ther
than a sailing-ship. Contractors were to turn their ships over to the
Government upon demand for conversion into ships of war, the Government
to pay therefor the fair full value, as ascertained by appraisers. The
postmaster-general was further authorized to make ten-years' contracts
for mail carriage from place to place in the United States in steamboats
by sea, or on the Gulf of Mexico, or on the Mississippi River up to New
Orleans, on the same conditions regarding the transfer of the ships to
the Government when required for use as war ships.[FV]

The next year, 1846, in the annual post-office appropriations act (June
19), provision was made for the application of twenty-five thousand
dollars toward the establishment of a line of mail steamers between the
United States and Bremen; and early in 1847 (February 3) a contract was
duly concluded for a Bremen and Havre service, the first under the law
of 1845.

This was a five years' contract entered into with the Ocean Steam
Navigation Company, upon the basis of an earlier agreement (February
1846) with Edward Mills of New York, which Mr. Mills had transferred to
the new organization. The subsidy was fixed at one hundred thousand
dollars a year for each ship going by Cowes to Bremen and back to New
York once in two months a year, and seventy-five thousand dollars a year
for each ship going by Cowes to Havre and back to New York. The
contractors were to build within a year's time four first-class
steamships of not less than 1400 tons, nor less than a thousand
horsepower; and were to run their line "with greater speed to the
distance than is performed by the Cunard Line between Boston and
Liverpool and back."[FW] Provision for the subsidy thus called for was
promptly made in this item in the post-office appropriation bill for the
ensuing year, approved March 2: "for transportation by steam-ships
between New York and Bremen according to the contract with Edward Mills,
$258,609."[FX]

The next step was the enactment of a law which had for its declared
objects "to provide efficient mail services, to encourage navigation and
commerce, and to build up a powerful fleet in case of war."[FY] This
measure, approved March 3, 1847, entitled "An act to provide for the
building and equipment of four naval steamships," made provision for the
construction, with Government aid, of merchant mail-steamships under the
supervision of the Navy Department that they might be rendered suita