In 1836, he launched the Dramatic Line of sailing packets, which quickly became a major presence on what was then the world's most important shipping route, between New York and Liverpool.

They were hugely expensive to operate, however, and in 1852 Collins was forced to go back to Congress to secure a major increase in his subsidy for carrying mail.

This left him in a very vulnerable position when the increase was canceled in 1856 after two of the Line's four steamships sank: the Arctic had sunk in 1854 while carrying his wife and two of his children.,[3] and less than two years later the Pacific disappeared without a trace on her way back from Liverpool to New York.

The Collins Line struggled on for another couple of years, using the insurance payouts for its two lost ships to build an even bigger steamer called the Adriatic.

[2] Collins moved to his summer home, "Collinwood" in Wellsville, Ohio, where he engaged in coal mining and oil drilling.