ran into trouble with its creditors in October and ceased operations.

As with her previous owner, Atlantic's purchase was funded by debt advanced by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.

[87] After her difficult first trip, Atlantic completed four uneventful roundtrips for the New York and Bremen Steamship Company during the summer of 1867.

While the gale eased after a day, the fog and snow continued to reduce visibility, delaying the ship's return to New York until December 13, 1867.

Hard usage, North Atlantic storms, and twenty years of technological progress had rendered the ship worn and uneconomic.