SWIFT VESSELS OF PAST DECADES.
There are but few spots of the ocean's surface that are not traversed by steamships, and possibly no spot into which the tramp steamship has not poked its nose. Years ago this could be claimed for the famous clippers of the United States, but steam has crowded them out of use, and to-day hardly a dozen sail under our flag. The States of Maine and New Hampshire produced many magnificent clippers. The Challenge, the Sea-Witch, the Young America, the Swordfish, the Dreadnought, Queen of Clippers, Witch of the Wave, Spitfire, Witchcraft, and over one hundred others that might be named, carried the American flag triumphantly around the world, and obtained the highest rates of freight even in British ports. The ship Natchez, of New York, 523 tons, though not a clipper, made the passage from Hong-kong (China) to New York in 72 days. She was originally a New Orleans and Havre packet, flat on the floor, to enable her to cross the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi, and had sharp ends. Probably one of the most pathetic endings of a famous clipper-ship is that of the Great Admiral, built in 1869, and owned by the heirs of William F. Weld & Co.; she is now lying idle, and though in excellent order, will probably be dismantled and converted into a coal-barge. She is the only famous clipper left of all the fine fleet of nearly one hundred sail once owned by William T. Weld & Co. The firm, like its shipping, is a thing of the past. The ship Charger, of 1378 tons, built in 1874 by Henry Hastings, though still afloat at last accounts, was not making money for her owner. The splendid ships North American and South American, built by Mr. Hastings, and once prominent in the California trade, were wrecked a few years ago.
Since the disappearance of clippers we have built ships of 3000 and 4000 tons for the Pacific grain trade, and though full modelled, they more than hold their own against all nations. Our Atlantic coasting trade is carried on in huge schooners, ranging from 500 to 1500 tons, with three, four, and five masts. Many of these had centre-boards, but most of the new vessels are built without them.
Although Baltimore has the credit of first applying the term "clippers" to fast vessels, all maritime nations have aimed to excel on the water. The French ships were generally better sailers than the English, and hence, when beaten in naval warfare, often escaped capture. At the battle of St. Vincent, though they defeated more than twenty sail of French and Spaniards, they captured only four, and two of these were taken by Nelson. But whenever the English captured a fast sailing-vessel they copied her lines. Emerson says, "the Frenchman invented the collar, but the Englishman added the shirt."