French. She was of the regular i)ilot boat model 

 but her rails had been raised to form bulwarks and 

 the vessel had been fitted to carry 10 guns. Plans 

 were made of the schooner, and from these six dupli- 

 cates were built at Bermuda, by contract in 1808, for 

 the British Navy. 



Reversing the process that had taken place in 

 colonial times; when the Chesapeake Bay builders 

 had copied the Bermuda sloop; in the last years of 

 the 18th century and early years of the 19th, Bermuda 

 builders copied the American schooners and pro- 

 duced a modification that was called the "Bermudian 

 schooner." It was somewhat like the Chesapeake 

 pilot boat, but was usually fitted with a long, low 

 quarterdeck and without high bulwarks. As a result 

 of the building of the 3-masted schooners in 1808, 

 perhaps, the Bermudians also adopted the 3-masted 

 rig and built schooners of this masting; soon some of 

 these were fitted with three leg-of-mutton sails 

 instead of the gaff sails of the American schooner 

 and the new 3-masted Bermudian schooner type 

 became noted for its speed. 



When the U. S. Navy was established in the 1790's, 

 two sharp-model schooners were obtained, the Enter- 

 prise and Experiment. These were followed by a few 

 other schooners, though the rig was never very popular 

 with American naval officers. The U. S. Revenue 

 Service was also equipped with sharp-model schoon- 

 ers, although the vessels, following British usage, were 

 always called "cutters." It may be mentioned in 

 passing that the British Revenue Service employed 

 two American-built sharp-model schooners in the 

 period between 1790 and 1820, and of twelve large 

 schooners in the Royal Navy in 1808, all but three 

 were American-built. 



There was only a moderate change in the design of 

 the Chesapeake schooner between 1800 and 1812. 

 The average size of seagoing schooners increased 

 somewhat and the sheer of the vessels gradually be- 

 came somewhat straighter. Extremes in sharpness 

 had been reached by 1806 and radical designs were 

 quite common in this respect long before the beginning 

 of the War of 1812. When the war began, the Chesa- 

 peake Bay builders were soon forced to recognize that 

 small privateers were not wholly effective and they 

 began to build some schooners and brigantines of 

 over 100 feet length on deck; the largest built on the 

 Bay during the war were 115 to 116 feet on deck; 

 perhaps 120 feet at the rail. Although many of these 

 large vessels were built as schooners, most of them 

 were soon rerigged as brigantines or brigs. As was 



learned later with regard to New England coasting 

 and fishing schooners, 2-masted schooners above 120 

 feet in length required a large crew and hence were 

 not economical in trading. The majority of the noted 

 privateer schooners of the War of 1812 ranged from 

 90 to 100 feet in length. Many of the larger priva- 

 teers, such as the General Armstrong and Prince de 

 Neujchatel, were built in New York. 



Until shortly after the War of 1812, the Chesapeake 

 model schooner was usually described as being "pilot- 

 boat construction," or "Virginia model," or "pilot- 

 boat model"; during the war "Baltimore built" or 

 "Baltimore model," was sometimes employed. Other 

 names were "sharp model" and "Chesapeake model." 

 The name "Baltimore clipper" became popular in 

 the 1820's and remained in use from then on. 



By 1815 the use of the Chesapeake hull form had 

 spread all along the coast, and schooners and brigs of 

 "pilot-boat construction" had been built at New 

 Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, Norfolk. Philadel- 

 phia, New York, and in New England from Con- 

 necticut to Maine. The New England-built vessels 

 varied from the others, as a rule, in having less rake 

 in the ends. Like the old Marblehead schooners, the 

 New England-built privateers of 1812-15 were more 

 burdensome than their southern sisters. At the end 

 of the war, and for some years after, the fastest sailer 

 in the American Navy was the brig Spark, a vessel 

 built at Sag Harbor, on Long Island, New York, as 

 a privateer, on a model brought from the Chesapeake. 

 Pilot boats all along the coast were very similar in 

 form, if not in appearance, to those at Norfolk and 

 Baltimore, and the most common length was 50 to 

 60 feet on deck. 



During the War of 1812 Baltimore shipowners had 

 carried the bulk of the small American seaborne 

 trade simply because they had a large number of 

 small, swift vessels suited to running the blockade 

 and avoiding enemy cruisers. The trade was very 

 profitable, and at the end of the war Maryland ship- 

 owners would have liked to retain their advantageous 

 position. Some ex-privateers were put into peace- 

 time trade; the famous ex-schooner-brigantine Chas- 

 seur, for example, went into the China trade where 

 she almost immediately set a record for the run that 

 stood for many years, being finally broken by a much 

 larger vessel. 



It was soon found, however, that the sharp and often 

 very deep ex-privateer was not very profitable in 

 trade. The Chesapeake builders were soon under 

 pressure to produce a good, small, trading vessel. 



22 



