Such performances were not rare for these ships, and because they were the rule, rather than the exception, the reputation of clippers grew apace, and interest rapidly grew in their comparative speed. Thus it was that many races were sailed, half around the world, during which every stitch of canvas possible was carried for every mile of the way, and captains studied winds and currents with such care and success that well-matched ships were often in sight of each other off and on during voyages of thousands of miles. The development of the clipper ship was rapid, and her decline was almost equally fast. Eight years after the _Rainbow_ took the water Donald McKay, an able designer and builder, launched the _Great Republic_, one of the very largest sailing ships ever built. While this ship has been surpassed in size by several later sailing ships, no other ship ever built was designed to carry so enormous a press of sail. The mainmast of this great vessel was a huge “stick” 131 feet long and 44 inches in diameter. Above this were the topmast, 76 feet long; the topgallantmast, 28 feet long; the royalmast, 22 feet long; and the skysailmast, 19 feet long. All of this was topped by a 12-foot pole. The great structure of the built-up mainmast towered more than 200 feet above her deck. But this greatest of all sailing ships was destined never to take a voyage with these gigantic masts and spars. Just after she had finished loading in New York for her first voyage, a warehouse fire ashore dropped embers in her rigging and she was so badly burned that she was sunk in order to save what was left. Her beautiful masts had had to be cut out of her during the fire, and when she was finally raised and rebuilt freight rates had fallen so far that it was not thought best to re-rig her in her original dress. A reduced rig was installed, making possible a great reduction in the size of her crew, but even with her reduced rig she crossed the Atlantic from Sandy Hook to Land’s End in 13 days. Until the Civil War broke into the peaceful development of America, clipper ships were built in many yards, although the introduction of iron as a ship-building material was giving Britain the upper hand again, after the Americans had temporarily wrested it from her. This introduction of iron in itself would have caused the elimination of America from mid-19th Century ship-building, but the Civil War laid a heavy hand on the young country, and American ships largely disappeared from the sea, save along the Confederate coast where great fleets lay in wait for fast blockade runners that slipped out to Bermuda and the Bahamas for cargoes of European goods to take through the blockade to the needy South. [Illustration: A GLOUCESTER FISHERMAN _Such schooners as this are common in the New England fishing fleets. They are seaworthy and fast, and probably the men who sail them are the greatest seamen of our time._ ]