CATALOGUE OF THE WATERCEAFT COLLECTIOlSr. 27 



The second great event in the history of the American fishing fleet 

 was the change from blunt to clipper schooners. It is claimed by 

 some authorities that the changes made in the models of our fishing 

 vessels was the source from which sprang the famous American 

 clipper ships which at one period made our merchant marine so 

 justly celebrated, both for its vessels and the superior seamanship of 

 their officers and crews. 



The requirements of the mackerel fishery and of the oyster trade 

 made swift sailing vessels a necessity, and about 1845 ambitious 

 builders began to make some changes. It was not, however, until 

 1847 that the first really sharp vessel, the Romp^ was built, and it 

 is a matter of record that men were at first afraid to go on her, 

 though when once tried she was found to be an excellent sea boat. 

 Subsequently she made the passage around Cape Horn to California. 

 About this time, too, clipper schooners built at Baltimore, of the 

 type ordinarily called^ " Bay boats," were introduced in the New 

 England mackerel fishery; but these, while generally swift in light 

 winds and smooth water, were mostly too shallow for rough Atlantic 

 weather, and were soon discarded in favor of home-built vessels that 

 were more seaworthy. 



Many experiments were tried in building clipper fishing schoon- 

 ers, and it may not be considered remarkable that some of them 

 proved very unsafe and unsatisfactory. At first the vessels were 

 generally very sharp on the floor, with a heavy drag; narrow, deep 

 stern; more or less strongly flaring bow; the entrance convex and 

 only moderatel}^ sharp, the bow being about two-fifths the vessel's 

 length, while the after underwater lines were much easier. It was 

 a sort of combination of the Baltimore type and the New York pilot 

 boat. 



After considerable experimentation a beamy, wide-sterned, sharp, 

 and rather shallow type of schooner was generally adopted. Un- 

 fortunately, however, in the effort to attain a high rate of speed 

 and large initial stability, so that much sail could be carried with 

 a comparatively small amount of ballast, a vessel was produced 

 which, though it seemed to have certain advantages, was, never- 

 theless, unsafe to a dangerous degree. Consequently, though fish- 

 ing schooners increased in size and should have proved more sea- 

 worthy, the ratio of loss by foundering at sea was, notwithstanding, 

 friffhtfullv larger than ever before. A fearful source of disaster 

 was the liability of schooners of that type to capsize or be tripped 

 by a heavy sea and their inability to right again, owing to the 

 lack of a low center of gravity and an unusual length and weight 

 of spars. 



