Nineteenth Century Sailing Ships

Auxiliary Sailing Ships.

While the steamship was making rapid progress in Europe the Americans were for the most part content to develop it on distinctive lines for their own local and coasting purposes. As far as their ocean trade was concerned they had the reputation of building and possessing the finest clipper ships in the world and they were satisfied with that. They tried auxiliary machinery on the North Atlantic in what was essentially a sailing ship in the case of the "Massachusetts" of 1845, a 751-ton ship with an Ericsson screw propeller. She was not a success and was soon afterwards sold to the United States Navy. The auxiliary principle had already been tried in Britain in the case of Green's Blackwall frigates "Vernon," "Owen Glen dower" and "Earl of Hardwicke," with lifting paddles. Their engines of 32 horse-power were intended to give a speed of five knots in a calm but they were very seldom satisfactory. In the 'fifties there had been a craze for them in the Australian trade and many prominent shipowners were ruined by them.

In 1849 the British Navigation laws were repealed and the American clipper ships were able to bring cargoes of China tea to British ports. Their appearance created a sensation, and one or two British builders, both at Aberdeen and on the Clyde, were tempted to copy them and produce fast sailing clipper ships of large tonnage. Until 1854, however, they were handicapped by the old rules of tonnage measurement which only took length and beam into consideration and left depth untaxed. The result was a short, deep ship not approaching the Americans in speed.

The first American clipper to load tea for the British market was the "Oriental," one of the extreme American ships of her day which brought a cargo of tea to London at £6 per forty cubic feet, while the best that the British ships could obtain was £3.10 per 5o cubic feet. She arrived in the West India Docks early in December 185o, 97 days out from Hong Kong, and created a sensation. The immediate result was that the British clippers "Stornoway" and "Chrysolite" were ordered at Aber deen in spite of the tonnage laws, the first of their type. Although they were remarkably fast vessels in normal weather their lack of beam lost them speed in strong winds, but this fault was rectified in later designs.

In spite of their opportunities in this market, it was not long before the Americans deserted it, for the discovery of gold in California caused an unprecedented rush from the Eastern States and, as the passage by way of Cape Horn was technically a coasting run, it was reserved to American ships, their clipper owners having nothing to fear from cheaply-manned foreign competition. There was little enough cargo to be carried, but any number of gold seekers, so that in the early 'fifties a number of American clippers were built, growing more and more extreme in their fine lines, and made large profits.

The British clipper shipowners were developing the China and the Australian trade in the same way, although their ships never approached those of the Americans in their fineness. Freight and passage rates were both high and it was possible to earn an ex cellent dividend on a ship with very limited cargo capacity. Many British owners went to American yards for their tonnage, particularly to that owned by Donald McKay of Boston, but at the same time there were magnificent ships turned out by British establishments. As a general rule the hard wood British ship lasted longer than her American rival which was built of soft wood, but the first cost was considerably higher—some 25 per cent—and in any circumstances these clippers were driven so hard that few of them lasted many years on the first class services.

Large Sailing Ships.

It was the promise of the Australian trade that caused Donald McKay to build his masterpiece, the "Great Republic" of 1853. She was the biggest ship in the world and was one of the first vessels to be rigged as a four-masted barque. Failing to obtain backing among shipowners, McKay de termined to run her himself between the United States and Australia. Her registered tonnage was 4,555 and in order to keep the crew within reasonable limits she was fitted with patent double topsails and a 15 horse-power steam engine on deck for handling the yards and working the pumps. Her hull was of oak and pine, iron strengthened, and she attracted great attention.

Unfortunately she caught fire and had to be scuttled while load ing for her maiden voyage, so never went to sea as McKay had originally designed her. He was forced to sell her and her pur chaser cut down her rig considerably but even then she was too big to be run to satisfactory profit on commercial service. She did good work trooping in the Crimean and American Civil Wars before she finally foundered, as the "Denmark" of Liverpool, in the North Atlantic in 1872.

From the early 'sixties American shipping, which until then had been predominant, suffered an eclipse and this is frequently but erroneously ascribed to the effect of the American Civil War. It is true that a handful of Confederate cruisers captured a number of ships owned in the North, and that many American shipowners transferred their big sailing ships to foreign flags in consequence. The real explanation is that American enterprise was turning towards the West, where there were golden oppor tunities. The conservative element would not abandon the wooden sailing ship with which they had made their reputation, while Europe had seen the advantages of steam and iron so that the handicap was changed. In the late 'sixties composite construc tion, that is to say wooden planking on an iron framework, became popular and such famous ships as the "Cutty Sark" were built after this fashion.