it difficult for them to gather cargoes for foreign 

 trade that was needed to support the colonial econ- 

 omies. Gradually certain ports became developed 

 enoitgh to sustain some foreign trade, either through 

 natural physical advantages or through the existence 

 of certain products, such as tobacco for instance, in 

 the back country. These ports at least as early as 

 1670 began, by means of a coastal trade, to draw 

 upon other coastal areas to build up cargoes for their 

 overseas trade and to supply local users. In the 

 process, regular traders as well as coastal packets 

 developed, so that by the time of the Revolution 

 well designed coasters and packets were in operation. 



The earliest coasters appear to have been ketches (or 

 "catches"), sloops, and large shallops. As has been 

 stated (p. 1 5), there is reason to suppose that the early 

 ketches were in fact primitive schooners, and that the 

 shallops were in this class also, though without head- 

 sails or bowsprit. The sloops seem to have appeared 

 in colonial waters in a well developed state, and some 

 of the early coasting sloops appear to have been rather 

 large vessels for the time; records indicate that as 

 early as 1690 some were about 50 feet on deck. The 

 efforts of the colonial ports to support themselves, 

 after trade with England was halted by the Civil War 

 in Britain, led to the rapid development of a profitable 

 West Indian trade even then operated as part of the 

 coastal trade. This resulted naturally from the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the early American ports, 

 for vessels proceeding to and from the West Indies 

 could readily pick up and set down cargoes in a num- 

 ber of American ports along the way. This close re- 

 lationship was characteristic of the American coastal 

 trade on the eastern seaboard throughout the period 

 of sail. There was in addition to the legal trade, a 

 profitable smuggling trade in the West Indies from 

 colonial times well into the 19th century, and beyond. 



In the colonial p>eriod some river trade also devel- 

 oped, producing for the work, such craft as shoal-draft 

 sloops, shallops, gundalows, and "flats," or scows. 

 Some of these were of sufficient size to make short 

 coasting voyages as well. The sloops and shallops 

 built for use on the James River in Virginia, on the 

 Delaware, on the Hudson, and on some New England 

 rivers included some vessels of this description. A 

 small-craft trade also developed along the coast, par- 

 ticularly on Long Island Sound and on the Chesa- 

 peake. The lack of plans, models, or even pictures, 

 of colonial craft prevent us from knowing very much 

 about them, though they are referred to in some colo- 

 nial records. 



Sloops and schooners predominated, though ships, 

 brigs, and brigantines were also popular in the 18th- 

 century coastal-West Indian trade. The growing im- 

 portance of the lumber trade gradually produced 

 coasting vessels suitable for carrying this merchandise. 

 There appears to have been after 1740 a somewhat 

 rapid increase in the average size of coasting vessels, 

 and this led to an increase in the proportion of schoon- 

 er-rigged vessel employed, as the large sloop required 

 too many hands to work her. After 1825 sloops were 

 limited to river and estuary trade, where the sloop- 

 rigged carrier rcqtiired fewer hands than in coastal 

 waters. In the last quarter of the 18th century and 

 throughout the 19th the most active coastal traders 

 were the inhabitants of New England and of the 

 Chesapeake region, though nearly all the Atlantic 

 coastal ports carried on some coastal trade, particu- 

 larly New York merchants. 



After the Revolution the American coastal trade 

 prospered, constituting a very great part of the total 

 American merchant marine investment; and after the 

 War of 1812 the rapid growth of many port towns and 

 cities, the opening of canals and roads, and the de- 

 velopment of the back country, caused a further ex- 

 pansion in coastal trade. 



The New England trade to the West Indies after 

 1820 was carried on almost entirely by topsail schoon- 

 ers and brigantines. These vessels were usually large 

 carriers and designed to carry lumber, as well as gen- 

 eral cargo. In the period immediately after the end 

 of the Napoleonic War and extending well into the 

 1830's the West Indies and the Gulf of Mexico was in- 

 fested with pirates and freebooters, some masquer- 

 ading as privateersmen out of the rebelling Spanish 

 colonies. For that reason some New England West 

 Indian trading vessels were modified carriers, designed 

 to have a fair turn of speed, and many were also 

 rather heavily armed. The Chesapeake traders used 

 in this trade many small pilot-boat schooners as well 

 as some quite large schooners and brigantines or 

 brigs, all armed. As the British and American navies 

 succeeded in suppressing piracy, armament went out 

 of fashion, though some traders, particularly those 

 smuggling, carried guns until as late as 1855. 



The American West Indian trade extended to man)' 

 of the old Spanish colonics on the mainland along the 

 Gujf of Mexico. 



Cargoes sent to the West Indies were at first salt 

 fish, but they soon came to include flour, building and 

 cooperage materials, farm produce, and manufac- 



38 



