Edward Collins: Surviving Life’s Storms

Edward Collins was an American businessman who became an icon in the shipping industry. He was born in Truro, Massachusetts on August 5, 1802. Collins’ mother died after he was born so he grew up with his aunts.

Collins moved to New Jersey in 1815 when he was 13 to study. He worked with McCrea and Slidell, a counting house in New York. Later, Collins joined his father in 1821 at LG Collins and Sons where he became a partner in 1824. They started with a regular packet service from New York City to Veracruz, Mexico and vice versa.

When his father died in 1831, Collins entered the cotton trading business from New York to New Orleans. He had his first shipping line in 1831.

Collins received subsidy from the government in 1847 to create the United States Mail Steamship Company. Two of his five ships sank and the government cancelled the subsidy in 1856. His wife and two children were on board the SS Arctic when it sank.

He moved to Wellsville, Ohio and ventured in oil drilling and coal mining. He died on January 22, 1878 in New York.