. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. Brigantine San Bias at East Boston in the 1890's. (Smithsonian photo 45785-) creasiiigly common. Many vessels had open bul- warks on the main deck and some carried these to the stern. The average .size of American ocean freighters grew gradually; ships of 110 to 115 feet on deck increased in number during the first decade of the 19th century. The increased interest in improvement of design that competition among packet-ship builders had cre- ated in the period immediately after the War of 1812 (see p. 29) had a considerable cflect on America
. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. Brigantine San Bias at East Boston in the 1890's. (Smithsonian photo 45785-) creasiiigly common. Many vessels had open bul- warks on the main deck and some carried these to the stern. The average .size of American ocean freighters grew gradually; ships of 110 to 115 feet on deck increased in number during the first decade of the 19th century. The increased interest in improvement of design that competition among packet-ship builders had cre- ated in the period immediately after the War of 1812 (see p. 29) had a considerable cflect on American shipbuilding, but all classes of ocean freighters, and particularly those in the European trade, did not benefit from this movement. The design of these ships and brigs was mainly influenced by efforts to evade the measurements of the existing tonnage law, so as to have more capacity in fact than the tonnage measurement indicated. There is not space to de- scribe the law and its influence in detail; suffice to say that it produced a very deep and full-ended hull that gradually developed into the kettle bottom craft represented by some builders' models in the Water- craft Collection. Such vessels, though wretched sail- ers, could carry double their register yet be subject to far less taxes and port charges than a normal vessel. Even ships of less extreme model were often very full-ended to obtain great capacity for a given ton- nage; and full-ended ships, barks, and brigs were built in very large numbers in New England between 1820 and 1850. The common ocean trader of this period had a rather straight sheer, straight keel with little or no drag, a nearly upright stem above the load line with a short curse at the forefoot, a moderately raking post, and an upper-and-lower transom .square stern with roimd tuck lielow. The entrance was very short and quite full, and the rail line was almost square acro,ss at the bow and very sharply rounded at the shoulders. The stern was wide and
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Keywords: ., bookauthorun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience
