abreast the mainmast and cither the case or the 

 mast, or both, might be off center. Some of these 

 schooners had a short quarterdeck and others a long 

 one extending to the foremast or thereabouts. The 

 second type was a keel model, usually with a hull 

 like that of a down-Easter, in which there was very 

 marked depth and in which the run showed reverse 

 curves in the buttock lines. 



In the lumber and coal trades the 3-masters pro\ed 

 very profitable, and many were built all along the 

 American coasts, Atlantic and Pacific, from the end 

 of the Civil W'ar until the end of the first World ^Var. 

 A few, particularly on the Pacific coast, were fitted 

 with square fore-topsails. By 1885 more schooners 

 were being built in a single year than all other rigs 

 together. The steadily increasing size of 3-masted 

 schooners led to the introduction of the 4-mast rig in 

 1880; the first coasting schooner carrying this rig was 

 the William L. White built at Bath, Maine. In 1888 

 the first 5-master, the Governor Aryies, fitted with a 

 centerboard, was built. In 1900 the first 6-master, 

 the George W. Wells was built, and soon after that a 

 steel 7-master, the Thomas W. Lawson. Because of 

 their cost, only seven steel schooners were built on 

 the Atlantic coast. By 1885 the large coasting schoon- 

 ers were employed almost entirely in the coal trade. 

 Wooden 5-mastecl and 6-masted schooners proved 

 generally unsatisfactory, as they were too long to 

 have longitudinal strength, and were awkward to 

 handle in confined waters. By 1920 the coal schooners 

 had given way to steam colliers; by then the sailing 

 coasting trade was a thing of the past. 



The model developed for the 4-, 5-, and 6-masted 

 schooners became almost standardized except for 

 dimensions. The vessels had a strong sheer and a 

 strongly raking stem rabbet on which was either a 

 plain gammon knee with some carving or a light head 

 fitted with trail boards and, in some cases, with 

 single head rails. The post was nearly vertical and 

 the stern was formed with a short and light counter 

 having a wide elliptical transom. The entrance was 

 sharp, convex, and of moderate length; the run was 

 likewise rather short but often very well formed and 

 as fine as in many of the clipper ships of the 1850's. 

 These big schooners were sometimes fast sailers 

 under favorable conditions, but were too lightly 

 manned to allow them to be sailed hard; in addition 

 their construction was rarely strong enough for such 

 treatment. 



The small 2-masted coasters lingered on in Maine, 

 on the Chesapeake and on the Gulf coast, until well 



into the 2Gth century but the development of the 

 type may be said to have ceased by about 1885, 

 though 2-masted coasters were built as late as 1914. 

 In the last years of the small sailing coasters, vessels 

 built for specific coasting trades were employed in 

 general trade, often far from their place of building 

 and original employment. Thus, schooners built 

 for the stone and brick trades at New York and in 

 Massachusetts ended their days in the Florida or the 

 Maine general coasting trade. 



In the great period of the 2-masted sailing coaster, 

 between 1825 and 1885, many special types were 

 developed. One was the scow schooner. The early 

 history of this vessel type in America is not known; 

 scow sloops were employed from colonial times for 

 river trade and were common on the Maine coast, 

 on the Hudson River, the Gulf coast, at the head of 

 Chesapeake Bay, and on the Great Lakes. As the 

 scows grew in size the schooner rig became popular 

 and a large number of scow schooners were in use 

 by 1870. Most were fitted with centcrboards but a 

 few had leeboards, as had most of the scow sloops. 

 After the Civil War the scow schooner became popular 

 at San Francisco for Bay and river trading. At least 

 one 3-mast scow schooner was built on Long Island 

 Sound. Scow sloops and schooners were used in the 

 Hudson River brick trade and scow sloops were once 

 very common on the New England coast, carrying 

 sand, stone, firewood, and ice. 



The general coastwise schooner trade was in a 

 huge variety of cargoes; lumber, flour, salt, sugar, 

 grain, coal, wood staves and hoops, ice, firewood, 

 salt fish, sand, stone, bricks, lime, hay, farm produce, 

 manufactures, and "notions." Cotton, grain, and 

 other bulk cargoes v\ere often lightered to a loading 

 port by coasting schooners. Livestock was often 

 carried and on the Maine coast schooner loads of 

 sheep \\'ere often carried between the mainland and 

 the islands, which were once used as grazing grounds. 



Coasting packets were once very profitable, and 

 even after steamers had taken over the important runs 

 between large ports, the schooner packet was able to 

 serve the small coastal towns and villages. Some of 

 these packets operated until after the Civil War, by 

 which time the railroads and steamers had reached 

 most of the coastal areas, and highway transport had 

 also developed. The schooner packet, usually built 

 for the purpose or a converted fisherman or coaster 

 with a reputation as a smart sailer, generally was no 

 more than a sharp-ended coaster in model. The rig 

 was that of a coaster, of perhaps greater sail area than 



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