Example of the Extreme Model Baltimore Clipper Schooner of the First Decade of the 19TH Cen- 

 tury, the Nonpareil, built on the Chesapeake in 1801 and taken into the Royal Navy in 1808. Plan was made 

 from a half-model in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England. 



pathy abroad in the Chesapeake region led a few 

 shipbuilders to France, where they took part in the 

 building of French privateers. 



The history of this incident is obscure, but British 

 intelligence and naval reports do indicate that some 

 Americans entered into partnership with French 

 builders and constructed privateers on the Chesa- 

 peake model in France, and that this activity con- 

 tinued until, late in the 1790's, the deteriorating 

 relations between France and the United States 

 which led to the so-called "cjuasi-war" put a stop to 

 the cooperation. In this connection it is worthy of 

 notice that soon after 1794 the Royal Navy began to 

 capture from the French large, flush-decked ship- 

 privateers of an entirely new model suspiciously 

 resembling the Chesapeake schooner hull; nothing 

 like these vessels had been taken from the French in 

 previous wars and the new type gradually disappeared 

 after 1800, to be replaced by ships of the usual and 

 distinctive French hull form. 



Plans of some of the captured French privateer 

 ships of the new model, taken off by the British, 

 show that there was indeed a very inarked similarity 

 between them and the American schooner model. 

 One of the largest of these captured "sharp-model" 

 privateer ships was about 140 feet long, an unusual 

 length for the period. One or two privateer frigates 

 appear to have been built on this model, as well as 

 some large flush-decked ships, and a number of brigs. 

 Most of the schooners used by the French, however, 

 were purchased American-built v'essels, as were a 

 few naval brigs. The British also purchased some 

 post-Revolutionary American schooners and took 



into service many of those captured from the French 

 or condemned in their courts for illegal trading. 

 Plans of these, made by the British Admiralty, have 

 given the most complete record of the development 

 of the type, prior and during the War of 1812. 



An example of a large American-built sharp-model 

 schooner at the beginning of the 19th century is the 

 J\onpareil, built in 1801 on the Chesapeake. This 

 vessel was taken by the British in 1807 or 1808, 

 apparently for illegal trading. Some accounts state 

 she was found at Montevideo when that city was 

 captured by the British, but other official records 

 indicate that she was taken at sea. At any rate, she 

 was taken into the Royal Navy in 1 808 and remained 

 in naval service until 1813, being sold in the Tagus. 

 The Nonpareil was a square-fore-topsail schooner 

 94 feet 1 inch at the rail, 89 feet 6 inches on deck, 

 22 feet 10 inches moulded beain, and drawing 13 feet 

 9 inches aft. The model was sharp in all respects 

 and the vessel was a very fast sailer. 



By 1794 the raised quarterdeck of the earlier Chesa- 

 peake schooners had gone out of fashion and nearly 

 all schooners and brigs were flush decked fore and aft. 

 It was about 1795 that the 3-masted schooner rig 

 appeared in Chesapeake schooners; some of these were 

 sold to the French. These schooners were not very 

 large and were usually of the Norfolk, or Virginia, pilot 

 boat model; the use of the rig appears to result from 

 an effort to increase sail area on a small hull, rather 

 than from the desire for economy in crew require- 

 ments. One such schooner, the Poisson Volant, 78 feet 

 8 inches long on deck, 21 feet 7 inches beam, and 

 7 feet 10 inches depth of hold, was taken from the 



472846—60- 



21 



