Smiih & DiMuN Shii'Vard, .\l\v York, About 1831, From a Contemporary Painting. This firm was then a 

 leading builder of packet ships, '.nd later built Rainbow, Sea Jl'ik/i and other famous clipper ships. A treadmill 

 can be seen at the e.xtreme left and a steam bo.x at the e.Ntreine right. (Smilhsoman photo 32^1^-0.) 



The building of packets centered at New York; out 

 of a total of 185 ocean packets, listed by Albion in 

 Square-riggers on Schedule, 160 were New York built; 

 of 116 ship-rigged coastal packets, 78 were New York 

 built. Only one ocean packet was built at the former 

 center of improved shipbtiilding, Baltimore. New 

 England's contribution was but 24 ocean and 37 

 coastal packets. 



It was the fierce cotnpetitioti in packet-ship con- 

 struction among New York builders that had led 

 these shipbuilders to search for scientific information 

 on the design of hulls, and caused them to import 

 English books on the subject and to study and discuss 

 the problem in print. The first American book on 

 naval architecture, published at New York in 1839, 

 was The Practical Shipbuilder by L. M'Kay, older 

 brother of Donald McKay, who was to become 

 prominent at Boston in the 1850's as a builder of 

 clipper ships. Later the Nautical Magazine, published 

 at New York, and the works on naval architecture 

 and shipbuilding of John Willis Griffiths appeared. 

 The mechanics' societies had lectures on the subject 

 at their athenaeums and the title "mechanic" was 

 proudly claimed by master shipwright and carpenter 

 alike. Consequently, in the latter part of the packet- 



ship period, 1820 to 1850, when the great development 

 of the type took place. New York had become a cen- 

 ter of advanced merchant ship-design, and although 

 Baltimore retained a reputation for turning out swift 

 sailers, at least in small vessels, the palm for "scientific 

 ship-design" rested in New York. 



Not until the 1850"s did New England bid for 

 supremacy in this respect. The careful preservation 

 of shipbuilding records in New England and the 

 relative neglect of this in other sections have given a 

 somewhat false concept of the national importance 

 and the actual advance of shipbuilding in New 

 England during the first half of the 19th century. 

 Though shipbuilding was very active in this period 

 throughout the New England States, there was very 

 little evidence of progressive design, particularly in 

 regards to very fast or large ships. 



After 1850, steamships gave the sailing packets 

 increasingly strong competition and gradually took 

 over the trans-Atlantic runs and the long coastal runs, 

 the sailing vessels first losing the cabin passengers 

 and then the valuable freight, such as specie and 

 perishable goods. One by one the packet lines ceased 

 operation, and the last sailing packets were reduced 

 to the immigrant trade. The end finallv came in the 



4 72S46 — 60- 



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