288 : The Atlantic 



Another center of development was in Baltimore and other ports 

 on the Chesapeake. The ships developed in this area had sharp bows, 

 a smooth entry and generally fast and graceful lines. They set value 

 on speed rather than cargo-carrying capacity and acquired the name 

 of Baltimore Clippers. 



The schooner rig was one of a number of rigs employed on this 

 hull form. Vessels of this type were widely used during the Revolu- 

 tion as privateers or letters of marque and also as blockade runners. 

 After the War of 1812 they were developed for a variety of uses one 

 of which, as we have already seen, was in the slave trade. They had a 

 long life; in fact the type has never really disappeared. 



When the slave trade was disrupted this type of schooner, with 

 some modifications, was widely used as a vessel for pilots, as a ship 

 for the revenue service and in other special employments. Chappelle 

 points out that these schooners appear finally to have emerged as the 

 pattern for the schooners built in New England and employed in the 

 fisheries on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. These vessels have 

 become famous not only for their quaUties of utility and seaworthi- 

 ness but also for their trim yachtlike lines, their ability to beat to 

 windward and their great turn of speed under sail. 



A special and somewhat extreme development of the characteristic 

 American schooner was embodied in the famous yacht America. 

 George Steers, who designed the vessel, somewhat exaggerated the 

 principles that were already embodied in the hull of fast American 

 schooners, but she was still recognizable as a variant of this type 

 rather than as a completely independent creation. By the standards 

 of her time, or of any time, her sail plan was extreme, involving very 

 large sail areas in the mainsail and the jib. The masts were set so as 

 to give them a very decided rake. The great length of the main 

 boom was balanced by an extremely long bowsprit. 



In 1 85 1 the America sailed from Sandy Hook to Havre in twenty- 

 one days. During that season she outsailed most of the English 

 yachts and captured the king of England's cup in a match race 

 around the Isle of Wight. European seamen were already familiar 

 with the superior speed of American packets and clippers. The Amer- 

 ica demonstrated this superiority in a new and unsuspected field. 



That season's sport not only initiated the custom of international 

 yacht racing which has persisted from then until recent times, but 

 also set the conditions under which such races were to be carried 

 out. It can be reasonably argued that these conditions, notably the 



