Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/448

 Nor have other trades than that of China been very far behind in this great ocean race. Many of the sailing vessels now engaged in the trade with Australia and India are remarkable for their swiftness and increased capacity, combined with greatly reduced sailing expenses. Superior in speed to any of the ships of the old East India Company, they have double the space for cargo in proportion to their register tonnage, and are manned and navigated by about one-third the number of men. Among them and the China clippers are to be found some of the handsomest vessels the world has ever seen. Marvellous specimens of grace and beauty, not surpassed even by the finest yachts, and much easier in their movements, when under full sail and at their greatest speed, than any "thing of beauty" yet produced in either Great Britain or the United States for the purposes of ocean navigation.

But however great have been the strides in the improvement of the merchant vessels of Great Britain, their rapid increase in number since the repeal of the Navigation Laws has been equally astonishing; while the freedom of our laws has given an impetus to

built, and launched many famous clipper ships, such as the ''Spray of the Ocean and the Crest of the Wave'', two of the handsomest sailing vessels that ever floated. The latter vessel once left Shanghai for London with the American clipper ship, Sea Serpent, a well-known China trader, which was to receive 30s. per ton extra freight on her cargo of young teas (which obtain the highest price in their relative qualities), if she beat the Crest of the Wave. Both ships arrived off the Isle of Wight the same day, but the captain of the American, leaving his vessel in charge of the pilot, started by railway for London, and reported the Sea Serpent at the Custom House before his own ship or the ''Crest of the Wave'' had passed through the Downs.]
 * [Footnote: Mr. William Pile, of Sunderland, should not be overlooked: he designed,