Lines of the Large 2-Masted Clipper Schooner Vaquero, built as a packet at Baltimore, Maryland, 1852-53. 

 Until lost at sea, she was employed in the Pacific between San Francisco, Melbourne, and Honolulu. 



were not armed, or they were very lightly armed, for 

 they usually depended upon speed to evade capture. 

 Brigs and brigantines were much favored m the trade 

 and any schooners employed in the trade carried large 

 square sails on the foremast, at least, being usually 

 fore-topsail schooner rigged. The slavers were flush 

 decked, with a low trunk on the deck aft in schooners, 

 brigantines, and brigs. 



Sometime about 1820-25 a few Chesapeake Bay 

 builders went to Cuba to build slavers that were 

 operated under the Spanish flag. Later many of the 

 South American flags were employed by slavers, 

 since these countries permitted slave trading long after 

 England, United States, and the nations having colo- 

 nies in the West Indies had forbidden it. From one 

 of the few slavers taken by or purchased for the British 

 Navy, plans of a topsail schooner were made, and the 

 plans of two brigs and two other schooners also survive. 

 Usually captured slavers were hauled up and cither 

 burned or broken up by the British, to avoid the 

 slavers purchasing them and putting them back into 

 the trade. The American Navy engaged in suppres- 

 sion of the trade but political and economic factors 

 made it less effective in this than the British Navy. 

 The slave trade gradually declined in the first half of 

 the 19th century, but it did not cease entirely in Ameri- 

 can waters until the 1860's. 



During the period of piracy in the West Indies, that 

 occurred after the peace of 1815, freebooters operated 

 from shore establishments on the Cuban and Florida 

 coasts, from which they made destructive forays upon 

 American commerce in the Gulf and in the Caribbean. 

 They preferred small craft for their operations and 

 had a strong preference for Chesapeake pilot-boat 



schooners that they obtained by purchase or capture. 

 These were swift and had the shallow draft required 

 to reach the hideouts the pirates employed. Two such 

 vessels were captured by the British Navy and taken 

 into their service in the 1820's to engage in suppression 

 of West Indian piracy. Copies of the Chesapeake Bay 

 models built in the West Indies were said to be very 

 roughly constructed and inferior to the Chesapeake- 

 built schooners. For many years one of the marks of 

 these West Indian-built schooners was markedly 

 greater rake in the mainmast than the fore; these were 

 known as "Ballahou rigged." 



North Atlantic Packets 



In early colonial times, passenger transportation 

 between England and her colonies was very irregular, 

 since it depended upon the freighting vessels in the 

 colonial trade. From old accounts it is plain that 

 these ships were very unsatisfactory, for they had very 

 primitive accommodations for passengers; they made 

 very irregular runs as their departures depended 

 upon freight requirements. Government officials pre- 

 ferred to travel by men-of-war when that was possible. 

 In 1755 the British established a mail packet service; 

 the vessels employed were almost entirely fast brig- 

 antines of rather small size, and the service was con- 

 trolled and operated by the Post Office. The Revolu- 

 tion put a stop to this service as far as American ports 

 were concerned, but after the war the service was 

 resumed, to be broken off again just before the \Var 

 of 1812 and continued after the war until 1828, when 

 it finally ceased due to the competition of the big 

 trans-Atlantic packets. These mail packets carried no 

 freight; this sharply reduced their usefulness as aids in 



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