144 Book of Steamships 

 Stars and Stripes. Under American law 

 a ship must be built in the States to fly 

 the national flag. A condition was made, 

 however, and it was that two similar 

 vessels must be built in American yards; 

 these came out in 1895, an< ^ were named 

 the St. Louis and the St. Paul, each of 

 11,000 tons, and 2o-knot speed. They 

 were handsome two-funnellers, but did not 

 have the clipper bows of the Cities. On 

 transfer to the American flag the words 

 ' City of " were shorn from the names of 

 all the Inman fleet. 



Under the management of the American 

 line, the Paris, New York, St. Louis, and 

 St. Paul ran a regular weekly service from 

 Southampton for approximately thirty 

 years, though the services were inter- 

 rupted by two wars, that of Spain and 

 America, and the Great War. Even in the 

 latter they were able to keep in service 

 until the United States joined the Allies, 

 then in 1923 all four were sold for break- 

 ing up, and thus ended a very useful and 



