CATALOGUE OF THE WATERCKAET COLLECTION. 7 



first master. The Magnolia was about 100 tons, and her rig was the 

 idea of Captain Clough."^ The exact date when this vessel was 

 built is not known, but presumbaly she was constructed about 1850. 



As soon as three-masted schooners of considerable size were intro- 

 duced it was found that they could be managed with less men in pro- 

 portion to their carrying capacity than either two-masted schooners 

 or square-rigged vessels. The result was that this rig was readily 

 adopted, and ultimately, as has been said, still larger vessels were 

 built having one or more additional masts. Two-masted and three- 

 masted schooners are numerously represented in the collection of the 

 Museum, which also has illustrations of a four-masted and a five- 

 masted schooner, the latter being at one time the largest seagoing 

 schooner in the world. 



Among the American merchant vessels are two types of special 

 interest, one of which, the so-called " kettle-bottom " vessel, was de- 

 signed with special reference to carrying capacity on a given tonnage, 

 while the other, the " extreme clipper," was produced for the pur- 

 pose of securing the highest possible speed attainable by sailing 

 ships. 



The " kettle-bottom " vessel in its highest development owes its 

 origin primarily to the cotton trade and to the onerous port charges 

 levied on American vessels in foreign countries, particularly in 

 Europe. These taxes were usually assessed at so much a ton, and in 

 order to escape them so far as practicable, under the tonnage rules of 

 measurement for the United States, it became necessary to build ves- 

 sels of a peculiar form so that they would have a maximum of carry- 

 ing capacity on a given tonnage. Therefore, they were made abnor- 

 mally deep with low flat floors, round full bilge, strongly convex 

 ends, and tumble-in top sides. Among the best examples of this style 

 of naval architecture were the bark Sao7ie, built at Bath in 1846, and 

 the brig Palos, built at Newbury, Mass., in 1832. Models of these 

 vessels, as well as photographs of brigs built on the model of the 

 Palofi^ are in the collection. Certain merchants favored this form 

 of vessel to a marked degree, prominent among them being John 

 Gushing, of Newbury, whose fleet of square-rigged brigs, mostly built 

 on the model of the Palos^ attained celebrity not only in the United 

 States but in many other parts of the globe. The fact that one of 

 these vessels, the brig Keying, of less than 300 tons burden, carried 

 a cargo of fully 700 tons of coal from Cardiff, Wales, to Jamaica, 

 British West Indies, indicates the extreme to which this type was 

 carried. It is but just to say, however, that such vessels were very 

 slow and clumsy in handling. Consequently, they were in disfavor 

 with some merchants and particularly with sea captains, who pre- 

 ferred swifter and handier vessels for the general purposes of trade. 



' Gloucester Times, Mar. 9, 1S89. 



