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built until 1631, when, on July 4, the vessel Blessing ' 

 of the Bay was launched at Modford for the use of 

 the Massachusetts colony. GOT. \Vinthrop wished 

 to send vessel to open communications with the 

 Datch at Now York, and for trading with other 

 places. She was used for some time, and then was . 

 probably wrecked. 



The fact that timber was rapidly being exhausted 

 in England was a strong inducement to British mer- 

 cliants to import timber and, later, to build vessels in 

 America, Matthew Craddock located a claim and es- j 

 tablished a ship.yard on the Mystic River. Several i 

 large vessels were built, there and sent to England. 

 The ship-building industry seemed to thrive in Salem 

 from the first, and the village soon became noted for 

 its ship-yards and the vessels bnilt therein. Before 

 1640 the transatlantic trade was mostly carried on in 

 European vessels, but in that year a vessel of 300 

 tons was laid down at Salem for a company, with the 

 Rev. Hugh Peters at its head, and a vessel of 160 

 tons was begun at Boston, both vessels being 

 launched the following year ; and in 1641-42 three 

 vessels were building at Salem, three at Boston, and 

 one at Dorchester. The success of these vessels 

 started a ship-building industry, a number of New ! 

 England towns began to build vessels for foreign ser- 

 vice, and the merchants of Barbudoes, Antigua, and 

 Jamaica sent to New England for their vessels. 



Ship-building was early engaged in by the settlers 

 of Connecticut, and sloops and other small vessels 

 were built along the Connecticut River, especially at 

 New Haven, from the white-oak, chestnut, and pine 

 which abounded in that vicinity. 



The Dutch West India Company encouraged ship- 

 building at the mouth of the Hudson by granting 

 special privileges to take timber from the forests to 

 build ships, though most of the work was done at 

 the ship-yard of the company. After New York 

 passed into the hands of the English, ship-building 

 was continued. In 1669 a vessel of 120 tons was 

 bnilt at New York, and one of 65 tons at Gravesend, 

 L. I. In 1700 there hailed from New York 124 ves- 

 sels of 100 tons and under, and from Boston 194, 

 among them vessels of 300 tons. About this time 

 the shipping of New' York was much injured by the 

 war then waging between France and England, and 

 for many years after the ship-yards only turned out 

 mall sloops, the main ocean carrying being in Eu- 

 ropean bottoms. 



Most of the building during colonial times was 

 done in New England. In 1698 an act was passed 

 providing for the inspection and registry of vessels 

 of 30 tons and upward. The colonial archives in 

 Boston show that of the vessels registered from 1698 

 to 1714, 1332 were American built, 239 of them for 

 foreign owners. 



The vessels of those days, while small, carried largo 

 crews and usually were armed ; thus the ship Rich- 

 ard, of 100 tons, carried 14 men and 12 guns ; the Pru- 

 dent Sarah, 100 tons, 14 men and 10 guns. The 

 magnitude of the ship-building industry just prior to 

 the Revolution can bo understood from the follow- 

 ing : In 1769 the Colonies bnilt and launched 389 ves- 

 sels, 113 square-rigged, and 276 sloops and schoon- 

 ers, of an aggregate burthen of 20,000 tons. Of 

 these Massachusetts provided nearly one half, New 

 Hampshire and Rhode Island the next largest num- 

 ber, while New York had only 5 square-rigged 

 vessels and 14 sloops and schooners. Pennsylvania 

 owned 1344 tons, Virginia 1249 tons, North and 

 South Carolina 1396 tons, Connecticut 1542 tons, 

 and Georgia one sloop and one schooner whose com- 

 bined tonnage was 60 tons. 



In this same year the entrances to the ports of the 

 United States amounted to 332,146 tons, and the 

 clearances to 339,302 tons, of which 99,121 tons 

 cleared for England, 42,601 for Southern Europe.ui 



and African ports, 96,382 for the West Indies, and 

 lo 1,1 '.is for the rest of America. The aggregate 

 value of nil tin- imports was 2,623,412, and of the 

 exports 2,802,441, of which Great Britain sent 

 1,604,975, receiving in return 1,631,516. 



During the revolution the fishing and whaling 

 fleet was nearly annihilated by the British cruisers 

 lying off the coast, and ship-building was suspended. 

 The idle fishing and merchant fleets were employe,! 

 in privateering. The first privateer bnilt was by a 

 Newburyport merchant, and she took 23,360 tons of 

 shipping, and 2225 men, the vessels and cargoes sell- 

 ing for 83,950,000. 



Four frigates and three sloops-of-war were bnilt 

 for Congress, familiarizing our people with the build- 

 ing of largo, powerful vessels, and these were followi d 

 bv large privateers as private ventures of the mer- 

 chants of Philadelphia, New England, and Baltimore. 

 In consequence of this, there were many vessels at 

 the end of the war that were too large for the coast- 

 ing trade, and they entered into competition with 

 the rest of the world, especially for the East Indian 

 trade. The first ship carrying the new flag to enter 

 Canton was a Baltimore vessel, and she sailed t hence 

 with a cargo of teas, china-ware, and silk. In 1788 

 the ship Atlantic, of Salem, displayed the American 

 flag in Snrat, Bombay, and Calcutta. 



When in 1814 peace was declared, after the war of 

 1812, it was at once realized that after so long a 

 stagnation in commerce there would be great profits 

 to those first in the field with ships and cargoes, and 

 | within a few days after the receipt of the news all 

 the idle yards were full of busy workmen, and from 

 this time till 1861 our maritime career was most 

 prosperous. 



Forty years of war had led the American to design 

 ships for speed and handiness, and our builders 

 carefully studied the models and rigs to attain these 

 qualities. Clumsy shapes and looks were discarded, 

 and our vessels were models of beauty and were 

 capable of developing great speed. 



While ships naturally took the shapes best fitted 

 I for their special trades', the tonnage law also had an 

 j effect on them, as the tonnage was computed from the 

 | length and breadth measured on deck, and the dep'th 

 | was taken as one-half the beam. In consequence of 

 this the length and breadth on the upper deck were 

 Kept us Kiiiiill as possible, the bow was lengthened 

 out on deck, and the sides bulged out at the water- 

 line, so that the tonnage, estimated from the deek 

 measurements, was less than the actual tonnage. 

 Itoouiy ships were obtained, but the government did 

 not get its just dues, as ship-builders courted the 

 reputation of building the roomiest ship on the least 

 otlicial tonnage measurement. 



A special class of ships, carrying both freight and 

 passengers, came into existence just after the War of 

 1812, to meet the demand of the great ocean travel 

 then beginning, and to carry the great nnml er of 

 emigrants to America. Such vessels, usually barques 

 and ships, were most luxuriously fitted up, and would 

 carry from 600 to 1000 people and 1000 tons of 

 freight. New York was the centre of the packet 

 business, and the Black Ball line was started by 

 Isaac Wright ,v Co. just after the War, sailing twice 

 every month to Liverpool. This line was soon fol- 

 lowed by others sailing to London and Havre. 

 There was a strong spirit of rivalry among the vari- 

 ous lines, and this led to a study of the principles of 

 ship design and constniction. Our builders not 

 only studied all that was to be learned from foreign 

 books, but conducted experiments with models. 

 The shape of swift fishes was studied, and the be- 

 havior of water and the influence of different dispo- 

 sitions of sails were fully investigated. Such study 

 and experiment placed our ship-builders ahead of 

 others, and our models were copied ;he world over 



