On 4 July 1840, the steamer Britannia departed Liverpool on her maiden voyage, bound for Halifax and Boston carrying mail, passengers, and freight. 据《利记手机官网》(Courier)报道，在波士顿，市民们对她的到来“不耐烦得目瞪口呆”. Fifteen days later, after a short stop in Halifax, the Britannia 和她的主人塞缪尔·库纳德抵达后，迎接他们的是一场盛大的烟花表演. 在东波士顿的Maverick House举行了一场1800人的宴会，向冠纳德表示敬意, 被描述为"这一地区有史以来最精彩的娱乐活动之一.” As William Fowler notes in Steam Titans, with the arrival of the Britannia, “Cunard mania swept Boston. So too did the sweet scent of victory over her nemesis, New York.”

Prior to the introduction of steam power, sailing vessels plied the Atlantic, carrying passengers, freight, 还要根据变幻莫测的风向和天气，每年完成三次左右的往返旅行. A single steamship, according to Fowler, could easily complete a dozen or so round trips in a year, a distinct advantage. After winning the contract in 1840 to carry the Royal Mail , Samuel Cunard devoted four ships to the Liverpool-Boston route, ensuring a regular and timely flow of people and goods. The ships ran biweekly, except in the winter months when they ran monthly.

The Winter of 1844

The Britannia 1844年1月22日，从利物浦出发，经过17天的航行，如期抵达波士顿港. 随后，天气变得异常寒冷，东海岸上下的港口甚至连华盛顿都冻得死去活来. Boston Harbor, with the Britannia in port, was no exception. As the time neared for Britannia’s return voyage, 很明显，天气不配合，船将不能按时出发. On 30 January, 一群波士顿商人急于证明这座城市作为港口的价值，他们“考虑到立即采取措施打破船只通行的权宜之计”, through the vast body of ice which now obstructs our harbor.”

The lost art of ice harvesting

尽管今天在一些地方，人们可以看到从湖泊和池塘中收获的冰South Bristol, Maine, for one——机械冷冻机(以及气候变化)使得这些活动变得多余. But in 1844, 从池塘和湖泊中切割冰块是储存城市冰箱的常用方法. 商人们立即求助于从剑桥的Fresh Pond采集冰的团队. The Boston Atlas 1844年2月2日的一篇文章详细描述了切割通道的过程

A channel of about sixty feet in width is first marked out, which is then divided into blocks of about thirty feet square. 然后用犁把标记好的部分犁开，这样冰就几乎切到水里了. The plough used for this purpose is formed of seven different ploughshares, perfectly flat, and very sharp, which are arranged in a row … After ploughing, the ice is sawed, so as to detach the cakes entirely from each other, after which two grapnels are attached to the cakes, 他们被一群大约150人拖到固定的冰下, 大约有十五到二十个人站在蛋糕上，以便使它充分下沉，使它从下面通过. 这样，只有一侧的冰块被处理掉了……形成了一条30英尺宽的通道……上港的冰厚达6到8英寸.

After great exertions by the ice cutters, the canal was completed and Britannia 能够大致按计划出发，这让波士顿的商人们感到满意和宽慰.

Just another chapter in the Boston-New York rivalry

In the background of Britannia’s predicament was the evergreen rivalry between New York and Boston. Ships from Europe brought passengers, freight, mail, 以及随后几天将在全国传播的世界新闻. As the European steamers’ western terminus, Boston received and distributed the news first, 而且可以更早地拿到货物——这一事实无疑让纽约人很恼火, 他们希望轮船绕过哈利法克斯和波士顿直接到达纽约. The day after the Britannia docked in Boston on 21 January 1844, the Boston Atlas published the following

假装有意改变波士顿到纽约的轮船航线, the European Times “我们注意到纽约的几家报纸不断地声称，英国和北美邮政公司的轮船即将把港口从波士顿改为纽约. 这份报告毫无根据……无论考虑什么，都不会改变……我们毫不怀疑，他们未来的所作所为也会取得同样的胜利, as we have already seen in their past accomplishments.

On 28 January, the New York Herald 在“冠纳德轮船”的标题下对这场争议进行了评论，这是一部虚伪的杰作

Who can mistake Cape Cod for Cape Ann? Everyone asks this question. Why? Because the pilot who had charge of the steamship Britannia on her last trip to Boston, 用最整齐的方式把她“扑通”上了岸，这是一想到就害怕的事. She remained on the bar about half an hour, and then, 只要冠纳德公司的轮船开往波士顿，这样的灾祸是预料之中的. Cape Cod and Cape Ann will be their Scylla and Charybdis, although both are very quiet, inoffensive capes. 我们不想让轮船来这个城市，因为我们不想被它们打扰, but we should regret to see such fine vessels thrown away, as the Columbia has been. To save them to the world, 我们愿意忍受一点不便，在城里的某个码头一次腾出一个地方. Unless we do this what will become of them?

尽管为不列颠尼亚号开道的英勇努力正在进行中, New York journalists could not resist the urge to disparage Boston. On 1 February, the New York Herald “所有这些冰和所有这些麻烦证明……没有蒸汽邮件船连接这个国家和欧洲。, ought to start from such an out-of-the-way place as Boston.作者很方便地忽略了东海岸上下的港口要么被冰封住了，要么在港口里有危险的浮冰——包括纽约港.

除了冰冻的港口，波士顿很快就把跨大西洋的轮船业务输给了纽约市. In 1848, 仅仅两年后，冠纳德就将船队规模扩大了一倍，并开通了纽约航线, the value of cargo going into New York tripled that of Boston and by 1868, Cunard had suspended its Boston service entirely.