Steve and the Steam Engine

by Sara Ware Bassett

  CHAPTER XV

  THE ROMANCE OF THE CLIPPER SHIP

  It was with genuine regret that Mr. Tolman and Stephen parted from Mr.Ackerman and Dick when the train reached New Haven.

  "We shall not say good-by to Dick," Mr. Tolman declared, "for he is notto be very far away and I hope sometime he will come to Coventry andspend a holiday with us. Why don't you plan to do that too, Ackerman?Run over from New York for Thanksgiving and bring the boy with you. Whynot?"

  "That is very kind of you."

  "But I mean it," persisted Mr. Tolman. "It is no perfunctory invitation.Plan to do it. We should all be delighted to have you. There is nothingin the world Mrs. Tolman loves better than a houseful of guests. Doriswill be home from college and I should like you to see what a fine bigdaughter I have. As for Steve--"

  "I wish you would come, Mr. Ackerman," interrupted the boy.

  Mr. Ackerman hesitated.

  "I tell you what we'll do," replied he at length. "We'll leave it toDick. If he makes a good record at school and earns the holiday we willaccept your invitation. If he doesn't we won't come. Is that a bargain,youngster?" he concluded, turning to the lad at his side.

  The boy flushed.

  "It is a rather stiff one, sir," he answered, with a laughing glance.

  "I think that's playing for too high stakes, Ackerman," Mr. Tolmanobjected. "It is a little rough to put all the burden on Dick. Supposewe divide up the responsibility and foist half of it on Stephen? Let ussay you will come if both boys make good in their studies and conduct."

  Dick drew a breath of relief at the words, regarding the speaker withgratitude.

  "That is a squarer deal, isn't it?" continued Mr. Tolman.

  "I think so--yes," was Dick's response.

  "And you, Steve--do you subscribe to the contract?"

  "Yes, I'll sign," grinned Stephen.

  "Then the agreement is clinched," exclaimed his father, "and it will bethe fault of you two young persons if we do not have a jolly reunion atThanksgiving time. Good-by Ackerman! Good-by, Dick. Good luck to you! Weare pinning our faith on you, remember. Don't disappoint us."

  "I'll try not to," the boy answered, as he stepped to the platform.

  "Dick is a fine, manly young chap," observed Mr. Tolman, after the trainwas once more under way and he and Stephen were alone. "I have afeeling that he is going to make good, too. All he needed was a chance.He has splendid stuff in him. There isn't a mean bone in his body."

  Stephen moved uncomfortably in his chair and a guilty blush rose to hischeek but apparently his father did not notice it.

  "You liked Mr. Ackerman also, didn't you, son? Indeed there is no needto ask for he is a genius with young people and no boy could help likinga man of his type. It is a pity he hasn't a dozen children, or isn't theleader of a boy's school."

  "He is corking at story-telling!" was Steve's comment.

  "He certainly is. I caught some fragments of his Hudson River tale anddid not wonder that it fascinated you. What a remarkable era that was!"he mused.

  "There were a lot of questions I wanted to ask him," Stephen said.

  "Such as?"

  "Well, for one thing I was curious to know what happened after thesteamers on the Hudson were proved a success."

  "I can answer that question," replied his father promptly. "After theriver boats had demonstrated their practicability steamships were builtfor traffic along short distances of the coast. Owing to the War of 1812and the danger to our shipping from the British, however, the launchingof these new lines did not take place immediately; but in time theroutes were established. The first of these was from New York to NewHaven. You see, travel by steam power was still so much of a noveltythat Norwich, first proposed as a destination, was felt to be too faraway. It was like taking one's life in one's hands to venture such animmense distance from land on a steamboat."

  Stephen smiled with amusement.

  "But gradually," continued Mr. Tolman, "the public as well as thesteamboat companies became more daring and a line from New York toProvidence, with Vanderbilt's _Lexington_ as one of the ships, was putinto operation. Then in 1818 a line of steamers to sail the Great Lakeswas built; and afterwards steamships to travel to points along the Mainecoast. The problem of navigation on the rivers of the interior of thecountry followed and here a new conundrum in steamboat constructionconfronted the builders, for the channels of many of the streams wereshallow and in consequence demanded a type of boat very long and wide inproportion to its depth of hull. After such a variety of boat had beenworked out and constructed, lines were established on several of thelarge rivers, and immediately the same old spirit of rivalry thatpervaded the Hudson years before cropped up in these other localities.Bitter competition, for example, raged between the boats that plied upand down the Mississippi; and in 1870 a very celebrated race took placebetween the _Natchez_ and the _Robert E. Lee_. The distance to becovered was 1218 miles and the latter ship made it in three days,eighteen hours, and thirty minutes. The test, however, was not a totallyfair one since the _Natchez_ ran into a fog that held her up for sixhours. But the event illustrates the keen interest with which menfollowed the progress of American shipping; and you can see how naturalit was that after the river boats, lake steamers, coastwise vessels andtugs had had their day the next logical step (and very prodigious one)was the--"

  "The ocean liner!" ejaculated Stephen.

  "Precisely!" nodded his father. "Now there are two separate romances ofour ocean-going ships. The first one is of the sailing vessels and is achronicle of adventure and bravery as enthralling as any you could wishto read. I wish I had time to tell it to you in full and do it justice,but I fear I can only sketch in a few of the facts and leave you to readthe rest by yourself some time. You probably know already that whalerswent out from Gloucester, New Bedford, and various of our eastern portsand often were gone on two or three-year cruises; and when you recallthat in those early days there not only was no wireless but not even thecharts, lighthouses, and signals of a thoroughly surveyed coast you willappreciate that setting forth on such a voyage for whale-oil (then usedalmost exclusively for lighting purposes) took courage. Of course thecaptains of the ships had compasses for the compass came into use justbefore the beginning of the Fifteenth Century and was one of the thingsthat stimulated the Portuguese and Spaniards to start out on voyages ofdiscovery. The Spaniards built ships that were then considered thelargest and finest afloat, and probably Columbus caught the enthusiasmof the period and with the newly invented compass to guide him wasstirred to brave the ocean and discover other territory to add to theriches of the land he loved. It was a golden age of romance andadventure and the journeys of Columbus grew out of it quite naturally.But in America shipping had its foundation in no such picturesquebeginning. The first vessel made in this country was constructed as amere matter of necessity, being built at the mouth of the Kennebec Riverto carry back to England a group of disheartened, homesick settlers."

  He paused thoughtfully a moment.

  "Even the ships of later date had their birth in the same motive--thatof necessity. The early colonists were forced to procure supplies fromEngland and they had no choice but to build ships for that purpose. Atfirst these sailing packets were very small, and as one thinks of themto-day it is to marvel that they ever made so many trips withoutfoundering. As for our coastwise ships, up to 1812 they were nothingmore than schooner-rigged hulls."

  "I wonder where the word _schooner_ came from," commented Steve.

  "The legend goes that the term _scoon_ was a colloquialism used whenskipping stones. When a pebble glanced along the top of the water it wassaid to _scoon_," answered his father, with a smile. "After the War of1812 was over and our American vessels were safe from possible attack,and after the country itself had recovered somewhat from the stress ofthis financial burden so that men had more money to invest in commerce,we began to branch out and build finer vessels; and when it came torigging them there seemed to be no name to apply to the
arrangement ofthe sails. The story goes that one day as one of these new ships sailedout of Gloucester harbor a fisherman watching her exclaimed withadmiration, 'See her _scoon_!' The phrase not only caught the publicfancy but that of the shipbuilders as well, and the word _schooner_ wasquickly adopted."

  "I never knew that before!" announced Steve, when the narrative wasconcluded.

  "Slowly the models of ships improved," went on his father, withoutheeding the interruption. "Vessels became larger, faster, more graceful.Even the whalers and fishing smacks took on more delicate lines.Merchants from Salem, Gloucester, New Bedford invested their hard-earnedsavings in whalers and trading ships, and many of them made theirfortunes by so doing. The sailing packets that went to Liverpool beganto make excellent time records. Although the English were now usingsteamers for trans-Atlantic travel they had not perfected them to asufficient extent to make their trips faster than those of sailingships."

  "About how long did it take them to cross?" inquired Stephen.

  "The average time to Liverpool was from nineteen to twenty-one days,"was the answer. "And for the return voyage from thirty to thirty-five."

  "Whew, Dad! Why, one could walk it in that time!" exclaimed the lad.

  "It was a long time," his father agreed. "But it is not fair to measureit by present-day standards. Think how novel a thing it was to cross theocean at all!"

  "I suppose so," came reflectively from Stephen.

  "It was not long," continued his father, "before the English improvedtheir engines so that their steamers made better time, and then ourAmerican sailing packets were left far behind. This, as you can imagine,did not please our proud and ambitious colonists who were anxious toincrease their commerce and build up their young and growing country.Something must be done! As yet they had not mastered the enigma of steambut they could make their sailing ships swifter and finer and this theyset to work to do. Out of this impetus for prosperity came theremarkable clipper-ship era.

  "We shall probably never see such beautiful ships again," continued Mr.Tolman, a trifle sadly. "Youth and romance go hand in hand, and ourcountry was very young, and proud and eager in those days. Our commercewas only beginning and the far corners of the world were strange,unexplored and alluring. It is like an Arabian Night's Tale to read ofthose wonderful ships built to carry merchandise to China, India andother foreign ports. Speed was their aim--speed, speed, speed! They musthold their own against the English steamers if they would keep theirplace on the seas. For in those days the methods of packing produce werevery primitive, and it was imperative that such perishable things astea, dried fruits, spices and coffee should be rushed to the marketsbefore the dampness spoiled them. If they mildewed they would be a deadloss to the merchants handling them. Moreover as cable and telegraphwere unknown there was no way to keep in touch with the demands of thepublic, or be sure of prices. Therefore every merchant hurried his goodshome in the hope of being the first in the field and reaping the largestprofits."

  "More racing!" exclaimed Stephen.

  "It was racing, indeed!" returned his father. "Ships raced one anotherback from China, each trying desperately to discharge her cargo beforeher rival did. Like great sea-birds these beautiful boats skimmed thewaves, stretching every inch of canvas to be the winner at the goal. Asa result the slow merchant packets with their stale cargoes could findno patrons, the clippers commanding not only all the trade but thehighest prices for produce as well. Silks, chinaware, ivory,bamboo--all the wealth of the Orient began to arrive in America whereit was hungrily bought up, many a man making his fortune in the EastIndia trade. Of this fascinating epoch Hawthorne gives us a vividpicture."

  "It must have been great to travel on one of those ships!" said Stephen.

  "It was not all pleasure, by any means, son," Mr. Tolman replied. "Oftenthe vessels encountered hurricanes and typhoons in the treacherousEastern waters. Sometimes ships were blown out of their course andwrecked, or cast ashore on islands where their crews became the prey ofcannibals."

  "Jove!"

  "It had its outs--this cruising to distant ports," announced his father."Moreover, the charts in use were still imperfect and lighthouseprotection was either very scanty or was lacking entirely."

  "What became of the clipper ships?"

  "Well, we Americans never do anything by halves, you know. When we go inwe go in all over," laughed his father. "That is what we did with ourclipper ships. We were so pleased with them that we built more and more,sending them everywhere we could think of. Many went around toCalifornia to carry merchandise to the gold searchers. At last therewere so many of these swift vessels that they cut into one another andfreight rates dropped. Besides, steamboats were coming into general useand were now running on all the more important ocean routes. The day ofthe sailing ship was over and the marvelous vessels were compelled toyield their place to the heralds of progress and become things of thepast. Nevertheless, their part in our American commerce will never beforgotten and we have them to thank not only for the fame they broughtour country but also for much of its wealth."

  With a quick gesture of surprise he rose hurriedly.

  "See!" he exclaimed. "We are almost home. We have talked 'ships andsealing-wax' for hours."

  "It hasn't seemed for hours," retorted Stephen, springing to collect hisluggage.

  "Nor to me, either."

  "Some time I'd like to hear about the ocean liners," ventured the boy.

  "You must get Mr. Ackerman to tell you that story when he comes to visitus Thanksgiving," was the reply, "if he _does_ come. That part of itseems to be up to you and Dick."

  "I mean to do my part to get him here," Steve announced. "I hope Dickwill plug, too."

  "I rather think you can trust him for that," was the quiet answer.