THE ROMANCE OF THE CLIPPER SHIP
It was with genuine regret that Mr. Tolman and Stephen parted from Mr.
Ackerman and Dick when the train reached New Haven.
"We shall not say good-by to Dick," Mr. Tolman declared, "for he is not
to be very far away and I hope sometime he will come to Coventry and
spend a holiday with us. Why don't you plan to do that too, Ackerman?
Run over from New York for Thanksgiving and bring the boy with you. Why
not?"
"That is very kind of you."
"But I mean it," persisted Mr. Tolman. "It is no perfunctory invitation.
Plan to do it. We should all be delighted to have you. There is nothing
in the world Mrs. Tolman loves better than a houseful of guests. Doris
will be home from college and I should like you to see what a fine big
daughter I have. As for Steve--"
"I wish you would come, Mr. Ackerman," interrupted the boy.
Mr. Ackerman hesitated.
"I tell you what we'll do," replied he at length. "We'll leave it to
Dick. If he makes a good record at school and earns the holiday we will
accept your invitation. If he doesn't we won't come. Is that a bargain,
youngster?" he concluded, turning to the lad at his side.
The boy flushed.
"It is a rather stiff one, sir," he answered, with a laughing glance.
"I think that's playing for too high stakes, Ackerman," Mr. Tolman
objected. "It is a little rough to put all the burden on Dick. Suppose
we divide up the responsibility and foist half of it on Stephen? Let us
say you will come if both boys make good in their studies and conduct."
Dick drew a breath of relief at the words, regarding the speaker with
gratitude.
"That is a squarer deal, isn't it?" continued Mr. Tolman.
"I think so--yes," was Dick's response.
"And you, Steve--do you subscribe to the contract?"
"Yes, I'll sign," grinned Stephen.
"Then the agreement is clinched," exclaimed his father, "and it will be
the fault of you two young persons if we do not have a jolly reunion at
Thanksgiving time. Good-by Ackerman! Good-by, Dick. Good luck to you! We
are pinning our faith on you, remember. Don't disappoint us."
"I'll try not to," the boy answered, as he stepped to the platform.
"Dick is a fine, manly young chap," observed Mr. Tolman, after the train
was once more under way and he and Stephen were alone. "I have a
feeling that he is going to make good, too. All he needed was a chance.
He has splendid stuff in him. There isn't a mean bone in his body."
Stephen moved uncomfortably in his chair and a guilty blush rose to his
cheek but apparently his father did not notice it.
"You liked Mr. Ackerman also, didn't you, son? Indeed there is no need
to ask for he is a genius with young people and no boy could help liking
a man of his type. It is a pity he hasn't a dozen children, or isn't the
leader of a boy's school."
"He is corking at story-telling!" was Steve's comment.
"He certainly is. I caught some fragments of his Hudson River tale and
did not wonder that it fascinated you. What a remarkable era that was!"
he mused.
"There were a lot of questions I wanted to ask him," Stephen said.
"Such as?"
"Well, for one thing I was curious to know what happened after the
steamers on the Hudson were proved a success."
"I can answer that question," replied his father promptly. "After the
river boats had demonstrated their practicability steamships were built
for traffic along short distances of the coast. Owing to the War of 1812
and the danger to our shipping from the British, however, the launching
of these new lines did not take place immediately; but in time the
routes were established. The first of these was from New York to New
Haven. You see, travel by steam power was still so much of a novelty
that Norwich, first proposed as a destination, was felt to be too far
away. It was like taking one's life in one's hands to venture such an
immense distance from land on a steamboat."
Stephen smiled with amusement.
"But gradually," continued Mr. Tolman, "the public as well as the
steamboat companies became more daring and a line from New York to
Providence, with Vanderbilt's _Lexington_ as one of the ships, was put
into operation. Then in 1818 a line of steamers to sail the Great Lakes
was built; and afterwards steamships to travel to points along the Maine
coast. The problem of navigation on the rivers of the interior of the
country followed and here a new conundrum in steamboat construction
confronted the builders, for the channels of many of the streams were
shallow and in consequence demanded a type of boat very long and wide in
proportion to its depth of hull. After such a variety of boat had been
worked out and constructed, lines were established on several of the
large rivers, and immediately the same old spirit of rivalry that
pervaded the Hudson years before cropped up in these other localities.
Bitter competition, for example, raged between the boats that plied up
and down the Mississippi; and in 1870 a very celebrated race took place
between the _Natchez_ and the _Robert E. Lee_. The distance to be
covered was 1218 miles and the latter ship made it in three days,
eighteen hours, and thirty minutes. The test, however, was not a totally
fair one since the _Natchez_ ran into a fog that held her up for six
hours. But the event illustrates the keen interest with which men
followed the progress of American shipping; and you can see how natural
it was that after the river boats, lake steamers, coastwise vessels and
tugs had had their day the next logical step (and very prodigious one)
was the--"
"The ocean liner!" ejaculated Stephen.
"Precisely!" nodded his father. "Now there are two separate romances of
our ocean-going ships. The first one is of the sailing vessels and is a
chronicle of adventure and bravery as enthralling as any you could wish
to read. I wish I had time to tell it to you in full and do it justice,
but I fear I can only sketch in a few of the facts and leave you to read
the rest by yourself some time. You probably know already that whalers
went out from Gloucester, New Bedford, and various of our eastern ports
and often were gone on two or three-year cruises; and when you recall
that in those early days there not only was no wireless but not even the
charts, lighthouses, and signals of a thoroughly surveyed coast you will
appreciate that setting forth on such a voyage for whale-oil (then used
almost exclusively for lighting purposes) took courage. Of course the
captains of the ships had compasses for the compass came into use just
before the beginning of the Fifteenth Century and was one of the things
that stimulated the Portuguese and Spaniards to start out on voyages of
discovery. The Spaniards built ships that were then considered the
largest and finest afloat, and probably Columbus caught the enthusiasm
of the period and with the newly invented compass to guide him was
stirred to brave the ocean and discover other territory to add to the
riches of the land he loved. It was a golden age of romance and
adventure and the journeys of Columbus grew out of it quite naturally.
But in America shipping had its foundation in no such picturesque
beginning. The first vessel made in this country was constructed as a
mere matter of necessity, being built at the mouth of the Kennebec River
to carry back to England a group of disheartened, homesick settlers."
He paused thoughtfully a moment.
"Even the ships of later date had their birth in the same motive--that
of necessity. The early colonists were forced to procure supplies from
England and they had no choice but to build ships for that purpose. At
first these sailing packets were very small, and as one thinks of them
to-day it is to marvel that they ever made so many trips without
foundering. As for our coastwise ships, up to 1812 they were nothing
more than schooner-rigged hulls."
"I wonder where the word _schooner_ came from," commented Steve.
"The legend goes that the term _scoon_ was a colloquialism used when
skipping stones. When a pebble glanced along the top of the water it was
said to _scoon_," answered his father, with a smile. "After the War of
1812 was over and our American vessels were safe from possible attack,
and after the country itself had recovered somewhat from the stress of
this financial burden so that men had more money to invest in commerce,
we began to branch out and build finer vessels; and when it came to
rigging them there seemed to be no name to apply to the arrangement of
the sails. The story goes that one day as one of these new ships sailed
out of Gloucester harbor a fisherman watching her exclaimed with
admiration, 'See her _scoon_!' The phrase not only caught the public
fancy but that of the shipbuilders as well, and the word _schooner_ was
quickly adopted."
"I never knew that before!" announced Steve, when the narrative was
concluded.
"Slowly the models of ships improved," went on his father, without
heeding the interruption. "Vessels became larger, faster, more graceful.
Even the whalers and fishing smacks took on more delicate lines.
Merchants from Salem, Gloucester, New Bedford invested their hard-earned
savings in whalers and trading ships, and many of them made their
fortunes by so doing. The sailing packets that went to Liverpool began
to make excellent time records. Although the English were now using
steamers for trans-Atlantic travel they had not perfected them to a
sufficient extent to make their trips faster than those of sailing
ships."
"About how long did it take them to cross?" inquired Stephen.
"The average time to Liverpool was from nineteen to twenty-one days,"
was the answer. "And for the return voyage from thirty to thirty-five."
"Whew, Dad! Why, one could walk it in that time!" exclaimed the lad.
"It was a long time," his father agreed. "But it is not fair to measure
it by present-day standards. Think how novel a thing it was to cross the
ocean at all!"
"I suppose so," came reflectively from Stephen.
"It was not long," continued his father, "before the English improved
their engines so that their steamers made better time, and then our
American sailing packets were left far behind. This, as you can imagine,
did not please our proud and ambitious colonists who were anxious to
increase their commerce and build up their young and growing country.
Something must be done! As yet they had not mastered the enigma of steam
but they could make their sailing ships swifter and finer and this they
set to work to do. Out of this impetus for prosperity came the
remarkable clipper-ship era.
"We shall probably never see such beautiful ships again," continued Mr.
Tolman, a trifle sadly. "Youth and romance go hand in hand, and our
country was very young, and proud and eager in those days. Our commerce
was only beginning and the far corners of the world were strange,
unexplored and alluring. It is like an Arabian Night's Tale to read of
those wonderful ships built to carry merchandise to China, India and
other foreign ports. Speed was their aim--speed, speed, speed! They must
hold their own against the English steamers if they would keep their
place on the seas. For in those days the methods of packing produce were
very primitive, and it was imperative that such perishable things as
tea, dried fruits, spices and coffee should be rushed to the markets
before the dampness spoiled them. If they mildewed they would be a dead
loss to the merchants handling them. Moreover as cable and telegraph
were unknown there was no way to keep in touch with the demands of the
public, or be sure of prices. Therefore every merchant hurried his goods
home in the hope of being the first in the field and reaping the largest
profits."
"More racing!" exclaimed Stephen.
"It was racing, indeed!" returned his father. "Ships raced one another
back from China, each trying desperately to discharge her cargo before
her rival did. Like great sea-birds these beautiful boats skimmed the
waves, stretching every inch of canvas to be the winner at the goal. As
a result the slow merchant packets with their stale cargoes could find
no patrons, the clippers commanding not only all the trade but the
highest prices for produce as well. Silks, chinaware, ivory,
bamboo--all the wealth of the Orient began to arrive in America where
it was hungrily bought up, many a man making his fortune in the East
India trade. Of this fascinating epoch Hawthorne gives us a vivid
picture."
"It must have been great to travel on one of those ships!" said Stephen.
"It was not all pleasure, by any means, son," Mr. Tolman replied. "Often
the vessels encountered hurricanes and typhoons in the treacherous
Eastern waters. Sometimes ships were blown out of their course and
wrecked, or cast ashore on islands where their crews became the prey of
cannibals."
"Jove!"
"It had its outs--this cruising to distant ports," announced his father.
"Moreover, the charts in use were still imperfect and lighthouse
protection was either very scanty or was lacking entirely."
"What became of the clipper ships?"
"Well, we Americans never do anything by halves, you know. When we go in
we go in all over," laughed his father. "That is what we did with our
clipper ships. We were so pleased with them that we built more and more,
sending them everywhere we could think of. Many went around to
California to carry merchandise to the gold searchers. At last there
were so many of these swift vessels that they cut into one another and
freight rates dropped. Besides, steamboats were coming into general use
and were now running on all the more important ocean routes. The day of
the sailing ship was over and the marvelous vessels were compelled to
yield their place to the heralds of progress and become things of the
past. Nevertheless, their part in our American commerce will never be
forgotten and we have them to thank not only for the fame they brought
our country but also for much of its wealth."
With a quick gesture of surprise he rose hurriedly.
"See!" he exclaimed. "We are almost home. We have talked 'ships and
sealing-wax' for hours."
"It hasn't seemed for hours," retorted Stephen, springing to collect his
luggage.
"Nor to me, either."
"Some time I'd like to hear about the ocean liners," ventured the boy.
"You must get Mr. Ackerman to tell you that story when he comes to visit
us Thanksgiving," was the reply, "if he _does_ come. That part of it
seems to be up to you and Dick."
"I mean to do my part to get him here," Steve announced. "I hope Dick
will plug, too."
"I rather think you can trust him for that," was the quiet answer.