ht enter nor in how many markets he might have to chaffer
before his return. But in time there came to be regular trade routes, over
which ships went and came with almost the regularity of the great
steamships on the Atlantic ferry to-day. Early in the nineteenth century
the movement of both freight and passengers between New York or Boston on
this side and London and Liverpool on the other began to demand regular
sailings on announced days, and so the era of the American packet-ship
began. Then, too, the trade with China grew to such great proportions that
some of the finest fortunes America knew in the days before the "trust
magnate" and the "multimillionaire"--were founded upon it. The
clipper-built ship, designed to bring home the cargoes of tea in season to
catch the early market, was the outcome of this trade. Adventures were
still for the old-time trading captain who wandered about from port to
port with miscellaneous cargoes; but the new aristocracy of the sea trod
the deck of the packets and the clippers. Their ships were built all along
the New England coast; but builders on the shores of Chesapeake Bay soon
began to struggle for preeminence in this style of naval architecture.
Thus, even in the days of wooden ships, the center of the ship-building
industry began to move toward that point where it now seems definitely
located. By 1815 the name "Baltimore clipper" was taken all over the world
to signify the highest type of merchant vessel that man's skill could
design. It was a Baltimore ship which first, in 1785, displayed the
American flag in the Canton River and brought thence the first cargo of
silks and teas. Thereafter, until the decline of American shipping, the
Baltimore clippers led in the Chinese trade. These clippers in model were
the outcome of forty years of effort to evade hostile cruisers,
privateers, and pirates on the lawless seas. To be swift, inconspicuous,
quick in maneuvering, and to offer a small target to the guns of the
enemy, were the fundamental considerations involved in their design. Mr.
Henry Hall, who, as special agent for the United States census, made in
1880 an inquiry into the history of ship-building in the United States,
says in his report:

"A permanent impression has been made upon the form and rig of
American vessels by forty years of war and interference. It was
during that period that the shapes and fashions that prevail
to-day were substantially attained.