In those days New York was one of the most beautiful and picturesque seaports of the world; the water-front was lined with majestic clippers, stately Indiamen, and noble packet ships, their American ensigns and well-known house flags of many brilliant colors floating in the breeze.[13] The view and skyline of the port from the harbor were very beautiful; Battery Park with its fine lawns and trees in the foreground, the graceful spire of Trinity Church forming a prominent landmark, while clustered on every side were the modest yet dignified and substantial residences, gardens, and warehouses of the merchants, with a quiet, refined atmosphere of prosperity and contentment, long since departed. The New York pilot-boats were remarkably fast and able schooners of from 80 to 90 tons, which cruised to the eastward as far as the Grand Banks, with a hand in the crow’s nest on the lookout for the packets and steamships bound for New York. Among these stanch little vessels were the _Washington_, _Ezra Nye_, _George W. Blunt_, _William H. Aspinwall_, _Mary Taylor_, _Moses E. Grinnell_, _Charles H. Marshall_, _Mary Fish_, _George Steers_, and _Jacob Bell_. The New York pilots themselves were a very superior class of men, who always wore beaver hats when boarding a vessel, and owned their boats, and it was regarded as a compliment and an honor for a citizen of New York to have one of their vessels named for him. Of the men who commanded the American clipper ships, it may be said that they carried the ensign of the United States to every quarter of the globe, with honor to their country and themselves. They were not, however, all cast in the same mould. Each had his strongly marked individual traits of character, and his human weaknesses. Nothing could be more remote from the truth than to imagine these men as blustering bullies at sea or rollicking shell-backs on shore; neither were they Chesterfields or carpet knights, afloat or ashore, nor at all the type of skipper that one is apt to meet in works of fiction. Many of them might easily have been mistaken for prosperous merchants or professional men, until a more intimate acquaintance disclosed the aura of salted winds and surging seas, and a world-wide knowledge of men and cities. These were the qualities which made so many of these master mariners delightful companions and welcome guests at the firesides of refined and luxurious homes, whose doors could not be opened by golden keys. It may well be doubted whether braver, truer-hearted gentlemen or finer seamen than many of the American clipper ship captains of half a century ago have ever sailed the seas.