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The “City of Mobile” was in an American packet ship. She was built at Greenpoint, Long. Island. in 1854, by Perrine and Stack and owned by Harbeck and Co. of New York, measured 1750 tons, 215 feet long, had three full decks, and was one of the first vessels equipped with double topsails, instead of the old-fashioned enormous single topsails that were so hard to handle. On her first voyage to England the "City of Mobile carried 9000 quarters of wheat, besides a large amount of flour in barrels. {{cite book|title=The Essex Institute Historical Collections,Vol.LVI-1920|year=1920|location=Salem} The ship was captained by Captain Robert Marshall, a well respected mariner.In 1855 he received complimentary remarks in The New York Times for the cleanliness of his ship with a glowing report for the low incidence of deaths onboard during trans-Atlantic voyages. The New York Times had also described him as “emphatically a model commander". A scandal erupted in the New York newspapers after it was discovered that twelve of Vere Foster's female emigrants had been smuggled into brothels in the Water St area. Captain Marshall was found guilty of the unlawful landing of female passengers and of their prostitution by the ship’s crew and fined. The frequency of incidents such as these on the packet ships eventually prompted legislative changes for the protection of female passengers onboard passenger ships. The American Passenger Act of 1855 addressed issues such as that of overcrowding, imposing heavy financial penalties on captains that exceeded their ships passenger quota. These penalties included the forfeiture of the ship if it carried 20 passengers in excess. . Captain Marshall subsequently sought to have his fines remitted and appealed against the conviction on the grounds that he had an unblemished record of 27 years as a ship master. He refuted the charge and stated that the ships mate was in control of the ship when he, the captain, was absent. {{cite news|newspaper=New York Daily Tribune|date=13 August 1857}