that they were building ships for the royal navy. The "Falkland," built at
Portsmouth about 1690, and carrying 54 guns, was the earliest of these,
but after her time corvettes, sloops-of-war, and frigates were launched in
New England yards to fight for the king. It was good preparation for
building those that at a later date should fight against him.

Looking back over the long record of American maritime progress, one
cannot but be impressed with the many and important contributions made by
Americans--native or adopted--to marine architecture. To an American
citizen, John Ericsson, the world owes the screw propeller. Americans sent
the first steamship across the ocean--the "Savannah," in 1819. Americans,
engaged in a fratricidal war, invented the ironclad in the "Monitor" and
the "Merrimac," and, demonstrating the value of iron ships for warfare,
sounded the knell of wooden ships for peaceful trade. An American first
demonstrated the commercial possibilities of the steamboat, and if history
denies to Fulton entire precedence with his "Clermont," in 1807, it may
still be claimed for John Fitch, another American, with his imperfect boat
on the Delaware in 1787. But perhaps none of these inventions had more
homely utility than the New England schooner, which had its birth and its
christening at Gloucester in 1713. The story of its naming is one of the
oldest in our marine folk-lore.

"See how she schoons!" cried a bystander, coining a verb to describe the
swooping slide of the graceful hull down the ways into the placid water.

[Illustration: SCHOONER-RIGGED SHARPIE]

"A schooner let her be!" responded the builder, proud of his handiwork,
and ready to seize the opportunity to confer a novel title upon his novel
creation. Though a combination of old elements, the schooner was in effect
a new design. Barks, ketches, snows, and brigantines carried fore-and-aft
rigs in connection with square sails on either mast, but now for the first
time two masts were rigged fore and aft, and the square sails wholly
discarded. The advantages of the new rig were quickly discovered. Vessels
carrying it were found to sail closer to the wind, were easier to handle
in narrow quarters, and--what in the end proved of prime importance--could
be safely manned by smaller crews. With these advantages the schooner made
its way to the front in the shipping lists. The New England shipyards
began building them, almost to the exclusion of other types. B