been far more rapid during the past fifty years than `during previous periods; but at all times shipwrights must have striven to build as efficient ships as the technical knowledge and material resources at the command of the builders would permit them to construct. It is a fact sometimes overlooked, that the present-day organization and management of domestic and foreign trade necessitate the use of types of vessels very unlike those required by traders a hundred years ago. While it is true that the technical improvements in transportation and communication facilities have made possible the existing organization of commerce, it is equally true that the size and character of ships now being built are determined by the requirements of trade. This fact will be illustrated in later chapters.

Until the fifth decade of the nineteenth century the sailing vessel was the only ship employed in ocean commerce. In its technical evolution numerous types have been successively constructed, to each of which special terms were applied that need to be explained in order to be understood by the landsman who has not made a study of nautical phraseology. The various kinds of sailing vessels are classified mainly according to the number of masts the vessel has, and the rig of its sails. The shape of the bow and hull (as in the case of the "clipper ship") may also account for the name given to the type of ship.

There are two methods of rigging the sails on the masts. In the "square-rigged" vessel, the yards or beams to which the sails are attached are so suspended from the mast as to cross the mast and extend equal distances on each side; while in the "fore-and-aft" rig the yardarms by which the sails are spread do not cross the mast, but extend from only one side of the mast.

A full-rigged "ship" is a sailing vessel having three

or more masts, on all of which the sails are square-rigged. A three-masted vessel having its two forward masts-the fore and main masts-square-rigged, and its after- or mizzenmast fore-and-aft rigged, is a bark. A barkentine has the foremast square-rigged and the main- and mizzenmasts rigged fore-and-aft. A brig is a vessel with two

masts both square-rigged. A brigantine differs from the brig in having the aftermast fore-and-aft rigged.

The vessels having only the fore-and-aft rig are the sloop and schooner. The sloop has but one mast; the schooner has two or more. Schooners having five, six, and even seven masts, have been constructed during the past few years.

At the time of the settlement of America, early in the seventeenth century, the largest ocean vessels were the full-rigged ship and the bark; the brig or brigantine of less than 100 tons burden was more frequently used. The coasting vessels most used by the English were the sloop, the lugger, and the ketch. The lugger had one or

two masts, each rigged with square or lug sail. The ketch had two masts-" one tall mast, with two or more crossed yards, set well back from the bow toward amidships, and a smaller mast, also with square sails, nearer

the stern." 1 The chief merit of the ketch was that there were two sails on each mast, instead of one heavy, unwieldy lug sail. In some ketches there were both square and fore-and-aft sails in the rigging. The American colonists used the ketch for their coasting trade, until they designed the far more serviceable schooner. The ketch was a slow vessel, and its square sails were handled with difficulty upon its narrow deck.

The first schooner was built in 1713 or 1714, by Captain Andrew Robinson, at Gloucester, Mass., and is sometimes called the Gloucester schooner. It had two masts,

each bearing a fore-and-aft sail, there being a jib sail forward. The lines of the schooner were sharper than those of its predecessors; it could sail faster and closer to the wind, and could be managed by fewer hands than the square-rigged vessels required. The economy and the efficiency of the schooner were soon recognized in America, especially in the coasting trade. The vessels

used for the transoceanic trade did not abandon the square sails after the appearance of the schooner, but modified their rigging by using both square and fore-and-aft sails. According to Marvin: 1 "For many years after 1813 the

American schooner represented a compromise. The prevailing type was the so-called topsail schooner, carrying the Robinson fore-and-aft foresail and mainsail, but bearing on the foremast a lower and a topsail, and sometimes

"The American Merchant Marine," p. 23.

a topgallant yard,1 and thus combining the good qualities of the fore-and-aft and the square rig. It was the topsail schooners which were the favorite privateers of the Revolution and the War of 1812. "

The character of the shipping constructed in America near the close of the colonial period is illustrated by the figures for 1769, during which year 113 square-rigged vessels and 276 sloops and schooners were built. The tonnage of these 389 vessels was 20,001.

Reference is here made to but a few of the leading types of sailing craft, and to only the most important changes in the rig and construction. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the ships were of the caravel type of construction, with a high cabin structure above the deck aft and a high forecastle forward. These superstructures lessened the seaworthiness of the ship and made sailing against opposing winds slow, and, in the case of storms, dangerous. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the depth of the ships was increased, and the practice of constructing cabins above deck was gradually abandoned.

The main features of the history of the sailing vessel during the nineteenth century were (1) the growth in size and the improvement in the sailing qualities of the squarerigged ship; (2) the development of numerous important "packet lines" with vessels sailing at regular intervals to handle the mails and to carry the large traffic that accompanied the growth of the United States after the War of 1812 to 1815; (3) the development of the schooner from a two- or three-masted to a four-masted wooden vessel, and then to a five-, six-, or seven-masted steel vessel;

1 The first or lowest sail on the mast is called the lower sail, the second one the topsail, the third the topgallant. The large full-rigged ship may carry a fourth or royal sail, and even a fifth or skysail. The lower sails on the fore and main masts were the foresail and mainsail.