Page:The history of yachting.djvu/294

 146 Other instances might be cited showing the excellent seagoing qualities of the sloops of this early period—the worthy ancestors of the famous American centre-board sloops of the nineteenth century.

In 1780 five Albany capitalists formed a company and built the sloop Experiment. She was handsomely fitted for carrying passengers between Albany and New York, and proved so successful, that in 1787 the company built another sloop of the same type and for the same purpose. In 1810 there were 206 sloops running regularly between New York and Albany.

At this period, nearly all the Hudson River sloops carried lee-boards. The centre-board had not then come into existence; and in the keen and continual rivalry on the river these sagacious old-time traders availed themselves of the lee-board, it being especially adapted to the navigation of the Hudson.

In the year 1801 the yacht Jefferson, 22 15/95 tons, was built at Salem, Massachusetts, by Christopher Turner, for Captain George Crowninshield, of Salem. Her length was 35 feet 10 inches; breadth, 12 feet 4 inches; depth, 6 feet, and was first rigged as a schooner and afterward as a sloop. She was used by Captain Crowninshield as a yacht until the breaking out of the War of 1812, when she was armed and was the second vessel commissioned by the United States Government as a privateer. The Jefferson was commanded by Captain John Kehew, and carried a crew of thirty men. She captured the Nymph—the second prize of the war