This replica of the _Santa Maria_ was reproduced with great fidelity by the Spanish shipbuilders, and, manned by a Spanish crew, crossed the ocean on a course exactly following that taken by Columbus on his first voyage. Sir George Holmes' terse description of this voyage is sufficiently illuminating without elaboration. "The time occupied was thirty-six days," he says; "and the maximum speed attained was about 6½ knots. The vessel pitched horribly!" Two full centuries before the discovery of America the rudder had been invented. There is no record to show who was responsible for this innovation, although its superiority over the older steering appliances must have been appreciated fully. But after the beginning of the fourteenth century the rudder seems to have come into general use, entirely supplanting the older side-rudder, or clavus. MODERN SAILING SHIPS For a full century after the voyage of Columbus little progress was made in ship construction; short, stocky boats, with many decks high above the water-line at bow and stem continuing to be the most popular type. In the opening years of the seventeenth century, however, the English naval architect, Phineas Pett, departed from many of the accepted standards of his time, and produced ships not unlike modern full-rigged sailing vessels, except that the stern was still considerably elevated, and the bow of peculiar construction. One of Pett's ships, _The Sovereign of the Seas_, was a vessel 167 feet long, with 48 foot beam, and of 1,683 tons burthen. The introduction of this type of vessel was a distinct step forward toward modern shipbuilding. [Illustration: THE OLD AND THE NEW--A CONTRAST The replica of Henry Hudson's famous _Half Moon_, a typical fighting ship of the 16th century, and a modern submarine. The photograph was taken in New York Harbor during the Hudson-Fulton celebration, September, 1909.] The tendency of shipbuilders during the eighteenth century was to increase the length of vessels in proportion to the breadth of beam and diminish the depth of the hull and superstructures, above the water line, with improved sailing qualities. England's extensive trade with India and the far East was conducive to this development, as the "East Indiamen" were necessarily a combination of merchant vessel and battleship.