page_title: SS Pacific (1849)
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: SS Pacific (1849) / Description
caption_attribution_description: Lateral view of a side-lever engine of the SS Pacific (1849). The engine was built by the Allaire Iron Works of New York.
context_page_description: SS Pacific was a wooden-hulled, sidewheel steamer built in 1849 for transatlantic service with the American Collins Line. Designed to outclass their chief rivals from the British-owned Cunard Line, Pacific and her three sister ships were the largest, fastest and most well-appointed transatlantic steamers of their day.
  Pacific's career began on a high note when she set a new transatlantic speed record in her first year of service, but after only five years in operation, the ship along with her entire complement of almost 200 passengers and crew vanished, without a trace, on a voyage from Liverpool to New York City, which began 23 January 1856. Pacific's fate remains a mystery to the present day. A message in a bottle found on the remote island of Uist within the Hebrides in 1861 declared her sunk by icebergs. In 1991, wreckage located in the Irish Sea off the coast of Wales was claimed, without corroboration, as being the SS Pacific.
context_section_description: Pacific's 281-foot (85.6 m) wooden hull was built from yellow pine, with keel and frames of white oak and chestnut. Like her three sister ships, Pacific had straight stems, a single smokestack, three square-rigged masts for auxiliary power, and a flat main deck with two single-story cabins, one fore and one aft. The ships were painted in Collins Line colors: black hull with a dark-red stripe running the length of the ship, and a black stack with a dark-red top. 
  Pacific was powered by two side-lever engines built by the Allaire Iron Works of New York, each of which had a 95-inch cylinder (2.4 m) and 9-foot stroke (2.7 m), delivering a speed of 12 to 13 knots (22 to 24 km/h; 14 to 15 mph). The running gear was designed in such a way that if one engine failed, the remaining engine could continue to supply power to both paddlewheels. Steam was supplied by four vertical tubular boilers, with a double row of furnaces, designed by the Line's chief engineer, John Faron. Fuel consumption was from about 75 to 85 short tons (68 to 77 t) of coal per day, and auxiliary sail power was provided by three full-rigged masts.
  The passenger accommodations were generous and spacious, and the cabins and saloons were elaborately decorated. The ship could initially accommodate 200 first-class passengers; in 1851, accommodations for an additional 80 second-class passengers were added. Customer service innovations on the Collins Line ships included steam heating in the passenger berths, a barber's shop, and a French maitre de cuisine. The ships' high freeboards and straight stems also contributed to passenger comfort by providing added protection from seaspray and a steadier motion through the waves than typical passenger ships of the period.
caption: Diagram of one of Pacific's side-lever engines
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