Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/387

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steamers, which I shall very fully describe hereafter, as they were the main weapon, whereby we bade defiance to the competition of all other nations, in the general ocean race then just commenced. As these splendid iron ships soon commanded all the passenger traffic, and, at the same time, secured the preference by shippers of high-classed and valuable goods, which could afford to pay the heaviest rates of freight, many of the American clippers were obliged to seek employment elsewhere. As the Great Republic was one of the finest, as well as the largest of these famous vessels—indeed, she was the largest sailing vessel in the world, I furnish an illustration of her at page 360. But though this vessel and a large number of the American liners found temporary employment in the French transport service, they on the cessation of hostilities were obliged to seek employment elsewhere; and, so great was the depression, that American shipowners, in 1857, suffered quite as much as did