SS Adriatic (Collins)

Adriatic was a wooden-hulled, side-wheel steamship launched in New York in 1856. She was conceived as the largest, fastest, most luxurious trans-Atlantic passenger liner of her day, the pride of the Collins Line. At the time of her launch she was the largest ship in the world.

She made only one roundtrip for the Collins Line before that firm failed, partly because of Adriatic's high cost. She made five more roundtrips as a luxury liner, before she was sold to an English firm which reconfigured her to carry hundreds of Irish immigrants to America. In all, the ship made only twelve trans-Atlantic roundtrips, so while she may have been a triumph of American shipbuilding, none of her owners were successful. She ended her days as a hulk at the mouth of the Niger River as a floating coal depot to fuel ships better adapted to the commercial realities of the day. She was abandoned there in 1885.