In 1840 British steamships launched and driven by subsidies — a subject considered else where—had appeared on the route between America and Europe, and also in British trade with the West Indies, South America and the East Indies. Up to that time the transatlantic fast freight, passenger and mail service had been dominated by the American flag. Nearly all of the lines of sail packets were of United States ownership and construction. The Black Ball line, the Swallowtail line, the Dramatic line, the Red Star line, the Williams and Guion line and others employed vessels comparable in size with the East Indiamen of Great Britain and far superior in speed and handiness. These packets should be carefully distinguished from the clippers which came afterward. Packets were swift but capacious vessels, large carriers for their tonnage, with accommodations in the cabin for first-class and between decks for steerage passengers. They were strongly built of wood, many in New York yards along the East River and others on the Delaware and in New England. Their passenger traffic was carefully regulated by Federal laws. The packets carried the higher cost freight, and their rates were above those of ordinary mer chantmen. But they were profitable ships be cause of the swiftness and regularity of their voyages, the best of which were from 14 to 20 days from New York to Liverpool. The packet era began in the early years of the last century and practically ended by 1860, when steam became supreme — though a few sail packet ships remained in transatlantic passen ger and freight service long afterward.
The first real clipper ships of a sharper model, loftier spars and relatively less freight space appeared in 1843, the result of an inten sifying rivalry of steam and canvas. Some of these clippers were employed on the New York packet lines, but most of them were engaged irf the long-voyage trade to China and India, and particularly in the Argonaut trade to California. It was the California trade pre eminently that created the greatest and most famous of American clipper ships from 1850 onward. For this trade the Sovereign of the Seas, the Flying Cloud and other stately exam ples of the genius of Donald McKay were constructed. This California trade under his toric American laws was American domestic commerce, in which only American vessels could participate. These ships sailed under register as if for foreign trade and indeed often en gaged in world-round carrying — proceeding from California across the Pacific to the Orient and loading there for the Atlantic coast of the United States or for Europe. American reg istered tonnage rose rapidly from 1,258,756 in 1849 to 2,379,396 in 1860. This extraordinary increase was principally due to the California trade and its demand for ships of high speed and large dimensions. It does not represent any proportionate increase in American overseas carrying, for the 75.2 per cent of our imports and exports conveyed in 1849 in American ves sels had shrunk in 1860 to 66.5 per cent. Under miscalled reciprocity the American flag in the decade before the Civil War was not holding its own in the overseas commerce of the United States, though its tonnage was apparently mounting. Moreover, this decade before the war was characterized by the sharpest and most disastrous decrease of American shipbuilding in all our national history.
Decline before the Civil War.— In the year 1855 a total of 583,450 tons of shipping had been launched in the United States, but this had fallen off to 156,602 tons in 1859 and stood at only 214,797 tons in 1860. This decline is all the more significant when it is added that the 381 square-rigged ships and barks built for foreign commerce in 1855 had decreased to 89 In 1859 and to 110 in 1860. Revolutionary movements in Europe in 1848, the Irish famine of 1847 and the Crimean War of 1854-56 had given a temporary impetus to American ship building and navigation because of an excep tional demand for ships for the export of foodstuffs and for immigration and transport service. But when these passing factors had lost their force, an alarming decline set in in our ocean tonnage, in years of peace, under a low tariff policy, before the firing of the first gun of the Civil War.
This decade before the war had witnessed a momentous change from sail to steam and from wood to iron. But, contrary to frequent assertions, it had not found American ship builders and shipowners unprepared. The first British Cunard steamships had appeared in 1840 on the route from Liverpool to Halifax and Boston. They were wooden side-wheel craft, with a speed of from 9 to 10 knots and a ton nage of about 1,200. In fresh breezes they were often beaten by the powerful American packet ships, but they had an advantage in light or contrary weather. These Cunard steamers received at first a British mail subsidy of $425,000 a year, which was subsequently doubled. It was manifestly impossible for American steamships of like cost to compete with them without government encouragement. The subject was actively taken up in Congress, and in 1845 and 1847 laws were enacted provid ing mail subsidies for American lines. The first United States service was from New York to Havre and Bremen, with $200,000 a year for 20 voyages. Other lines were estab lished from New York to the West Indies, to the Isthmus of Panama and in 1848 north ward from the Isthmus to California and Ore gon. Like the Cunard ships, the vessels em ployed were wooden side-wheel steamers, of from 1,000 to 2,400 tons. They were designed and built principally in New York by skilful builders, who had created the famous packet and clipper fleet. In 1847 a contract was con cluded with Edward K. Collins and his associ ates for a first-class steamship line from New York to Liverpool, with a subsidy of $385,000 a year, subsequently increased to $858,000. The Collins steamers were much larger than the Cunard ships, or of 2,800 tons. Under such governmentencouragement ocean steamship building rapidly increased in the United Statei In 1849 our deep-sea steam fleet had amounted to 20,870 tons, but in 1855 had grown to 115,C45 tons — so that our ocean steam fleet and Brit ain's were practically equal, though America's represented by far the more rapid and success ful development. The Collins liners uniformly beat their British rivals on the route to Liver pool and secured the bulk of the first-class passenger and freight traffic.