2 BULLETIN 127, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the forms of vessels employed in commerce and war,' but has also 

 had more or less influence on the handiwork of savage or semicivil- 

 ized races. More remarkable than this, perhaps, is the fact that 

 the savage and half -civilized peoples, through long ages of patient 

 experimentation, have often reached correct conclusions regarding 

 the proper form of boats long before equally satisfactory results 

 were attained by the more highly enlightened nations of the globe. 

 It is worthy of note, in this connection, that the boats and vessels 

 of Egypt, built fully 4,000 years ago, embodied in their construction 

 ideas of form which, after mam" years of the sharpest competition 

 among scientific men during the nineteenth century, were found 

 necessary to produce the swiftest types of sailing vessels. 



The Viking ships exhumed in Norway and the boggy marshes of 

 the Baltic Sea coast of Schleswig, and which are supposed to have 

 been buried from 1,000 to 1,500 years ago, were fabrics that, so far 

 as the adaptation of form to a purpose is concerned, have not been 

 excelled in all the centuries that have passed since they were con- 

 structed. One can only wonder at the intelligence that produced 

 such shapely and symmetrical vessels in a period of the world's 

 history that has been classed as the dark ages. 



But while we may wonder at and admire the creations of early 

 ages of the savage's skill, the fact is impressed upon us that these 

 efforts are only stepping stones; it required the application of 

 scientific knowledge and a combination of the art of the naval 

 constructor with the inventive genius of the creator of a new motive 

 power, the steam engine, to attain that perfection in naval architec- 

 ture which is the marvel of modern times, and has resulted in pro- 

 ducing vessels that realize the poet's dream and literally bid defiance 

 to the elements. 



It has become an axiom in political economy that nations which 

 expect to attain greatness in commerce, or to become powerful in 

 war, must in large measure depend upon the sea for success in these 

 particulars. It is a well-known fact that the remarkable early 

 development of America was primarily due to its sea commerce, 

 which not only carried the flag of the new Republic to the remotest 

 corners of the globe, but enhanced the reputation of its merchants 

 and laid a broad foundation for intercourse and trade which has 

 proved of an inestimable advantage to the Nation. In the early 

 history of the country, builders of fishing boats became in time the 

 builders of clipper ships which were without a rival on the seas, 

 while the masters of fishing smacks often became the captains and 

 navigators of stately ships which voyaged to the most distant lands. 



It is therefore fitting that in the United States National Museum 

 there should be a tangible record of the development of naval archi- 



