68 



The National Geographic Magazine 



of 436,000 tons, the number of sailing 

 entries thus amounting to 47 per cent 

 of the whole, carrying 43 per cent of 

 the total tonnage. Going north to 

 Portland, however, where the freight 

 traffic (lumber and grain) alone is im- 

 portant, the number of entries is 129, 

 with a total tonnage of 236,000, dis- 

 tributed between 25 steamers and 104 

 sailing ships, the tonnage of these latter 

 amounting to 177,000, or 75 per cent of 

 the whole. 



For the several seaboard districts of 

 the United States the figures for the 

 fiscal year iqoi-'o2 in their entirety are 

 as follows : 



Atlantic : 

 Total . 

 Steam 

 Sail.... 



Gulf: 



Total . 

 Steam 

 Sail.... 



Pacific : 

 Total . 

 Steam 

 Sail.... 



No. of 

 entries. 



Per 

 cent. 



Tonnage. 



11,187 

 7,296 

 3.S91 



100 

 64 

 36 



17,145,000 



15,822 000 



1.323,000 



3.47 s 

 2,34° 

 1,138 



100 



67 



3,956,000 

 3,389,000 



567,000 



3,>64 



100 



3,261,000 



2,909 

 955 



75 

 25 



2,205,000 

 1,056,000 



Per 

 cent. 



100 



92 



8 



100 



86 



14 



100 



68 

 32 



THE PACIFIC THE CRUISING GROUND 

 OF THE MODERN SAILER 



A fact worthy of note is established 

 by a comparison of the figures here 

 given for the Atlantic and the Pacific 

 coasts. On the former the total freight 

 landed in the country from foreign ports 

 by sail amounted to 1,323,000 tons, the 

 number of cargoes being 3,981. The 

 average cargo was thus in the neighbor- 

 hood of 350 tons. On the Pacific coast 

 the freight brought by sail amounted to 

 1,056,000 tons, the cargoes, however, 

 numbering but 955, or on the average 

 about 1,100 tons. In other words, the 

 average tonnage of the sailing vessel on 

 the Atlantic is but one-third of that on 

 the Pacific. The fact is significant as 

 going to show that the latter ocean is at 

 present, and is likely to remain for many 

 years to come, the cruising ground of 

 the modern sailing ship, the growth of 



which during the last two or three dec- 

 ades has been considerable, although not 

 so startling as that of her younger but 

 gigantic sister, the modern steamer. 



FAMOUS AMERICAN CLIPPERS. 



The American clippers which aston- 

 ished the world by their wonderful per- 

 formances in the 50' s — the hlying Cloud, 

 which made the voyage from New York 

 to San Francisco in 84 days; the North- 

 ern Light, which made the return voyage 

 in 77 days ; the Sovereign of the Seas, 

 which left New York Saturday, June 18, 

 and anchored in the harbor of Liverpool 

 July 1, 1 S52, having sailed across the At- 

 lantic in less than 14 days — were not 

 large vessels, as measured by present- 

 day standards, the first two being less 

 than 2,000 tons burthen, the last less 

 than 2,500 tons. Even as late as 1880 

 the list of merchant shipping of the 

 United States mentions but 19 sailing 

 vessels of a tonnage greater than 2,000, 

 while at the present time sailing ships 

 of 3,000 tons and upward are not excep- 

 tional, the limit for the time being hav- 

 ing been reached for for-and-aft rig in 

 the seven-masted steel schooner, Thomas 

 IV. Lawton, 5,008 tons, built at Quincy, 

 Mass., pnd for square rig in the five- 

 masted steel bark Preussen, 5,081 tons, 

 built in 1902 for the Laeisz shipping 

 agency of Hamburg. 



The achievements of this vessel, the 

 largest of her class, in the matter of 

 speed, as also those of her sister ship, 

 the Potosi, have excited much interest, 

 not only as evincing superior construc- 

 tion and masterly handling, but also in 

 view of the support they lend to the 

 belief that the sailing ship has not 

 yet attained those dimensions attended 

 by maximum speed. The most re- 

 markable performance of the Preussen 

 thus far has been the completion of the 

 voyage from the Channel to Iquique, 

 Chile, a distance of 12,000 miles, in 

 57 days — about the time made by the 

 steam freighters engaged in the South 



