men of intelligence and refinement. They were accomplished seamen, navigators, and merchants; and many of them, after retiring from the sea, rose to eminence and wealth. They were the first to demonstrate that the command of a merchantman was a position that any gentleman might be proud to hold. Of the same type were their officers and crews: bright, clean-minded, clear-eyed young fellows, learning to become captains, with cousins and aunts to welcome them when they returned home after their India and China voyages. And this high character among American merchant seamen continued until the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861, the names of some of the oldest and best families in the United States being found up to that time on the shipping articles of Indiamen and China clippers sailing from the ports of Boston, New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Among the old families of New England it was by no means uncommon for one son to be an undergraduate at Harvard or Yale, while another was either far away in India or China before the mast, or an officer on board a crack New York or Boston clipper ship.
The ships, too, were worthy of their officers and crews, and held the record for speed; while the reputation of both were so high that underwriters were eager to have them on their books, and shippers were content to pay from twenty to thirty per cent, higher rates for freight than to the ships of other nations.
Those were the days when canvas, hemp, and
