NINETEENTH CENTURY SAILING SHIPS The two changes in the design of the sailing ship at the be ginning of this period which had most influence on trade and naval architecture were the suppression of the armed merchant man and the encouragement of speed. There was every prospect of a long peace, and its possibilities were much exaggerated in the hopes of the moment, but it was realised that the armed merchantman, which was primarily designed as such, inevitably lost a good deal of her efficiency as a cargo carrier and was a poor substitute for a fighting ship. Merchantmen had been armed from time immemorial, and for protection against both pirates and the enemy it was a very necessary precaution. The ordinary cargo carrier had a very light armament, the number and calibre of her guns being limited by regulation as a precaution against her turning pirate. Her security was very largely maintained by the convoy system, but a number of the finest merchant ships had a very much more powerful battery and carried letters of marque, not because they wished to engage in privateering but because it relieved them of the onerous convoy regulations.
The big East Indiamen were typical of these, carrying between twenty and thirty guns, occasionally on two decks. They were not efficient fighting ships, for their ports were small and their decks were usually too encumbered with merchandise and passen ger fittings to permit the guns' crews proper room to work. But the space taken by this battery very seriously interfered with their commercial value.
The East India Company had already lost its monopoly in the Indian trade and it was obvious that its exclusive rights in Chinese waters must soon go as well. The armed Indiamen that it had been building for over two centuries could only exist under a strict monopoly and allied to a military force. When the monopoly went it became necessary to introduce efficiency, greater effort and greater speed at once.
castle, and although they were a considerable improvement from the mercantile point of view they inherited many of the features and most of the appearance of the old East Indiamen. Most of the firms which ran them, indeed, founded their fleets on tonnage purchased from the Company, but they were maintained and run on very different lines and quickly showed their influence on trade. They were, however, heavily built, full-lined ships and although they made tolerably good passages it was by their power and seamanship rather than their lines.
It was in the United States that fine lines were favoured for speed, and perhaps the greatest change of all was in their ship yards. Ever since Colonial days American shipbuilders had real ised the value of speed and had been far more successful in obtaining it than any of their rivals in other countries. The Baltimore clippers—not to be confused with the later clipper ships—had made a name for themselves in the latter part of the eighteenth century and they represented the improvement which American designers had been able to effect on the lines of the French Tuggers which visited their ports during the War of In dependence and which impressed them greatly by their seaworthi ness, speed and other qualities.
These Baltimore clippers were originally used very largely as pilot boats, almost invariably rigged as brigs or schooners, but they became popular in the coasting trade when land communica tions were difficult and uncertain. The greatest benefit of their speed, however, was found in their ability to carry a reasonable cargo at very high rates to the West Indian Islands and other European Colonies whose trade was supposed to be strictly closed to them, but whose inhabitants were very willing to do business and whose warships found it quite impossible to catch them at sea. In time of war they made ideal letters of marque ships and during the war of 1812-1814 they proved of inestimable value to their country, both as privateers and blockade runners.