The progress which had been made in the ships of the Royal Navy had its counterpart in the mercantile marine. Gradually through the centuries since the Crusades had opened up the Mediterranean to English trade our ancestors had acquired bigger and bigger ships for the purpose of carrying merchandise. The discovery of the West Indies, of North America, the Newfoundland Fisheries, and subsequently the founding of the East India Company, had step by step developed the ships which were used for purposes of commerce. Especially favourable for merchant shipping had been the East and West Indian trade. The voyages and discoveries made by Dampier, Anson and Cook increased still further the scope of English trade, and, consequently, the need for both ships and seafaring men became greater. Wars obviously arrested the progress already made, but by 1821 the tonnage of the shipping of the British Empire amounted to the significant sum of 2,560,203, in spite of the keen competition now made by the United States. The East India Company at the beginning of the nineteenth century occupied the position now held in the twentieth century by the principal companies owning the biggest liners to-day; that is to say, the largest and finest merchant ships belonged to them. And profiting by the monopoly which they owned, paying very handsome profits, they could afford to build their ships well and strong. Consequently it is not to be wondered that the East Indiamen from the commencement of the century down to the last of their race became historical for their building and capabilities. Fig. 70 shows the _Newcastle_, a well-known East Indiaman of the early part of the nineteenth century. [Illustration: FIG. 71. SPITHEAD: BOAT’S CREW RECOVERING AN ANCHOR. _From the painting by J. M. W. Turner, R.A._ _Photo. by Hanfstaengl._] During the eighteenth century brigs of about a couple of hundred tons had been used for coasting trade, and especially for carrying coals from Shields and Newcastle: but with the advent of the steam collier the days of these ships were numbered. The illustration in Fig. 71 is from the painting by Turner in the National Gallery entitled _Spithead: Boat’s Crew recovering an Anchor_. It was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1809, and is here included in order to provide a contemporary picture of the full-rigged ships of the beginning of the nineteenth century. Not till about 1810 was iron introduced for knees, breast-hooks and pillars, although the use of iron had been tried for the whole structure in a small boat as far back as 1787. The real introduction of building ships of iron occurred in 1829, yet it was not till the ’forties that opposition was entirely swept aside and iron came to be recognised as a suitable material for ships. [Illustration: FIG. 72. A WEST INDIAMAN OF 1820.]