Page:The history of yachting.djvu/276

 140 peace had replaced the red cross of St. George, even then, there remained a bond of union that no human power could put asunder—a common birthright in the same laws, language, religion, and an equal heritage in art, literature, and science. These have endured, while all else has been as the tides and currents of the ocean, that divide yet still unite, the English-speaking race.

The close of the War of Independence found the financial resources of the young republic in a depleted condition. While able men guided the affairs of State, the merchants, shipbuilders, and seamen turned their attention toward developing commerce, and creating a mercantile marine, the cheerful ring of the top-maul and the caulking-iron soon enlivening the seaports along the Atlantic coast; each in turn became famous for her ships and seamen. And although shipbuilding had been carried on, to some extent, in colonial times, yet with the birth of the new Nation, men wrought with new energy and with new purpose. Still, we find no record of yachts built or owned in the United States until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Notwithstanding, the industry of the merchants, and the skill of the shipbuilders and the seamen of that period, became the heritage of their descendants, enabling them to produce the swiftest clipper-ships and yachts that ever sailed the seas.

The ships of Salem, Massachusetts, were justly celebrated. In the year 1788 the ship Atlantic of Salem sailed for Surat, Bombay, and Calcutta,—the first vessel to carry the American flag to these