The Palatka news and advertiser., 1915-07-30

ing more frelgnt Tor Cne Same voH-
mage. From the day when that
startled citizen of New York State
first "saw the Devil going to Albany
in saw-mill" until steam finally con-
quered wind and drove the white
wings from the over-sea lanes OF
trade, much blue water was to slip
under the counters Of Americas state
ly sailing vessels; and her towering
piles of cotton-white canvas would
bear the flag into many countries on
the EXTREMIST edge of the world, and
arouse the admiration and the envy of
every other maritime nation.
1t was a great business, this of our
merchant marine. 1t made fortunes
for those who served it; it enriched
the nation that owned it. Its ships
outstripped all foreign competition,
and were admitted to foreign regis
try. England, soidisant mistress of
the seas, grew jealous; but betrayed
her unwilling admiration by begging
permission to copy the lines of some
of our matchless clippers as they lay
in her dry docks. Our ships were
the pride not only of the seaboard but
of the whole country. Huge sums or
money were bet on the races between
favorites; their captains were popu-
lar heroes. On the sailing days ap-
pointed, the great packets weighed
anchor and "sheeted home," be the
weather what it might, to the cheers
of multitudes crowded on the piers to
see them off.
And the run they made! Take,
| for example, the "Dreadnaught," a
famous ship with an equally famous
captain, Samuel Samuels. In 1853
she sailed from New York to Liver
pool in just thirteen days, eight hours.
Pretty good work for wind alone,
what? Then, how is this-from San
dy Hook to Queenstown, a distance OF
2,7OO miles, in only nine days seven
teen hours! And she rode the rim OF
cyclone nearly the whole way
which might have had something to
do with her record in the case.
But it was in the Far Eastern trade
that the most glamorous epics Of Am
erican maritime supremacy were
written-until the advent of the True
Clipper Era, between 1848 and 1857.
The spell of the East has always laid
hold upon the imaginations of men,
Turing them to its quest Sometimes
it is kind-as it was to our mer-
chant marine in those early days.
The Importance of the tea trade with
China may be said to have begun
with the opening of the Four Ports
in1843. Between that date and 1916
forty-one tea-laden vessels entered
New York harbor alone, with possibly
an equally large, or even larger num-
Der, distributed among other Atlantic
ports. And this was merely the be-
ginning. From 1847 to 1853 more
than $8,000,000 worth of tea alone
was imported to the one city of New
York. In 1849 the British Naviga-
ton Laws were repealed, and Ameri-
can ships were admitted to British
registry Indeed, by the year 1857
all the largest and finest ships sail
ing from England were built in Amer
ica-a testimonial to American
excellence. In an industry which
she had always claimed as her own
peculiar province, that must have
CALLED the proud British maritime
heart unspeakably.
But, for thirty-odd years the Am
erican shipbuilder was not merely an
artisan, he was an artist. In his
heart was The Vision, and in his hands
the skill and cunning by which he
Icrystalized it unto fabrics of beauty
beyond adequate description, and en-
dowed these fabrics withstrength and
capacity, and speed that took hold
on the winds of heaven. Those old
clippers were the very models of
grace-exquisite in line, lean and
hollow as a greyhound at the water
line, tapering to cleaving wedge in
the bows, tining beautifully away to-
ward the stern; with high, raking
masts, the trucks mele dots a hun
dred and tifty-two hundred feet
above the deck, all cobwebbed with
tn" intermesh of intricate rigging.
Lord! but it must have been sight
to thrill the heart, to stand on the
deck of one of these old hookers-the
Flying Cloud" for instance when
she was under full sail; every cloth,
from courses to sky sails, spread TO
the breeze; her deck heeled over at
sharp slant, her bows all a-smother
of cream piling up to the cathead to
leeward; the vast curves of her snowy
canvas sweeping upward dazzling to
where the little sky sails-"kites," as
the sailors used to call them-melted
like white clouds against the blue of
the heavens; all the air vibrant with
the deep harp-like drone of the wind
among her tight-drawn standing rig
ging; hearing the voice of the wind
and the liquid of the severed waves
against her bows; watching the white
yeasty tumble of her wake streaming
far astern, the sunlight making
gorgeous play of prismatic, scintillat-
ing fires along the bursting foam-buo-
bles as they streamed from her coun-
ter.
Speaking of this same "Flying
Cloud" she was some ship! She
was another of Donald McKay's Bos-
ton productions, built for Grinnen,
Minturn & Co.. of New York. She
was, over all, 225 feet long; her ton
mage 1,7S3, and Captain Josiah Cres-
sv, of Marblehead, made maritime
history as her skipper. In 1851 he
took her from New York to San Fran
cisco in eighty-nine days and a few
hours: and on this voyage, after
the Horn, she steered north
and-west under topsails and in one