famously efficient and notoriously cruel. It was not until long
after American sailors had ceased to exist that adequate legislation was
enacted to provide that they should be treated as human beings afloat
and ashore. Other days and other customs! It is perhaps unkind to judge
these vanished master-mariners too harshly, for we cannot comprehend the
crises which continually beset them in their command.

No more extreme clipper ships were built after 1854. The California
frenzy had subsided and speed in carrying merchandise was no longer
so essential; besides, the passenger traffic was seeking the Isthmian
route. What were called medium clippers enjoyed a profitable trade
for many years later, and one of them, the Andrew Jackson, was never
outsailed for the record from New York to San Francisco. This splendid
type of ship was to be found on every sea, for the United States was
still a commanding factor in the maritime activities of South America,
India, China, Europe, and Australia. In 1851 its merchant tonnage
rivaled that of England and was everywhere competing with it.

The effects of the financial panic of 1857 and the aftermath of business
depression were particularly disastrous to American ships. Freights were
so low as to yield no profit, and the finest clippers went begging for
charters. The yards ceased to launch new tonnage. British builders had
made such rapid progress in design and construction that the days of
Yankee preference in the China trade had passed. The Stars and Stripes
floated over ships waiting idle in Manila Bay, at Shanghai, Hong-Kong,
and Calcutta. The tide of commerce had slackened abroad as well as at
home and the surplus of deep-water tonnage was world-wide.

In earlier generations afloat, the American spirit had displayed amazing
recuperative powers. The havoc of the Revolution had been unable to
check it, and its vigor and aggressive enterprise had never been
more notable than after the blows dealt by the Embargo, the French
Spoliations, and the War of 1812. The conditions of trade and the temper
of the people were now so changed that this mighty industry, aforetime
so robust and resilient, was unable to recover from such shocks as the
panic of 1857 and the Civil War. Yet it had previously survived and
triumphed over calamities far more severe. The destruction wrought by
Confederate cruisers was trifling compared with the work of the British
and French privateers when the nation was very