POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL 35 



and Katy,' without any papers, she hav- 

 ing escaped from the embargo. You could 

 charter her for Lisbon or Oporto for $5500. 

 Some persons ask as high as five dollars 

 a ton for ships to America. There are only 

 ten Americans here." 1 Mr. Lloyd of Massa- 

 chusetts in a speech 2 on the embargo stated 

 that two dollars a ton a month was a fair 

 price to pay in ordinary good times. Tak- 

 ing this as a basis, the "Eliza and Katy" 

 would have earned under ordinary con- 

 ditions some twenty-five hundred dollars 

 a year. A voyage to Lisbon, even if the 

 charter included a return trip, would not 

 have taken three months, so that the vessel 

 would have earned nine times the usual rate. 

 Much stress was laid by the supporters 

 of the embargo in Congress on the attitude 

 of Mr. William Gray, the great ship-owner 



1 One year before the Naval Chronicle for 1807, p. 86, 

 states : " As a proof of the extensive carrying of the Ameri- 

 cans, in the Liverpool papers there are 93 vessels adver- 

 tised for freight, of which 77 are Americans." 



2 Speech of Mr. Lloyd in the United States Senate, 

 Nov. 25, 1808. 



