concern as it is
probably true that the models of coastal and transatlantic packet
ships were quite similar at the period of the _Savannah_. This
statement is supported by the plan of a coastal packet built seven
years after the _Savannah_.

The hull-type of these early packets can be established. While no
half-models or plans of packets built before 1832 could be found,
offset tables of a Philadelphia-New Orleans packet of 1824-1825 were
obtained through the courtesy of William Salisbury, an English marine
historian who had been studying the British mail packets. These offset
tables had been sent from Washington on March 25, 1831, by John
Lenthall, U.S. naval constructor, to William Morgan and Augustin
Creuze, London editors, for publication.[18] The offset tables were
for a packet ship 103 feet between the perpendiculars of the builder
(rather than between those of the customhouse) and 27 feet moulded
beam. An examination of the files on American packet vessels in the
collection of Carl C. Cutler, curator emeritus of the Mystic Marine
Museum, showed with certainty that the offsets were for the _Ohio_,
built at Philadelphia late in 1825. The drawings of this ship (fig. 5)
were made from the offset tables and from other measurements; minor
details are from portraits of packet ships, particularly of the first
_New York_ (1822-1834) of the Black Ball Line.

[Illustration: Figure 5.--Lines of the coastal packet ship _Ohio_,
built at Philadelphia in 1825 for the Philadelphia-New Orleans run.
The _Ohio_ represents the general type of early American packet
ships.]

The _Ohio_ was two-decked, with the upper deck flush. She had rather
straight sheer, 27-inch bulwarks, a moderately full but easy entrance,
a fine, long run, and little drag to the keel. The midsection was
formed with moderately short and rising floor, round and easy bilge,
and some tumble-home in the topside. The stem raked a good deal for a
ship-rigged vessel; the post raked slightly. There was a distance of 6
feet between upper and lower deck planks. The stern was of the square
transom, round tuck form, as mentioned in the _Savannah's_ register.
Lenthall reported the _Ohio_ to have been a good sailer and to have
had other desirable qualities. She was registered as being of 351.86
tons burthen, 105.5 feet between perpendiculars, and 27.4 feet in
extreme beam. She was, therefore, about 7 feet longer and about 2
feet 3 inches wider than the _Savannah_. The plan