A WHALING BARK
With a lookout at the masthead these ships cruised all over the earth in the first half of the 19th Century.
During the thirty years following the founding of the Black Ball Line a number of other similar lines were founded, notably the Red Star Line, the Dramatic Line, and the New Orleans Line from New York. All of these, and others, were American owned, and with the opening of the Erie Canal, which gave access to the Great Lakes, and opened a vast new land, trade greatly increased.
These ships were not large at first, but gradually they increased in size until, in 1849, the Albert Gallatin, of 1,435 tons, became the largest of the lot, although a number of others approached her in size.
These ships were in a new kind of service. Before the origin of the Black Ball Line there had been few passenger ships. More often than not ships had accommodations for passengers, as the East Indiamen had, but ships had seldom, prior to the opening of the 19th Century, devoted much space to passengers. In a later chapter I shall discuss the reasons for this. But once ships began to carry passengers to the practical exclusion of freight, speed became desirable, and the North Atlantic packets were designed more and more with speed in mind. This resulted in a demand for really scientific naval architects and because Americans were the ones chiefly interested in building faster ships, and because, too, the packet lines could afford to pay for their services, able men turned their attention to this important problem.
Thus it was that, between 1816 and 1849, a demand on the part of the American packet lines for faster ships produced in America a group of designers who evolved a type of sailing ship that the world has never seen surpassed for speed on the wide stretches of the open sea. And thus it was, too, that with the repeal of the Navigation Laws in England, America was able to put into service between Britain and the Far East such ships as made conservative British seamen gasp for breath ere they, too, set about following, with eminent success, in the footsteps of their transatlantic brothers. Then, instantly, the gigantic rush of gold hunters to California gave added impetus to the demand for faster ships, and almost overnight the era of the clipper ship had begun.
THE RED JACKET
The clipper ship that made the fastest trip across the Atlantic ever made under sail. Her record from Sandy Hook to Rock Light was thirteen days, one hour.