those of a similar class among the ships of Great Britain, the
commanders and officers being generally considered to be more
competent as seamen and navigators and more uniformly persons of
education than the commanders and officers of British ships of a
similar size and class trading from England to America."

It was no longer a rivalry with the flags of other nations but an
unceasing series of contests among the packets of the several
lines, and their records aroused far more popular excitement than
when the great steamers of this century were chipping off the
minutes, at an enormous coal consumption, toward a five-day
passage. Theirs were tests of real seamanship, and there were few
disasters. The packet captain scorned a towboat to haul him into
the stream if the wind served fair to set all plain sail as his
ship lay at her wharf. Driving her stern foremost, he braced his
yards and swung her head to sea, clothing the masts with soaring
canvas amid the farewell cheers of the crowds which lined the
waterfront.

A typical match race was sailed between the Black Ball liner
Columbus, Captain De Peyster, and the Sheridan, Captain Russell,
of the splendid Dramatic fleet, in 1837. The stake was $10,000 a
side, put up by the owners and their friends. The crews were
picked men who were promised a bonus of fifty dollars each for
winning. The ships sailed side by side in February, facing the
wild winter passage, and the Columbus reached Liverpool in the
remarkable time of sixteen days, two days ahead of the Sheridan.

The crack packets were never able to reel off more than twelve or
fourteen knots under the most favorable conditions, but they were