Chapter I: Foreword

In gathering material for a book of this kind one’s sources of information are likely to be so numerous and so diverse as to defy classification. Some of the information I have gotten first hand on ships in which I have served or voyaged. Much more of it has been picked up from countless scattered sources during twenty years or more in which ships have been my hobby. More still, however, has been consciously taken from books on ships and shipping that I have gathered together or referred to during the time I spent actually in preparing the manuscript.

Those books to which I have most often referred, and to the authors and publishers of which I am particularly indebted, are as follows:

“Ancient and Modern Ships,” by Sir G. C. V. Holmes
“The Clipper Ship Era,” by Arthur H. Clark
“Dictionary of Sea Terms,” by A. Ansted
“Elements of Navigation,” by W. J. Henderson, A. M.
“The Frigate _Constitution_,” by Ira N. Hollis
“Lightships and Lighthouses,” by F. A. Talbot
“The Lookout Man,” by David W. Bone
“Mercantile Marine,” by E. Keble Chatterton
“Modern Seamanship,” by Austin M. Knight
“Sailing Ships and Their Story,” by E. Keble Chatterton

In addition to these I have received much assistance from the New York Public Library, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the U. S. Congressional Library, the Marine Museum at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and a number of friends, who, knowing of my interest in ships, have brought me some of the most interesting of the facts that I have used.

H. D.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SHIPS 1

II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SAILS 34

III. THE PERFECTION OF SAILS—THE CLIPPER SHIPS 56

IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF STEAMSHIPS 75

V. THE PERFECTION OF STEAMSHIPS 96

VI. STEAMSHIPS OF MANY TYPES 117

VII. SHIPS OF WAR 140

VIII. PORTS AND PORT EQUIPMENT 168

IX. THE ART OF SEAMANSHIP 191

X. THE SCIENCE OF NAVIGATION 215

XI. LIGHTHOUSES, LIGHTSHIPS, AND BUOYS 235

XII. SHIP DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, AND REPAIR 252

XIII. SHIPPING LINES 267

XIV. THE IMPORTANCE OF SHIPS 279