What they have done since they have had free scope to their industry and skill, and been relieved from all unfair taxation on the one hand, and the swaddling-clothes of protection on the other, is truly astonishing. Since then, no country has produced more magnificent steam and sailing ships, the former having all but monopolised the great Transatlantic carrying trade, to which I shall fully refer hereafter, and the latter having driven the American clippers entirely from the China trade.[212] Such are the effects of wholesome competition.
Magnificent English Merchant sailing ships, 1860-72.
Perhaps no merchant ocean-going ships of any country or of any age have equalled, certainly none have ever surpassed, the sailing clippers launched from the yards of Great Britain between 1860 and 1872, vessels far superior to those I have already named, including the Falcon, the Fiery Cross, Undine, Lahloo, Leander, the Isles of the South, Min, Kelso, Serica, Taeping, Ariel, Titania, Spindrift, Sir Lancelot, and Thermopylæ. As the Thermopylæ and the Sir Lancelot are the fastest sailing ships that ever traversed the ocean,[213] I have given a representation of the former under full sail at page 416, and the following drawing to scale of her midship section may interest my nautical readers.
Transverse Midship Section, “Thermopylæ.”
THE “THERMOPYLÆ.”
The Thermopylæ.
Sir Lancelot and others.
Americans completely outstripped.