New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-08-06
Z nrnR1GAM sIHIpPING.

Il
$3.50
Precise statistics concerning our early American
1 shppins We have not at hand They can be found
in he volumes Of the Massachusetts, Historical So
eiety an Institution that has contributed much TO-
wards collecting and preserving the important facts
attendant upon the early growth and development Of
matters connected with our national infancy.
The first craft of any size launched in the Pro-
vince IF Massachusetts, Twas twomasted, naval
rugged vessel which, when fairly under way, ploWed
the waters SO eetly as to elicit from an admring be
holder tie exclamation, 4 Goodness gracious! how
ale sknes and ever since, that style of craft has
been called a schooner.
| Advancing in their calling, the people Of those
States whose shores are washed by the Atlantic /;
whose fields are shaded by oaks as tough as any on
Dodona and their hill tops crowned with pines as
beautiful as those OF Mount Ida have been building
greater and still greater Behemoths of the deep and
leading them with the products Of oursoil cereals,
manufactures and raw materials Of every kind, for
other nations, ito whom nature has been more Mig
gardy, to work up into articles Of use and luxury
The calling, like all callings when well improved,
has been productive Of profit and power; 50 that
now, hardly two hundred years from when the pine
tree flag was first nnfured its starry successor circles
the globe and annts in every breeze that sweeps I'M
/ der any constellation Of either hemisphere. From
the odd little craft that skHed along, we have in
creased our vessels until we have surpassed and e&-
celled the maritime Importance Of nations that were
old before we were Young
Statistics which demonstrate these facts are easily
attanabe. There is scarce ocean disaster reported
without the addenda, passenger taken off Amerl,
can ship \ or wreck noted, unless accompanied
4 with tseen in lat. 80, Ion. By American ship -'
If there IS discovery made Of guano islands, in
some terra ncognita, by FL. B. NJ. subjects they no
sooner land to raise the cross of ST. George, than
they see thirty or forty industrious Yankees loading
the q Sally Ann, of Marblehead,' on the opposite
beach and if discovery ship is lost exploring the
North sea, lin all probability is found and towed
back to civilization by some returning Whaler, fitted
out at Nantucket
This spirit of daring and well conducted enterprise
\ has had its natural conquests-for enterprise, like
animals grows from what it feeds upon, if the food
i be nutritious. 1t has been SO with our commerce,
until no star is too remote for guide, no wind too
strange for motor, waters too distant to be sup
port nor no port SO wild as not to be haven to the
| peaceful cruisers Of American commerce. Every
branch Of commerce, from that which is comprised
within the g raging canals, to that which circles
the globe, is improved and increased.
The highways and byways of the world have been
ransacked, and continue to be- When the voyages
are long, and years must be spent in their successful
prosecution great clippers clothed with white wings
Of duck from the mansail to the skWscrapers, and
endless continuity of bs and every other conceivable
cut Of canvass that will save puff of wind depart to
return only after long future, when they shall have
been tried by the wrath of Neptune and Eolus, and
despite both have gathered up profits for their
turesoe owners 1t is this enterprise and this daring,
founded on well understood laws and conducted in
accordance with sound theories and practice that has
made us the sovereigns Of the seas.
The last official publication we have seen, placed
American. tonnage at five millions four hundred
thousand tons Ia great figure and surprising that of
England, whose commercial marine is stated at five
million two hundred thousand tons-or two hundred
thousand than of ours. the
mage of the different vessels rated ut one thousand
ringing as they do from hundreds to thousands
we should have fleet Of five thousand four hundred
vessels Of a thousand tons each Ifthis tonnage is
figured in clippers Of two hundred tons each, and the
vessels were placed on an equatorial line about the
globe, each skipper might speak to the one before
and the one behind him. around the GLOBE by raising
his voice little above the nautical pitch! This, we
premaey, but for general comprehension, we submit
that superior to either the British styles
Of measurement. To follow it out we might give the
number of vessels and voyages and the tonnage of
each vessel that would be necessary to transport
Great Britain bodily into this zoneto make a solid
highway from here to Nicaragua; how long a time it
would require, and how many river and lake steamers
we should be able to send down for the purpose of fill
ling in the crevices The figures are vast enough,
however, in their outline, and require no additions
to prove that our national maritime pride is well
| grounded.
Thus we grow in development and in increased
rank among the nations Of the earth spreading in
the circles Of prosperity faster and further until
there will be left to our successors only the problems
of direct communication through the globes diam
ter, or jacobs ladder, to the skies The cry is on
ward, and the advance which accompanies its pro,
gress is making all old philosophy appear foolish
as nursery tales.
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