"'Steam Titan' tells the story of a transatlantic fight born of and powered by steam, a fight to wrest control of the globe's most lucrative trade route. It's the story of two men: Samuel Cunard and Edward Knight Collins, and two nations: Great Britain and the United States. Wielding the tools of technology, finance, and politics--and at the same time coping with the inevitable, sometimes crushing, perils of the sea--these opposing forces fought to capture control of a commercial lifeline that spanned the North Atlantic. Tracing the paths of ships, goods, people, information and money, historian William M. Fowler Jr. brings to life the spectacle of this generation-long struggle for supremacy, during which New York rose to take her place among the greatest ports and cities of the world, and recounts the tale of competition that was the opening act in the drama of economic globalization that is still unfolding today."--Jacket.