96 ALL AFLOAT 



Indiamen were built to last, how was it they 

 only went an average of six times out and six 

 times home before being broken up ? 



Nor was it only in speed that the Yankees 

 were so far ahead. They paid better wages, 

 they gave immeasurably better food, they were 

 smarter to look at and smarter to go, their 

 rigging was tauter, their sails better cut and 

 ever so much flatter on a wind, their cargo 

 more quickly and scientifically stowed, and, 

 most important point of all, their discipline 

 quite excellent. Woe betide the cook or steward 

 whose galley or saloon had a speck of dirt 

 that would make a smudge on the skipper's 

 cleanest cambric handkerchief ! It was the 

 same all through, from stem to stern and keel 

 to truck, from foremast hand to skipper. 

 Aboard the best clippers the system was well- 

 nigh perfect. Each man had found, or had the 

 chance of finding, the position for which he 

 was most fit. The best human combination 

 of head and heart and hand was sure to come 

 to the top. The others would also find their 

 own appropriate levels. But shirkers, growlers, 

 flinchers, and mutineers were given short 

 shrift. The officers were game to the death 

 and never hesitated to use handspikes, fists, or 

 firearms whenever the occasion required it. 



