I trust that both the yachtsman and sailorman will find in these pages something of the same exciting pleasure which has been mine in tracing the course of the evolutions through which their ships have passed. Those whose work or amusement it is to acquaint themselves with the sailing ship and her ways, and for lack of time and opportunity are unable to seek out the noble pedigree of what Ruskin truly described as “one of the loveliest things man ever made, and one of the noblest,” may care to learn what were the changing conditions which combined to bring about such a highly complex creature as the modern sailing ship. Perhaps at some time when handling a rope, a spar, a tiller or a sail, they may have wondered how it all began; what were the origins of all those various parts of a ship’s “furniture”; why some essential portions have scarcely changed; and how other portions are the outcome of time, experiment, and science. I hope that to neither the amateur nor the professional sailor I shall seem impertinent if I have attempted to tell them something about their ship which they did not know before. But if, on the other hand, I shall have succeeded in increasing their love for the sailing ship by outlining her career, I trust that this may be allowed to counterbalance the defects which, in a subject of so vast a scope, are hardly to be avoided in spite of considerable care and the generous assistance of many kind friends. Finally, I make my appeal to the younger generation, to whom ships and the sea have in all times suggested so much that is bound up with adventure and brave deeds. The present moment sees us at a stage in the history of ships when the Royal Navy as a whole, and the Merchant Service almost entirely, have no longer any convenience for sail. There is a dire need in the latter for both officers and men, whilst on shore the conditions of employment are exactly the reverse. Surely it is only by a mutual adjustment of the two that both problems, on sea and land, can possibly be overcome; and it is only by winning the enthusiasm of the boy who is to become father of the man that the sailor’s love for the sea can be handed on from generation to generation. We have received from our ancestors a splendid heritage, a unique legacy—the mastery of the seas. That legacy brings with it a commensurate responsibility, to retain what our forefathers fought for so dearly. Perhaps to the healthy-minded Anglo-Saxon boy, not yet too _blasé_ and civilised to feel no thrill in reading his Marryat, Cook, Ballantyne, Henty, Fenn, or the glorious sea-fights and discoveries in history itself—perhaps to him this book may be of some assistance in visualising the actual ships of each historical period.