rushes for water, dives to the bottom and endeavors to hide among the stones. It is defenseless and harmless, and its flesh, which is white and tender, is much liked by the islanders. Sail. See SHIP.

Sailcloth, a coarse, strong linen, cotton or hempen cloth used in making sails. The best is made of flax, and combines flexibility with lightness and strength. See SHIP.

Sailfish, a large predaceous fish (Istiophorus nigricans) of the West Indian and neighboring waters, which is closely allied to the sword-fishes and of the same family as the spear-fishes (Tetrapturus). It reaches a length of six feet, has an elongated, much compressed body, covered with elongate scutes, and a powerful, deeply forked tail; while the dorsal fin is, relatively, of huge size and deeply notched outline, well simulating the appearance of a ship under sail as it appears above the water when the fish glides along the surface as it frequently does. The bones of the nose are prolonged into a "sword," not so long as that of the swordfish, but sharper, and an effective weapon in a school of small fish.

Sailing. See NAVIGATION; SHIPS; SAIL AND

STEAM.

Sailing Vessels. The first vessel of which history gives any description is the Ark, as built by Noah. Its proportions possess some interest, because, though not intended for a voyage, it may be inferred that it was constructed to float with as little motion as possible, considering that it "went upon the face of the waters" for about five months. Assuming a cubit to be about 21 inches, its length was 525 feet, its breadth 87 feet 6 inches, and its depth 52 feet 6 inches. Its length is thus seen to have been six times its breadth, which proportion is about an average of all types of vessels.. Its draft of water must have varied greatly during the period of its occupation, as 12 months' provisions must have formed a very large proportion of the original weight, and these must have been gradually consumed. It had three decks; but was fitted with neither masts, sails, nor rudder.

Ancient History.- The paintings and sculptures, as the early records of Egypt, show regularly formed boats constructed of sawn planks of timber, propelled by numerous rowers, and also by sails. These vessels were long galleys with one mast and a large square sail, which was sometimes of linen and sometimes of papyrus. The Hebrews in the time of Solomon must have possessed vessels of considerable size, as mention is made in the sacred writings of that date of stately ships, and of voyages made to bring trees of considerable size to be used in the building of the temple. The Phoenicians were connected with the Hebrews in their maritime expeditions, and this people appear to have been the most enterprising in navigation of all the nations of antiquity. Herodotus tells us of their feat of circumnavigating the continent of Africa in 604 B.C. They started from the Red Sea, passing Ophir on east coast of Africa, then rounded the Cape, and keeping by the west shore they entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Straits of Gibraltar, and arrived in Egypt in the third

year of their expedition. Little doubt exists of the Phoenicians having been the discoverers of the art of sailing, as their skill in evading Nebuchadnezzer at the siege of Tyre for 13 years, shows that they possessed more than a superficial knowledge of navigation. They were also engaged in concert with other nations in wars with the Greeks: and it was from them the latter nation learned in their conflicts what they knew of ships and navigation. The fact of the Grecian mariners making use of the sels' holds, would lead to the conclusion that screw pump to discharge water from their vestheir vessels were no mere sloops. An evidence of the want of strength in the construction of these ancient vessels, is the fact of their being bound around the outside with heavy ropes. They were sometimes carried as part of the vessel's outfit, and used as necessity required. Out at sea and in heavy weather, there they were made use of. There were sometimes as many as 8 or 10 bands running fore and aft of the vessel.

Roman Galleys.-The Romans in the early stage of their history paid little attention to navigation, until it was forced upon them by the necessity of competing with their rivals, the Carthaginians. The galleys of this period ranged from a single bank up to five banks of oars. The oars in these large galleys were arranged in sets or banks, the number of these could be increased to any extent by giving increased length to the galley. The trireme, or three-bank galley, appears to have been generally open, in the waist where the rowers sat, with decks or platforms at both ends for the soldiers. The galleys of greater size than the three tiers, appear to have been always decked vessels. At the time of the first Punic war the Roman fleet is said to have consisted of 330 vessels, each containing 300 rowers and 120 soldiers. The triremes were each 105 feet long and I feet wide, and the quadriremes were 125 feet by 13 feet.

Merchant Ships.- It is generally supposed that ships intended only for merchant purposes were first built by the Genoese, and that not until the beginning of the 14th century were sails first used by that people. The fishing boats were the small beginning from which sprang the sailers and the larger sail vessels of a later period. In England, as early as 1344, many vessels of this character were in service. In the middle of the 15th century many large vessels were built in England. Prior to this the compass had come into more general use, and it was now possible to engage in longer voyages. The discovery of America and the passage around the Cape of Good Hope were early fruits of these improvements. The Portuguese employed vessels of small size in their voyages of discovery, but the Spaniards built larger vessels and long maintained a superiority in this respect. England was far behind the Peninsular nations in commercial enterprise at the opening of the 16th century; and at the close of the century the merchant marine was in a very depressed condition. Internal discords had put a damper on the enterprise of the merchants, and as the island was not yet famed for its manufactures, commerce drooped with every disaster to trade. The Dutch had monop

olized the East Indies trade and Holland bid fair to enrich herself at the expense of her neighbor. The British East Indies Company was formed, vessels built for the trade, and the merchants again prospered. (See SHIP.)

The First American Ships.- This continent having been fitted by nature in supplying it with an abundance of good timber, vessels have been built upon our shores from the first year of actual settlement. The first ship constructed was for the purpose of carrying a small band of settlers back to England, who were discouraged with their prospects after the first winter. The vessel was built at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. It was a staunch and excellent little vessel, a two-master, named Virginia. She is believed to have been about 60 feet long and 17 feet beam and 101⁄2 feet deep. The next vessel built was at New York in 1614 or 1615 by Captain Adrien Blok, who had lost his ship Tiger by fire while lying at Manhattan River. His new vessel was named Onrust, or Restless, and was 38 feet keel, 44% feet long over all, and II feet beam. This vessel was employed for several years in exploring the Atlantic coast from the 38th to the 42d degree of latitude. Block Island was visited during one of the excursions, and took its name from Adrien Blok. With the exception of fishing boats and shallops, there is no record of the construction of any other boats until 1631. In that year the bark Blessing of the Bay was launched at Medford, Mass., for the use of the Massachusetts colony. In the course of the season this vessel made several coasting trips, and soon after visited Manhattan Island and Long Island. It is thought the vessel was lost with a load of furs and fish in 1633 off the capes of Virginia.

Early Shipbuilding.- Shipbuilding at this time appears to have received its first impulse from the same cause which threw the colonists upon their own resources for the supply of many of the necessaries of life. They had been hitherto supplied with all but their corn and fish, by the many emigrant ships which had yearly added to their numbers. A suspension of this emigration was brought about by the civil wars in England, and the diminished intercourse caused thereby left them dependent on mercantile enterprise alone, which the state of navigation then rendered precarious in the extreme. Governor Winthrop then said, "The general fear, of the want of foreign commodities, now our money was gone, and things were like to go well in England, set us on work to provide shipping of our own: for which end Mr. Peter, being a man of very public spirit and singular activity for all occasions, procured some to join for building a ship at Salem of 300 tons, and the inhabitants of Boston, stirred up by his example, set upon the building of another at Boston of 150 tons. The work was hard to accomplish for want of money, etc., but our shipwrights were content to take such pay as the country could make." He speaks in another place of the Trial of 160 tons, as the first ship built at Boston. She sailed for Bilboa on 4 June 1642, laden with fish, "which she sold there at good rate, and from thence freighted to Malaga." Thus

early began the profitable trade to distant ports from New England. An early and successful prosecution of the business of shipbuilding could have been more reasonably expected of none of the first colonists of America, than of the settlers of Manhattan. Holland was at that period, and long after, in the enjoyment of the carrying trade of the world. Though not possessed of a foot of timber, she built and armed more ships than all the rest of Europe. Planted by this commercial people, and by merchants and capitalists of Amsterdam, then the mercantile metropolis of Europe, exclusively for the purposes of trade, it appears somewhat surprising that the facilities afforded by the new territory for shipbuilding were not made available to a greater extent by the But the administration of a parent nation. privileged mercantile association, such as the West India Company, which, in 1621, was invested with a monopoly of its trade, was unfavorable to the development of the resources of the colony. About 1630 the carrying trade between Holland and America, and the trade with Brazil, where the company had sustained losses equivalent to "one hundred tons of gold," were thrown open to the colonists, and private ships were for the first time entered at Amsterdam, and publicly advertised for New Netherlands. Other restrictions, which had fettered trade of the world with the exception of that commerce, were soon after removed, and the to the East Indies, and the trade in furs, were open to the colonists. In 1678 the shipping owned in the port consisted of three ships and In 1694 the shipping had increased to 60 fifteen sloops, and other small sailing vessels. ships and 102 sloops. This was on account of a monopoly of exporting flour and biscuits from the province. South of New York during colonial times, there was little or no construclarge shipping interests through the fisheries, New England developed her that were at her door, and the coasting trade maintained by the latter extended as far south as the West Indies during these early days. It might be said the fisheries were the cause of the large merchant marine of New England.

tion of vessels.

The Schooner. In 1745 Andrew Robinson of Gloucester, Mass., built a vessel with a square stern, which was fitted with two masts, bearing a sloop sail on each, and a bowsprit with jib. She was sharp on the bottom, and on being launched, sped over the water so fast from the impetus gained by descending from the ways as to elicit from a bystander the remark, "See how she scoons." Scoon was a word used by plain people to express the skipping of a flat stone over the surface of the water when skilfully thrown; and the builder of the vessel, having been somewhat at a loss for a name for the new rig, seized upon the trifling incident and replied, "A scooner let her be," and twomasted vessels, with jibs, and fore and aft saile have since been called by that name. This vessel was probably used in the fisheries. The largest schooners were those sent to the Grand Banks, and for many years after 1800 about 70 sail vessels were sent annually to the Grand Banks, chiefly from Cape Ann. These early vessels were from 20 to 40 tons.

Colonial Merchant Marine. Before the Revolutionary War our merchant marine was

Length, 395 feet: Beam, 50 feet; Molded Depth, 34 feet 5 inches: Displacement, 10,000 tons; Cargo Capacity 7,500 tons; Total Sail Area, 40.617 square feet.

in a prosperous condition, and took nearly first rank with us. By 1760 from 300 to 400 trading vessels were being built annually in the different provinces. During the War of the Revolution the whaling and fishing fleets were almost annihilated by raids on the coast towns, by English cruisers. Foreign trade in our vessels suffered the same fate. A large part of the merchant and fishing fleet was employed during the war in privateering, and it became a profitable field for them at times, as small armed sloops frequently captured a large merchantman with the British flag. The larger privateers built during the war, when the conflict was over, were converted into merchantmen, and sent to the East Indies to trade. The Baltimore built schooner took high rank as a privateer during the war. The 16 years that followed ending with the War of 1812 were perilous times for American ship ping. England excluded us from a profitable trade with the British West Indies, and the same interests led to the searching of our merchant vessels for British subjects, the capture and confiscation of our vessels and cargoes, and a detention of a large number of them for evasions of the British law. Then came on the War of 1812 that lasted for nearly three years, during which many privateers were constructed that subsequently pursued the peaceful pursuit of trade. A change in the form of our sailing vessels now began to appear, giving them better entrance lines, and cutting off those high poop decks that had been such a fixture on large vessels for many years, being among several changes that were made.

Soon

The Carrying Trade.- Prior to the War of 1812 our coastwise trade was carried on by no larger sailing vessels than those that were schooner rigged, while our foreign trade was most largely carried on in foreign bottoms. Before 1812 a few sailing packets, or vessels carrying both passengers and freight, were brought into the transportation business, and cleared from port on regular days in each month, and were operated between special points only. When the war ended there were only a few small British ships in the packet service between England and America, and very few between America and other parts of the world. after the peace, however, a large number of lines came into existence as a natural outgrowth of the rush of emigration from Europe to America, and the general expansion of ocean travel and trade. The carrying of passengers was a profitable business, and there was considerable competition among shipping merchants to get the most business for their vessels. None but the best and finest vessels could be used in this trade, and the old-fashioned freighting vessels with their small cabins and houses, and poop decks, were subjected to many changes to adapt them to the passenger business. The merchants at most all our coastwise ports, from Portland, Maine, to New Orleans, La., soon saw the advantage of these packets for our coastwise trade, and regular established lines were soon in operation that remained as carriers until the coastwise steamship lines began operations in 1847, when these lines of sailing vessels gradually withdrew from business. In this trade brigs, schooners, and barks were used, while in the foreign service ships and barks only were placed in service.

Packet Lines. It was at New York the packet business between Europe and America mainly centred. There were lines from other ports, but New York was the pioneer, always kept the lead, and had the largest number and finest vessels for the service. In 1816 Isaac Wright & Co., of New York, founded the famous Black Ball Line, so called from the round black dot in a white field, which was adopted as the pennant of the ships. There were at first four vessels in this line, each of 400 tc 500 tons, and named "Pacific," "Amity," James Cropper," and "William Thompson.» This line was subsequently owned by Goodhue & Co., Charles H. Marshall, and others. They were placed in the Liverpool trade, and sailed once a month at first, and during the first nine years the average time in voyages to Liverpool was 23 days, and for returning home 40 days, but one of the later ships, the Canada, once made the outward voyage in 15 days and 18 hours. A London line followed the Black Ball line, and then a Havre line was started. In 1821 a second Liverpool line was established from New York by Byrnes, Trimble & Co., known as the Red Star line, consisting of the Manhattan, Hercules, Panther, and Meteor, sailing once a month, and soon after Fish, Grinnell & Co., afterward Grinnell, Minturn & Co., founded the Swallow Tail line with four packets, making from New York at this time one sailing for Liverpool each week. In 1830 the passenger fare in the cabin from Liverpool was $180, including beds, bedding, wines and stores of every description. The London packets now sailed twice a month, and the Havre line had three sailings a month. There were also at this time sailing packets to South America and Mexican. ports. In 1830 there were 1,510 arrivals at New York from foreign ports, of which 382 were ships, 28 barks, 714 brigs, 376 schooners, 8 sloops, I ketch, and I felucca. Of these 1,366 were American, 92 British, 7 Spanish, 12 Swedish, 2 Hamburg, 5 French, 8 Bremen, 6 Haitian, 9 Danish, 2 Brazilian, 2 Dutch, and I Portuguese. The number of arrivals in 1829 was 1,310, and passengers, 16,064. In 1823 John Griswold established a London line of four vessels, that had been increased by 1837 to 12 vessels. These vessels down to 1845 were oneor two-decked vessels, and had increased in size to 900 or 1,000 tons. The between deck space, aft, was divided into cabins for the passengers, the middle portion was fitted up with kitchens, pantries, etc. The steerage passengers and crew were placed forward. After 1830 there were frequent sailings of rival packets, transient, but all American, from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to Great Britain and other parts of Europe. All the ships sailed with great speed, and made the run across the Atlantic in excellent time. The Red Jacket once ran from New York to Liverpool in 13 days 111⁄2 hours. The Mary Whiteridge made the voyage from Baltimore in 13 days 7 hours; but the usual time was 19, 20, or 21 days to Liverpool, and from 30 to 35 days homeward. English steamers were sent out in 1838 and 1840 to compete with these packet lines; but the steamers did not at first make much better average time on a voyage than the packets, but in the course of a few years the increase in sneed and their additional carrying capacity