The Clipper Bark Race Horse, from a French print in the VVatercraft Collection (USNM 159926). She was 

 built in 1850 by Samuel Hall, at East Boston, Massachusetts, for Boston owners. K medium clipper of small 

 size and a good sailer, her register dimensions were 125' x 30' x 16', 530 tons. {Smithsonian photo 44638-j.) 



over 100 feet on deck were not uncommon. At the 

 end of the century the sailing pilot boat was gradually 

 being replaced in some ports by specially designed 

 steamers. 



When the pilots operated singly, or in siBall groups 

 aboard a pilot-boat schooner, there was much compe- 

 tition and the boats were raced in an efTort to place a 

 pilot aboard an incoming vessel. This produced 

 classes of pUot boats having great speed as well as 

 vessels of marked sea-keeping ability. The pilot-boat 

 schooner soon developed into a remarkably fine class 

 of small vessel approaching a yacht in most require- 

 ments. 



By the middle of the 19th century pilot associations 

 were being formed and competition ceased; each pilot 

 going out in turn and the profits being shared by 

 the association members. This led to a reduction in 

 the number of pilots and pilot boats at each port. 



In the early 19th century these schooners were from 

 about 50 to 65 feet long with long, low, raised quarter- 

 decks, and had a Baltimore-clipper hull form. At 

 Boston a somewhat similar form was developed. In 

 the South Atlantic ports and on the Gulf Coast the 

 modified Chespeake model remained popular until 



after the War of 1812. The pilot boats at Norfolk 

 began to depart from their original model about 1806; 

 the first change was to make the stem nearly upright, 

 thus sharpening the entrance without lengthening 

 the overall hull dimensions. This was copied else- 

 where and, at New York the appearance of pilot-boat 

 schooners changed rapidly after about 1835. Pilot- 

 boat schooners with cutwaters, trails and headraUs, 

 and fitted with a billet head or a small figurehead, 

 began to appear all along the coast. Yet the straight, 

 upright stem, sometimes falling inboard a trifle at the 

 head, became the hallmark of the pilot boats by 1860 

 at New York and, later, at Boston. 



Between 1830 and 1860 the New York pilot boats, 

 and those in some other ports, had the Chesapeake rig 

 in which there was a very large sail area. The rig 

 had two raking masts, supported by only one or nvo 

 shrouds on a side, and a short bowsprit. On these, 

 until about 1845, were set a gaff-mainsail with boom 

 (this was a loose-footed sail secured to the boom only 

 at tack and clew, but later the foot was laced to the 

 boom), and a large gafF-foresail, ha\ing no boom, the 

 clew of which came well abaft the maintnast. A 

 single large jib was set. A main-topmast was carried 



51 



