THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SAILING SHIP IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH
CENTURIES.
I shall endeavour in this chapter to conclude the narrative of the
large sailing ship, all of whose sails, excepting her triangular
headsails and the staysails and the new shape which we have seen the
mizzen take, are square, and carried athwart the mast. Neither the
fore-and-aft rig, nor those hybrid developments of squaresail and
fore-and-aft rig, will be considered until the following chapter, in
order that our attention may not now be distracted from the older
form, and also that we may be able presently to consider, without
break of continuity, the story of that newer rig which had its origin
during the sixteenth century.
In 1801 the Union Jack was modified by the introduction of a saltire
for the Union of Ireland with Great Britain. The white, red and blue
admirals, with their corresponding ensigns, continued. Thus the Red
Ensign had not become yet the exclusive use of the Merchant Service
nor the White Ensign of the Navy, but all three colours were in
use to indicate the rank and place of flag-officers. At Trafalgar
we fought under the White Ensign solely. After the practice had
grown up of the whole fleet, for the sake of convenience, flying one
colour, the three were in 1850 abolished, and the White Ensign became
the colour of the Royal Navy.
One of the first war vessels to be laid down in the new century was
the _Caledonia_, 205 feet long and of 2616 tons. This was in the
year 1802, but she was not launched until six years later. Carrying
120 guns she was a first-rate, and was based on the design of the
_Commerce de Marseilles_, which we mentioned in the last chapter.
There is a model both of the _Commerce de Marseilles_ and of the
_Caledonia_ in the Royal Naval College Museum, Greenwich. The latter
was broken up only as recently as 1907. Up to the beginning of the
nineteenth century ships of the Royal Navy were painted with blue
upperworks, bright yellow sides, and broad black strakes at the
waterline. The interior was generally painted red.[107] But Nelson
had the hulls of his ships painted black with a yellow strake along
each tier of ports, but with black port-lids, and this chequer
painting distinguished all men-of-war, both at Trafalgar and after.
White was soon introduced as a substitute for the yellow. This white
band has survived to this day on many of our biggest sailing ships,
and is well seen in Mr. Charles Dixon’s sketch of the four-masted
barque reproduced in Fig. 78.
Among the innovations which came into use during the early years of
the nineteenth century were the lifeboat and the prototype of the
modern rocket life-saving apparatus. In 1774 Captain (afterwards
Admiral) Schank, while stationed at Boston, built the first craft
that ever possessed a sliding keel. This invention was put into
actual use by the English fleet during the wars in which our country
was engaged at the beginning of the century. By its means those ships
thus fitted were able to sail closer to the wind without making so
much lee-way. They were made better on the helm, and they could take
the ground with less possibility of damage. There is in the Greenwich
Museum an excellent model of the 50-gun frigate _Cynthia_, fitted
with these sliding keels in 1795.
The strenuous years that formed the beginning of the new century in
which England was constantly at war, gradually increased the size
of her Navy to the enormous total of 644 ships which was reached in
1813. When we mention that at the beginning of the present year,
1909, the British Navy, including certain ships not yet completed,
did not exceed 517 warships of all kinds, one can readily realise how
great had been the extension of the fleet, and, in consequence, how
great an incentive to shipbuilding and the seafaring life had been
given. But this number had as quickly diminished to 114 four years
later, when the outlook of peace seemed bright and hopeful. In 1812
the unfortunate war broke out between the United States and Great
Britain, and for another two years naval activity was renewed. What
the immediate result of the American war had on the development of
the sailing ship is not difficult to estimate. As regards English
shipbuilding, owing to the great success of the American frigates and
their superiority to our own vessels, a sudden wave of enthusiasm
swept over the British naval authorities for frigates. In the panic,
this was pushed to foolish extremes, and bigger ships were cut
down and converted into frigate-shape. In America, the building of
frigates of such unusual size first called the attention of naval
architects to the advantages and possibilities of large vessels. It
was thus that the way was paved for the coming of the early clippers
in 1851.[108]
It is time now to refer to the powerful influence exercised over our
naval architecture by Sir Robert Seppings. It was he who in 1804
introduced the round bow in place of the straight wall-like structure
which had been inherited from the previous centuries. Similarly,
instead of the square stern, he gave his ships a circular one. But
more important still was the diagonal method of placing the timbers
of a ship which he introduced in 1800. The advantage of this was
increased strength and ability to resist the hogging strains, which
the Egyptians also had to overcome.[109] A large model showing
Seppings’ method of construction will be found in the Greenwich
Museum. The system, while no doubt being efficacious in preventing
the “working” of a ship’s component parts, must necessarily have
added very considerably to her weight. It was about this time, too,
that teak was used occasionally for the construction of ships. During
the first quarter of the century whatever improvements were made in
British naval architecture owed their origin almost entirely to the
knowledge gained from the numerous prizes captured from the French.
One of the finest ships ever built in France was the _Sans Pareil_,
which we had taken from the enemy in 1794. She was of 2242 tons and
carried 80 guns. (The reader will find a block-model of this ship in
the Greenwich Museum). The influence which this vessel exercised over
our naval architecture was not inconsiderable. So much admiration did
she receive that as late as 1845 there was designed on similar lines
and laid down at Devonport a British ship. She was never launched,
however, as another _Sans Pareil_, but while on the stocks was
altered, her length was increased, and she was eventually given the
addition of a screw propeller, and thus launched in 1851.
[Illustration: FIG. 70. THE “NEWCASTLE,” AN EAST INDIAMAN.
_Photo. Hughes & Son, Ltd._]
The progress which had been made in the ships of the Royal Navy
had its counterpart in the mercantile marine. Gradually through
the centuries since the Crusades had opened up the Mediterranean
to English trade our ancestors had acquired bigger and bigger
ships for the purpose of carrying merchandise. The discovery of
the West Indies, of North America, the Newfoundland Fisheries, and
subsequently the founding of the East India Company, had step by
step developed the ships which were used for purposes of commerce.
Especially favourable for merchant shipping had been the East and
West Indian trade. The voyages and discoveries made by Dampier,
Anson and Cook increased still further the scope of English trade,
and, consequently, the need for both ships and seafaring men became
greater. Wars obviously arrested the progress already made, but by
1821 the tonnage of the shipping of the British Empire amounted to
the significant sum of 2,560,203, in spite of the keen competition
now made by the United States. The East India Company at the
beginning of the nineteenth century occupied the position now held in
the twentieth century by the principal companies owning the biggest
liners to-day; that is to say, the largest and finest merchant ships
belonged to them. And profiting by the monopoly which they owned,
paying very handsome profits, they could afford to build their ships
well and strong. Consequently it is not to be wondered that the East
Indiamen from the commencement of the century down to the last of
their race became historical for their building and capabilities.
Fig. 70 shows the _Newcastle_, a well-known East Indiaman of the
early part of the nineteenth century.
[Illustration: FIG. 71. SPITHEAD: BOAT’S CREW RECOVERING AN ANCHOR.
_From the painting by J. M. W. Turner, R.A._
_Photo. by Hanfstaengl._]
During the eighteenth century brigs of about a couple of hundred tons
had been used for coasting trade, and especially for carrying coals
from Shields and Newcastle: but with the advent of the steam collier
the days of these ships were numbered. The illustration in Fig. 71
is from the painting by Turner in the National Gallery entitled
_Spithead: Boat’s Crew recovering an Anchor_. It was exhibited in
the Royal Academy in 1809, and is here included in order to provide a
contemporary picture of the full-rigged ships of the beginning of the
nineteenth century.
Not till about 1810 was iron introduced for knees, breast-hooks
and pillars, although the use of iron had been tried for the whole
structure in a small boat as far back as 1787. The real introduction
of building ships of iron occurred in 1829, yet it was not till the
’forties that opposition was entirely swept aside and iron came to be
recognised as a suitable material for ships.
[Illustration: FIG. 72. A WEST INDIAMAN OF 1820.]
But we have digressed from the period before us. If the East India
trade was a monopoly, commerce with the West Indies was unfettered
by any such condition. Not unnaturally, therefore, competition
was keen on this route, and as a result a number of excellent
cargo-carrying ships were built, able to endure the trying conditions
of the Atlantic without being deficient in the virtue of speed.
The illustration in Fig. 72, taken from a print dated 1820, in
the British Museum, will give some idea of the appearance of a
contemporary West Indiaman. Gradually the similarity between purely
mercantile and exclusively naval ships was disappearing, and we shall
see presently how this gulf was widened still further.
Sir Robert Seppings was succeeded by Captain Sir William Symonds,
R.N., who was Surveyor to the Royal Navy from 1832 to 1847, years
full of importance in the history of the sailing ship. We have
referred more than once to the slavish copying of French models which
had been a feature of our naval architecture. This was now to end.
Just as before, and many times after, England had shown herself to
possess a genius not so much for inventiveness as for improving on
the ideas of others, so now she began to design and build vessels
that could not be surpassed even by the French themselves. During
Symonds’ _régime_ the golden age of the wooden walls of England
was reached. It was he who was responsible for the design of such
ships as the _Vernon_ (fifty guns), the _Queen_, and about one
hundred and eighty others. Seaworthiness combined with speed were
their outstanding virtues, and these he obtained by improving
their underwater lines and making them less heavy and clumsy.[110]
Internally the ships were constructed so as to provide more room
and air. Symonds completed the work of Seppings in getting rid of
the mediæval stern which had lingered with certain modifications
for so long a period. Instead of the circular, he gave his ships
an elliptical stern, and devised a system whereby not only were
the different spars of one ship interchangeable, but the spars of
different ships and different classes of ships. There is a very
fine large model of his _Queen_ in the Greenwich Museum which has
been rigged with the greatest regard to accuracy in every possible
detail, so perhaps in studying her we shall get as good an example
of Symonds’ ships as we can desire. Built in 1839, this 110-gun
ship had a tonnage of 3104. Her length was 204 feet 2½ inches, her
breadth 60 feet 0½ inch, her depth 23 feet 9 inches, and she carried
a crew of 900. She had been laid down as early as 1833, and her name
had originally been the _Royal Frederick_, but after the accession
of Queen Victoria she was named _Queen_ at her launching. Later, in
1859, she was given the addition of a screw propeller.
In the Greenwich model she is seen as a sailing ship pure and
simple, with three decks. As to her rigging I have had the pleasure
of talking with more than one of those who served in this, the
first three-decker that was launched during the reign of Victoria.
One of the first points that strikes one is that the _Queen_ is
seen to have relinquished the historic hempen cable for the chain.
The rounded bow instead of the square shape already alluded to is
immediately obvious. The yard of the spritsail athwart the bowsprit
still remains, although this sail remained longer in the merchant
service than in the Navy, being used but rarely in the latter at
this late period. She possesses a bowsprit in three parts, _i.e._,
bowsprit proper, jib-boom and flying-boom. To encounter the downward
strain the ship by now has also a dolphin-striker. The _Queen_
carried stun’sails (studding-sails) of course, square in shape,
which were often weighted down by shot at the outboard end. Many
merchant ships of that time, however, had them cut not square but
triangular, and these were then set, not as the modern yacht sets
her spinnaker with the apex of the triangle at the top, but at the
bottom. In the edition of “Falconer’s Marine Dictionary” revised
by Burney, and published three years before the _Queen_ was laid
down, he speaks of and illustrates stun’sails only for the courses,
topsails, and t’gallant sails. Royal studding sails most probably
never were seen, although I notice that E. W. Cooke, R.A., whose
life was covered by the period between 1811 and 1880, who was one of
the most faithful marine artists of the time, whose father was well
known as an engraver of Turner’s pictures, who himself was also at
one time largely engaged on similar work, has an illustration showing
a British frigate with both t’gallant and royal stuns’ls. It seems
unlikely that so accurate an artist as Cooke should make such a
mistake, although the weight of evidence is decidedly against him.
Falconer says that lower studding sails were used on the main
and fore. The booms were generally hooked on to the chains by a
gooseneck, and kept steady by a guy. Topmast and t’gallant studding
sails were spread along the foot by booms which slid out from the
yards. This is well seen in the _Queen_ and many another model which
the reader will no doubt have examined. In a similar manner the
head of the sail had small sliding yards for the same purpose. The
sail on the mizzen mast now called a driver or spanker was chiefly
used when on a wind, being usually stowed when running. The boom
will be found to project very far over the stern, even to an almost
incredible extent, yet this is quite accurate for the period. As is
still the custom, the gaff was kept up when the sail was not in use,
contrary to the practice on a modern cutter-rigged vessel. The origin
of this sail we have seen develop from the old lateen, and modified
in its transition by Dutch influence. Now, one characteristic of
the Dutchman was his love of brails, and even when the boom was
added and the diagonal sprit taken away from this sail on the little
fore-and-afters the brailing system clung tenaciously to the sail. We
have a very good instance of this in the mainsail of the bawley (see
Fig. 86), which has neither boom nor sprit, but which can be brailed
up all the same. The barge has a sprit but no boom, and stows her
sail by brailing. When this sail came to be used as the driver on
square-rigged ships and the boom was also added, using a loose-footed
sail, the brails still survived as we see them on the _Queen_. In
furling the driver, therefore, the brail hauled the sail to the mast:
then in order to make a neat job of it a kind of clew-garnet drew the
leach end of the foot diagonally across the sail to the mast also.
This will be noticed in many contemporary prints of this period and
earlier. I have talked with one old sailor who remembers, when the
ship had got into the favourable trade-wind, not merely setting every
stitch of canvas the vessel had to put up, but even stepping the
masts of the ship’s boats lying on deck and hoisting the sails of
these boats to drive the ship along yet faster still. The reader may
remember that Nelson’s _Victory_, one of the fastest line-of-battle
ships of her day, went into action at Trafalgar with studding sails
set.
We have already shown that it was not long in the new century
before iron was introduced in connection with shipbuilding, though
it was some time before it was able to take the place of wood for
the hulls of ships. By the ’thirties steam was becoming gradually
to be reckoned with as a serious menace to sail, and in the Navy
the _Tartarus_, of four guns and a tonnage of 523, was classed as
a paddle sloop. Nevertheless, paddle-wheel steamers attached to
the fleet were regarded with scorn and spoken of as “dirty old
smoke-jacks.” As a distinguished naval officer and explorer, happily
still with us, Admiral Moresby, says: “There was obviously no future
for this type in the service, and sails would continue to waft us
as they had done from the beginning. So we thought; but one day a
long, low craft, barque-rigged, and possessing no outward sign of
a steamer but the funnel, joined the fleet. She was the _Rattler_,
the first man-of-war screw-ship. We viewed her with interest but did
not realise her significance. Pitted against her in every trial was
the _Alecto_—a paddle-sloop of equal tonnage and horse-power—the
_Rattler_ an easy first in all circumstances. Finally they were
lashed stern to stern in a ‘pull devil, pull baker’ grip, and
ordered to put forth all their strength to see which could tow the
other—a strange scene which I well remember. It was a calm day,
with a long, heaving swell. _Alecto’s_ paddles were revolving and
churning the foam like a whale in a flurry, while a slight ripple
under the _Rattler’s_ stern alone showed that there was power at
work.... _Alecto_, in spite of frantic struggles, was dragged slowly
astern, and the era of the screw had begun.”[111] The same author
relates an amusing instance as showing the manner in which steam was
contemplated by the old school. A certain captain was bringing his
ship into harbour under steam and sail. As he ran up he shortened
sail and came to anchor in handsome style, but unfortunately forgot
that his engines were still going, with a result that could only
spell disaster!
There was between the naval ships of the ’forties and those of the
time of Charles II. a similarity a hundredfold closer than that which
can be found to exist between the former and those of King Edward’s
ships to-day. With a change in ships came a change in personnel.
“The officers of the early ’forties,” writes Admiral Moresby, “with
few exceptions, were content to be practical sailors only. They had
nothing to do with the navigation of the ship or the rating of the
chronometers. That was entirely in the hands of the master, and
no other had any real experience or responsibility in the matter.
For example—I recall a captain, whose ship was at Spithead. He was
ordered by signal to go to the assistance of a ship on shore at
the back of the Isle of Wight. In reply he hoisted ‘Inability. The
master is ashore.’ He was asked, ‘Are the other officers aboard?’ and
signalled ‘Yes.’ But to the repeated order, ‘Proceed immediately,’
he again hoisted ‘Inability,’ and remained entrenched in this
determination until a pilot was sent to assist him.”
But to come back to the merchant service, to the old East Indiamen
“with their stately tiers of sails and splendid crews of trained
seamen,” although they were much finer in their lines and less
unhandy than the vessels in the Royal Navy of this period, their rig
was in most respects akin to the latter.[112] They carried three
courses—foresail, mainsail and cro’jack, three topsails (in each of
which there were three or four reefs), and three t’gallant sails
and royals, or twelve sails on the three masts. The fore-and-aft
sails were: on the bowsprit and jib-boom, a fore topmast staysail,
an inner jib and outer jib and flying jib. Below the bowsprit was
set on the spritsail yard, what the reader has been accustomed
through these chapters to know as the “spritsail,” but which in
the nineteenth century, even though triangular headsails were more
in evidence than before, still continued, though known as a “water
sail,” or “bull-driver.” Leslie, in his “Old Sea Wings, Ways and
Words in the Days of Oak and Hemp,” says that spritsails were not
only used when going free but when on a wind. The reef-points were
placed diagonally so that when reefed that part of the sail nearest
to the sea was narrower than the upper part. Two circular holes were
cut, one in each corner, so that when the ship plunged her bows into
a sea the water could run out and not split the canvas. Mr. Bullen
says that this sail was not of much use, nor could he understand why
it was carried at all, as it always had to be furled as soon as the
ship began to pitch a little. However, this last and final relic of
mediævalism has at last departed for good, although it dated back for
its origin to the artemon of classical times. Even when the sprit
topmast had disappeared, the sprit topsail was retained for some
time by placing it below the bowsprit instead of above, but further
forward of the spritsail proper.
Between the fore and main masts of the East Indiamen were the main
topmast staysail, main topgallant staysail and main royal staysail.
Between the main and mizzen were the mizzen topmast staysail, and
mizzen t’gallant staysail, but a royal was seldom set on this mast.
Abaft came the spanker or driver, often with the addition on the
after-leach of a ring-tail. Stun’sles, too, were used. But in those
days although these East Indiamen carried more hands than a sailing
ship of like size does to-day, yet every night at sunset all light
sails were taken off her and the ship was snugged down for the night.
Still the old bluff-bowed East Indiaman had had its day when the
young Republic of the United States, encouraged by the opportunity
which freedom from war now afforded, introduced on the sea ships
with clipper-bow that literally cleft the waves instead of hitting
them and retarding the passage of the hull through the water. With a
freedom of mind which has ever characterised the American, both as a
nation and an individual, the marine architects on the other side of
the Atlantic threw convention still further to the winds by modifying
the design of the stern in such a way that instead of squatting
and holding the dead water the ship slid through it cleanly with
a minimum of resistance. Possessing unlimited supplies of timber,
they were in a position to build ships at a far lower rate than we
in this country. In fact, so much was this the case that in England
between the years 1841 and 1847 no fewer than forty shipbuilders
went bankrupt in Sunderland alone. The one object of the American
designer was to build a ship that should sail every other craft off
the seas and so obtain the maximum of trade-carrying. Besides the
improvement in bow and stern they lengthened the ship till she became
five and six times longer than in breadth. This gave an opportunity
of adding a fourth mast to the ship and to carry more sails. The
sails themselves were improved in cut, being no longer mere bags to
hold the wind, but of a “close-textured, dazzlingly-white canvas.” In
exact contradistinction to the East Indiamen, these Yankee ships did
not reef down in anticipation of the gale that was to follow hours
after, but took in sail reluctantly. The part played by the American
clippers during the period that saw the close of the great wars and
the beginning of the American Civil War is one of vast importance to
the development of the sailing ship of any size. Even when steamers
began to cross the Atlantic in 1840, these wonderful clippers were
able to cross in about a fortnight. In every way superior to the
old cotton-ships running between New York and Havre in the early
’thirties, the clippers of the ’forties and ’fifties were seaworthy
as well as fast. One of the most famous was the _Flying Cloud_
built in 1851, which performed the sensational run of 427 knots in
twenty-four hours when on a passage from New York to San Francisco.
The _Sovereign of the Seas_ did even better still.
But yet again the English genius for improving on other peoples’
ideas showed itself at a critical point in the history of
shipbuilding. Shipbuilders and architects put their heads together
and decided to meet the American on his own terms. If he had
built clippers that had flown across the sea, it was their duty
to build something that would fly faster still; so a new chapter
in British shipping begins, and headed by Mr. Richard Green, the
famous Blackwall shipbuilder and shipowner, England built for
herself the real thing in clippers, quite early in the ’sixties.
The _Challenger_ was in 1850 laid down in Messrs. Green’s yard to
sail against the American _Challenge_, in an ocean race from China,
and won. Besides Messrs. Green, other British firms entered the
contest and built splendid clippers, amongst whom may be mentioned
Messrs. J. Thompson & Co., of Aberdeen, who founded the well-known
line of Aberdeen clippers; Messrs. Steele, of Greenock, and Messrs.
Scott, of Greenock. Built of teak planking with iron frames, these
new vessels were made to last, unlike the American ships, whose
life was quite short, built as they were merely out of soft stuff.
The enormous spars which the new British ships were given caused no
little surprise at that time, but they managed to carry them none
the less. The _Great Republic_, launched in the early ’fifties,
was the first vessel to carry double topsails. Owned and built in
America, she was 305 feet long, 53 feet broad, 30 feet deep, and had
a tonnage of 3400. She carried also double t’gallant sails as well
as staysails, and was barque rigged, having 4500 square yards of
canvas. So perfectly was she rigged that she was handled by a crew
of 100. She was chartered by the French Government to carry troops
to the Crimea,[113] had four decks and was strengthened with iron
lattice-work.
But about the year 1853, we enter upon the final and most perfect
stage of the sailing ship. Spurred on by competition and necessity,
builders and architects had been compelled to put forth their best
and to get right away from the old-fashioned ruts. So now wood at
last was to give place to iron as the material for constructing
sailing ships as well as steamers. In this year Messrs. Scott of
Greenock built the iron sailing ship _Lord of the Isles_ which, three
years later, beat two of the American crack clippers, though nearly
double her size, in the race from Foo Choo to London. The adoption
of iron meant a saving of about a third of the weight of the hull;
moreover, as ships became longer, increased structural strength was
found to be lacking in wood.[114] As we saw in the time of Charles
II., English oak had been getting gradually so scarce as to put us
at a serious disadvantage in competition with such a well-wooded
region as North America. The gold rush to California in the ’fifties,
and to Australia, gave a tremendous impetus to shipping. The reader
must recollect that by this time there were no railways across the
American continent, and so when the inhabitants of the Eastern States
of America decided to go west, they could only go _viâ_ Cape Horn.
This was the chance for the clipper ship to show her superiority to
her predecessors, and in these voyages she soon showed that speed
meant money.
But we must come now to the influence which the China tea trade had
on the sailing ship. I understand that tea is a commodity which, as
long as it is kept in a ship’s hold, quickly loses its delicate
flavour and quality. Consequent on this, and the desire on the part
of London merchants to obtain each year the first portion of the new
tea crop at the earliest possible moment, it was to their interest to
encourage a quick passage. Therefore enormous prizes were held out
as an inducement, and the keenest rivalry existed between different
ships in the race home. Solent regattas, the international race from
Dover to Heligoland, even the famous race a few years ago across the
North Atlantic look ridiculous when one thinks of the excitement
that reigned on board during a race all the way from China to the
River Thames. For a long time the American ships had been successful.
Before the introduction of iron such craft as the _Sea Witch_, a
clipper built in 1842, of 907 tons register, and carrying 1100 tons
of China tea,[115] caused tremendous jealousy among the British
skippers. In 1853 the _Challenge_ had sailed from Canton to Deal in
105 days, though in the same year the English _Chrysolite_ clipper
sailed from Canton to Liverpool in 106 days. For a few years the
Americans had the best of the competition; but before the ’fifties
had ended the China trade had been won by British clippers, and the
American Civil War of 1861-1865 dealt a fatal blow to their clippers
as rivals to ours. But none the less those keen races to England
did not diminish. The rivalry which had existed between nation and
nation now continued between ship and ship, between skipper and
skipper, shipowner and shipowner. This led to the finest development
of sailing ships, and as long as the word remains in the English
language, so long will these clipper races remain famous alike for
the skill as for the sporting instinct in the crews that got them
home in record time.
[Illustration: FIG. 73. THE “ARIEL” AND “TAEPING,” TWO OF THE FINEST
TEA-CLIPPERS, RACING HOME, OFF THE LIZARD, ON SEPTEMBER 6, 1866.]
Among the most celebrated ships of the ’sixties were the Black Ball
liners _Flying Cloud_ and _Scomberg_; the Aberdeen clipper liners
_Thermopylæ_, _Thyatera_; whilst among the China clippers were the
_Sir Lancelot_, which was lost in the Bay of Bengal in a cyclone
in 1896, the _Black Adder_ and the _Cutty Sark_. Other famous tea
clippers were the _Ariel_, _Taeping_, _Serica_, _Fiery Cross_ and
_Taitsing_. The first two of these will be found in Fig. 73, in which
they are seen off the Lizard on September 6, 1866. They started
together with _Serica_ from Foo-choo on May 30, and lost sight of
each other till they reached the English Channel. _Taeping_ arrived
in the London Dock (the same day she had passed the Lizard) at 9·45
P.M., while _Ariel_ arrived at the East India Dock at 10·15 P.M., or
with half an hour’s difference after racing for over three months
on end. _Serica_ arrived only a few hours later. In the thrilling
picture before us, these two ships are seen with stun’s’ls and
staysails set. The foretopmast staysail in both ships is stowed
since the foresail with its projecting stun’s’l would otherwise
blanket and render it useless. The improved lines at bow and stern
to which we referred just now are here seen at their best. Two of
the fastest sailing vessels ever built were the _Thermopylæ_ and the
_Sir Lancelot_. The former especially, had a marvellous capacity for
speed. In one day, in the year 1870, she made a run of 330 knots, or
380 statute miles, being an average of 16 miles an hour. The _Sir
Lancelot_, for seven consecutive days, kept up an average of over 300
miles a day. It was the _Thermopylæ_, which in 1869 was the first tea
ship home, having made the passage in 91 days, but the _Sir Lancelot_
presently eclipsed even this wonderful passage in 89 days, being the
fastest clipper ever built.
The _Cutty Sark_ was not as fast as the _Thermopylæ_ and _Sir
Lancelot_, but in 1872, although she had her rudder carried away on
the voyage, she ran home from Shanghai in 122 days. The _Thermopylæ_
was a composite clipper of 947 tons register. She was 210 feet
long by 36 feet beam and 21 feet deep. She was designed by Mr.
Waymouth for Messrs. Thompson & Co. The _Sir Lancelot_ was, like the
_Thermopylæ_, a composite ship, and was built by Messrs. Steel, of
Greenock, for Mr. James McCunn. She was 886 tons register, 197 feet
long, 33 feet 7 inches broad and 21 feet deep. When fully laden with
300 tons of ballast and 1430 tons of tea, she drew 18 feet 7 inches
of water forward and 2 inches more aft. Her complement was 30, and
when in racing trim she spread more than an acre of canvas. Her best
run in twenty-four hours was of 354 miles. The article contributed
recently by Mr. Bullen to the periodical already mentioned set on
foot an interesting correspondence, in which some valuable facts were
brought out by those who had actually served on these clipper-ships.
And since the days of man are but three score years and ten, and
before many more decades have run all those who went to sea in these
magnificent ships will have passed away, I have thought it worth
while to preserve here some of their recollections. The authors
having adopted pseudonyms, I am unable to give their names.
One correspondent states that he remembers to have sailed 368 miles
in one day, and 1000 miles in three days. One ship made a passage
from the Start to the Ridge Lightship (30 miles from the mouth of the
Hooghly) in 86 days. This was the _Northampton_, owned by Messrs.
Soames and Co., of London. But other ships, including Messrs. Green’s
_Alnwick Castle_, did it in 69 days. On September 23, 1863, the
_Hotspur_ arrived at Madras in 79 days.
[Illustration: FIG. 74 THE IRON CLIPPER “STONEHOUSE.” BUILT IN 1866.
_From the model in the South Kensington Museum._]
The illustration in Fig. 74 is taken from a model in the South
Kensington Museum, and represents the iron clipper _Stonehouse_.
It will be noticed she is ship-rigged; she was launched at Pallion
in 1866. She has a full poop and topgallant forecastle, with
considerable accommodation for carrying first-class passengers and
cargo. Her displacement at load line is 2600 tons; her actual tonnage
worked out at 1298; her length 220·5 feet, breadth 37 feet, depth
22·66 feet, and her load draught 19·25 feet. It will be noticed that
she has double topsails, and her lines will give one an adequate idea
of the famous clippers of the ’sixties.
The effect of the opening of the Suez Canal in the year 1870 was
to place most of the trade to the East into steamers, which by now
had become the deadliest enemy of the sailing ship. It would have
been impossible to have carried on the trade in frozen food to-day
in these fine old ships, and sentiment had necessarily to give way
to the exacting dictates of commerce; but for a long time before
1870, and for some time after opening the canal, the traffic to
India, Australia, and New Zealand was carried on in sailing ships,
and the same keen rivalry to make the best passage continued. The
Atlantic emigrant traffic also continued to be carried in sailing
ships; but the ceaseless progress of the big steamship lines, and the
competition which lowered the fares for steerage passengers, drove
still another nail in the sailing ship’s coffin. And yet, in regard
to speed, these ships would sail to the east or the west with a
regularity equal to most modern tramp steamers.
[Illustration: FIG. 75. THE IRON BARQUE “MACQUARIE.” BUILT IN 1875.
_Photo. Hughes & Son, Ltd._]
The beautiful illustration in Fig. 75 is from a photograph of the
celebrated _Macquarie_. She is an iron barque, and was built in
1875 by Messrs. R. & H. Green of London. Her registered tonnage
is 1977, her length 269·8 feet, her beam 40·1 feet, and her depth
23·7. In her day she was a famous beauty, but now she has changed
her name and nationality. Known as the _Fortuna_ she is registered
at Sandefjord and flies the Norwegian flag. The reader will remark
the old-fashioned white band introduced soon after the Battle of
Trafalgar, and mentioned early in the present chapter.
[Illustration: FIG. 76. THE “DESDEMONA.”
REGISTERED TONNAGE, 1564. BUILT 1875.]
The _Desdemona_, seen in Fig. 76, was built in 1875 by Messrs. W.
H. Potter & Co. of Liverpool. Constructed of iron, she is ship-rigged
and has a registered tonnage of 1564, and is British owned. Her
length is 242 feet, beam 37·7 feet, and depth 22·9 feet. As she is
running before the wind, her headsails have been stowed. As the
reader is probably aware, ships usually when “running their easting
down” haul up a point or two, so as to bring the wind on the quarter,
in order that all sails may be allowed to draw and none allowed
to blanket the other. Thus after running a certain distance with
the wind on one side they gybe her and bring the wind on the other
quarter. The photograph was taken recently off Cape Horn.
[Illustration: FIG. 77. THE “OLIVE BANK.”
STEEL FOUR-MASTED BARQUE. REGISTERED TONNAGE, 2824. BUILT IN 1892.
_Photo. J. Adamson & Son, Rothesay._]
[Illustration: FIG. 78. A MODERN FOUR-MASTED BARQUE, WITH THE R.M.S.
“MAURETANIA” COMING UP ASTERN.
_From a painting by Charles Dixon._]
As the largest British sailing ship of the year 1890 we may mention
the _Liverpool_, of 3330 tons register. Ship-rigged and built of iron
with steel beams she was given two decks, whilst her length came to
333·2 feet, breadth 47·9 feet, and depth 26·5 feet. The five-master
_France_, built on the Clyde for a Bordeaux firm in 1890, with the
large tonnage of 3784, must also be mentioned as a famous barque
of the ’nineties. Her length is 344 feet, beam 49 feet, and she
was built of steel throughout, masts and yards as well. So great
a capacity do her holds possess that she is capable of carrying
6100 tons of cargo. Another large French sailing vessel is the
_Dunkerque_, measuring 105 metres long and 13·9 metres wide. Her sail
area is no less than 4550 square metres. The illustration in Fig.
77 is from a photograph of the _Olive Bank_. Here she is seen with
the following sails reading from forward to aft: On the bowsprit she
carries flying jib, outer jib, inner jib, and fore topmast staysail.
On her foremast she has foresail, lower and upper fore-topsails,
lower and upper fore t’gallant sails, and fore royal. On her main
she has mainsail, lower and upper main topsails, lower and upper
main t’gallants and main royal. On her mizzen she has besides her
course, double topsails and double t’gallants, the royal being seen
half furled. On the jigger she carries a driver (or spanker) with
topsail. She is a four-masted barque, and her registered tonnage is
2824. Built in 1892 of steel by Messrs. Mackie & Thomson at Glasgow,
she is 326 feet long, 43 feet broad, 24½ feet deep, and is British
owned. The illustration in Fig. 78 and in colour on the cover is at
once realistic and symbolical, with the four-funnelled _Mauretania_
four miles astern chasing the poor sailing ship from the seas which
for so long a time she has adorned as a creature of infinite beauty
and an eternal joy to those who have eyes to see and emotions to be
thrilled.
[Illustration: FIG. 79. THE “QUEEN MARGARET.”
STEEL FOUR-MASTED BARQUE. REGISTERED TONNAGE, 2144.
BUILT IN 1893.
_Photos. Hughes & Son, Ltd._]
Our last illustration before we say good-bye to the large sailing
ship is the _Queen Margaret_ in Fig. 79. This is a steel, four-masted
barque. She was built in 1893 by Messrs. A. McMillan & Son, Ltd.,
at Dumbarton. Her registered tonnage is 2144, her length 275 feet,
her beam 42·2 feet, and her depth 24 feet. The photograph was taken
only the other day from a passing vessel off Cape Horn. Most modern
sailing ships of any size are now four masters; but, omitting
entirely the large seven-masted schooners of America, there are a
few square-rigged ships with five masts. When that is so they are
named thus, reading from forward to aft: foremast, mainmast, middle,
mizzen, and jigger. It is a circumstance all too true that, owing
to the enormous advance of steam, both seamen and seamanship are
nowadays hard to find in our country. The best deep-sea sailing-men
are the Germans, who own the biggest five-masted sailing ships
afloat. The _Potosi_, for instance, with five masts and belonging
to Hamburg, is one of the very largest sailing ships ever launched.
It is an undeniable fact that this ship has made eleven consecutive
voyages between Hamburg and Peru in the average time of five months
and twenty days, including stay in harbour, making an average rate
of travel while at sea of eleven knots per hour, and it is not
surprising to hear that this now stands as the world’s record
for the deep-sea sailing ship. The largest sailing ship afloat is
also a German five-master, the _Preussen_. Built of steel in 1902 by
Messrs. J. C. Tecklenborg at Geestemünde, she is 407·8 feet long,
53·6 feet broad, and 27·1 feet deep, and is ship-rigged. Between this
ultra-modern craft and that quaint prehistoric specimen we saw from
the Egyptian jar in Fig. 3 what little connection is there, save for
the one solitary fact that both depend on water for their buoyancy
and on wind for their propulsion! For not only has wood disappeared
as the material for ribs and skin, but chain is now used for topsail
sheets and slings. (Slings are used to suspend the lower yards, the
upper yards being sent down when necessary). Spars and masts are made
of steel, wire has taken the place of much of the rope that was used.
Shrouds and stays are of wire, rigging screws are used instead of
lanyards and of dead-eyes. All the brace-pendants except the lower
ones are of wire, even to the royal and skysail braces, so that the
greater part of the rigging of a ship is now done in harbour ashore
by skilled mechanics. The result is that “marlin-spike seamanship”
is fast disappearing and getting under way to join the spritsail,
oak and hemp of other days. Only among the somewhat diverse class of
fishermen, yachtsmen, and the seafaring men from Scandinavia and up
the Baltic, does it survive with any outward signs of life at all.
We have seen the beginning of the bowsprit with its enormous rake to
carry the artemon; we have watched it continue through the Tudors and
Stuarts as practically an additional mast steeved at a considerable
angle. Gradually the angle has got smaller and smaller until now in
the twentieth century in the latest ships, it is much more nearly
horizontal. We saw this spar become divided into two, and later
into three parts—flying jib-boom, jib-boom, and bowsprit. To-day,
though it is made of iron or steel, it has gone back to be of one
piece. We witnessed the introduction of bonnets; they also have
gone except in Norway, Norfolk, and the Thames barge. The studding
sails which Raleigh spoke of are scarcely ever seen, although in the
’sixties they were prominent features of the clippers when getting
every ounce of power out of the ship. No doubt their awkwardness,
and the necessity of having a first-class helmsman to prevent the
ship swerving suddenly off her course, had most to do with their
departure. Convenience, too, in handling so much canvas up the mast
led to the introduction of the topsails and topgallants, being cut
in half and used double, though on the mizzen a single topsail is
frequent. The gradual introduction of skysails during the last
hundred years has continued till they are found often on fore, main,
and mizzen, while the staysails, which were such characteristic
features of the eighteenth century Dutchmen, are now used freely on
most of the stays. Nor has the change been confined to the spars,
sails, and rigging. Some of the Gallic vessels of Cæsar’s time—so
he records—were fitted with iron cables. Then, as the reader knows,
rope came in, and hemp remained for centuries until, roughly, 1800.
The introduction of the chain, then, has been merely a revival. Lead
sheathing was used by the ancients, forgotten for many centuries
until the Spanish restored its use in the fifteenth century, and
the English in the sixteenth. It was forgotten again until the
seventeenth century, when it was introduced afresh. That was another
revival. The Romans used bronze nails, and we have revived those
again. The Greeks invented the schooner bow, as we saw in Fig. 13. It
was forgotten for centuries again and re-introduced, as we saw in the
seal of Dam in Fig. 40. Still another revival. In yachts, the last
few years have seen the introduction of a reefing gear for furling
both mainsail and headsails. The Chinese have had the former for
centuries. Quite lately the fashion has come in to build yachts with
double-ended “canoe” sterns. That, too, is but a revival of the old
Viking shape—roughly. The reader will remember that in the years
following the coming of William the Conqueror the tendency was for
the ship to have terrific sheer, so that instead of being long and
straight she was almost semi-circular. Gradually, century by century,
this absurd sheer has disappeared, though reluctantly, until to-day
the most modern deep-sea sailing ships have practically no sheer
considering their length, as the reader will see from the photographs
of the modern ships in this chapter.
What and where the next revival will be—who knows? Perhaps some day,
when all the coal has been burnt and all the oil extracted from the
ground, both engines and motors will be banished, and a revival of
sailing power will be made. One cannot tell. But as to the immediate
future of the big sailing ship two considerations arise on two widely
different points, each of which demands attention. The first is the
Panama Canal, to be opened in 1915, though this actual date may be
delayed. Will it deal the last and most cruel blow of all by driving
away those fine white-hulled sailing ships one sees sometimes bound
from South America? Like the opening of the Suez Canal, will the
piercing of the Panama Isthmus mean that, by enabling steamships
to shorten their voyage and its cost to South America, Cape Horn
will no longer be rounded by the sailing ship? That is one subject
for consideration. The other is the effect that the installation of
the motor will have. Coasters with auxiliary power are now becoming
common. In the opinion of experts, ocean-going vessels of 700 tons
can be fitted with motors of sufficient power. A three-masted
fore-and-aft schooner was recently built in North Wales for the
coasting trade fitted with an auxiliary motor. The vessel has a
dead-weight carrying capacity of 200 tons, and the experiment has
been found eminently successful. In towing charges and independence
of weather she will be found to be cheaper even than a small steamer.
A company was formed last autumn in London for the purpose of
building barges propelled by paraffin oil motors with auxiliary
sails, and such barges having a capacity of carrying 300 tons of
cargo have been used on the Continent for some years. Time alone,
therefore, can tell whether we have seen the last and final stage of
the sailing ship, or whether we are about to see the dawn of a new
development of her usefulness.
DETAILS OF SPARS AND RIGGING AS SHOWN IN FIG. 80.
1. Bowsprit.
2. Gammoning.
3. Bumkin.
4. Horse.
5. Bob-stay.
6. Martingal.
7. Martingal-stays.
8. Bowsprit-shrouds.
9. Jib-boom.
10. Jib stay, and sail.
11. Jib-halyards.
12. Horses.
13. Spritsail-yard and course.
14. Bowsprit-cap.
15. Jackstaff and flag.
16. Braces.
17. Foremast.
18. Shrouds.
19. Stay and lanyard.
20. Preventer-stay and lanyard.
21. Yard and course with studding-sail booms.
22. Horse.
23. Top.
24. Yard tackles.
25. Lifts.
26. Braces.
27. Sheets.
28. Tack.
29. Bowlines and bridles.
30. Futtock-shrouds.
31. Cap.
32. Fore topmast.
33. Shrouds and lanyards.
34. Yard and sail with studding-sail booms.
35. Stay and sail.
36. Preventer stay.
37. Backstays.
38. Halyards.
39. Lifts.
40. Braces.
41. Horses.
42. Staysail halyards.
43. Bowlines and bridles.
44. Sheets.
45. Crosstrees.
46. Cap.
47. Fore topgallant mast.
48. Shrouds.
49. Yard and Sail.
50. Back stays.
51. Stay.
52. Lifts.
53. Braces.
54. Bowlines and bridles.
55. Royal stay.
56. Back stay.
57. Royal yard and sail.
58. Royal braces.
59. Royal lifts.
60. Flag of the Lord High Admiral.
61. Mainmast.
62. Shrouds and ratlines.
63. Stay.
64. Preventer-stay.
65. Stay-tackles.
66. Yard-tackles.
67. Lifts.
68. Braces.
69. Horse.
70. Sheets.
71. Tack.
72. Bowlines and bridles.
73. Top.
74. Cap.
75. Yard and course with studding-sail booms.
76. Futtock-shrouds.
77. Maintop mast.
78. Shrouds and lanyards.
79. Yard and sail with studding-sail booms.
80. Back stay.
81. Preventer stay.
82. Stay and sail.
83. Halyards.
84. Lifts.
85. Braces.
86. Horse.
87. Sheets.
88. Bowlines and bridles.
89. Crosstrees.
90. Cap.
91. Main topgallant mast.
92. Shrouds.
93. Yard and sail.
94. Backstay.
95. Stay, halyard, and sail.
96. Lifts.
97. Braces.
98. Bowline and bridle.
99. Royal stay.
100. Back stay.
101. Royal yard and sail.
102. Royal braces.
103. Royal lifts.
104. Royal standard.
105. Mizzen mast.
106. Shrouds and ratlines.
107. Cross-jack yard.
108. Stay.
109. Preventer-stay.
110. Cross-jack lifts.
111. ” ” braces.
112. Horse.
113. Top.
114. Cap.
115. Mizzen topmast.
116. Shrouds.
117. Stay.
118. Backstay.
119. Yard and sail.
120. Lifts.
121. Braces.
122. Bowlines and bridles.
123. Crosstrees.
124. Cap.
125. Mizzen topgallant mast.
126. Shrouds.
127. Stay.
128. Backstay.
129. Yard and sail.
130. Bowlines and bridles.
131. Lifts.
132. Braces.
133. Royal yard and sail.
134. Royal lifts.
135. Royal braces.
136. Royal stay.
137. Royal backstays.
138. Union Jack.
139. Driver boom.
140. Boom topping-lift.
141. Boom guy-falls.
142. Gaff and driver.
143. Derrick-fall.
144. Peak-brails.
145. Peak-halyards.
146. Ensign staff.
147. Ensign.
148. Bower cable.
[Illustration: FIG. 80. A FIRST-RATER OF 1815, SHOWING DETAILS OF
SPARS AND RIGGING.]
[Illustration: FIG. 81. FULL-RIGGED SHIP.
1. Flying jib.
2. Outer jib.
3. Inner jib.
4. Fore topmast staysail.
5. Fore-course _or_ foresail.
6. Lower fore topsail.
7. Upper fore topsail.
8. Lower fore topgallant sail.
9. Upper fore topgallant sail.
10. Fore royal.
11. Main course _or_ mainsail.
12. Lower main topsail.
13. Upper main topsail.
14. Lower main topgallant sail.
15. Upper main topgallant sail.
16. Main royal.
17. Cross-jack (_pr._ cro’jack).
18. Lower mizzen topsail.
19. Upper mizzen topsail.
20. Lower mizzen topgallant sail.
21. Upper mizzen topgallant sail.
22. Mizzen royal.
23. Driver _or_ spanker.]