Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 53122-h.htm or 53122-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53122/53122-h/53122-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53122/53122-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/cu31924030112977 Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE * * * * * * THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO * * * * * * [Illustration: SOUTH STREET, NEW YORK; FROM MAIDEN LANE, 1834 From a print in the possession of the Lenox Library] THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE by JOHN R. SPEARS Author of "Story of the New England Whalers," etc. Illustrated New York The Macmillan Company 1910 All rights reserved Copyright, 1910, By The Macmillan Company. Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1910. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. In the Beginning 1 II. Early Growth 22 III. Evolution of the Smuggler and the Pirate 40 IV. Before the War of the Revolution 59 V. Merchantmen in Battle Array 85 VI. Early Enterprise of the United States Merchant Marine 100 VII. French and Other Spoliations 119 VIII. The British Aggressions 132 IX. The Beginnings of Steam Navigation 150 X. Privateers, Pirates, and Slavers of the Nineteenth Century 177 XI. The Harvest of the Sea before the Civil War 197 XII. The Packet Lines and the Clippers 214 XIII. Deep-water Steamships--Part I 240 XIV. Deep-water Steamships--Part II 258 XV. The Critical Period 277 XVI. During a Half Century of Depression 298 ILLUSTRATIONS South Street, New York; from Maiden Lane, 1834 _Frontispiece_ PAGE An Early View of Charleston Harbor 38 Captain Kidd's House at Pearl and Hanover Streets, New York, 1691 70