Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/512

 by increasing the length of their vessels in proportion to the breadth.

Hitherto vessels, for instance, of twenty-five feet beam, seldom exceeded one hundred feet in length, keel and forerake, and although the Americans, in their once famous "Baltimore clippers," set the example of increasing the length to five, and even to six times the breadth of the beam, it was not until the English were thrown into competition with the shipowners of that nation, in every branch of their carrying trade, that they were induced, or rather obliged, to adopt, in this respect, the improved models of their enterprising transatlantic competitors.

After the trade to the East Indies had been thrown open, a number of vessels, ranging from three hundred and fifty to seven hundred tons register, were built. They were not, however, exclusively employed in the trade with the East, but were free to seek employment wherever they could obtain the most remunerative returns, and were to be found in all parts of the world in search of freight. An illustration of one of these vessels, known as Free-Traders, will be found on the following page. *