only the dance halls of Cherry Street and the grog-shops of
Ratcliffe Road--they had virtues that were as great as their
failings. Across the intervening years, with a pathos
indefinable, come the lovely strains of

Shenandoah, I'll ne'er forget you,
Away, ye rolling river,
Till the day I die I'll love you ever,
Ah, ha, we're bound away.



CHAPTER IX. THE STATELY CLIPPER AND HER GLORY

The American clipper ship was the result of an evolution which
can be traced back to the swift privateers which were built
during the War of 1812. In this type of vessel the shipyards of
Chesapeake Bay excelled and their handiwork was known as the
"Baltimore clipper," the name suggested by the old English verb
which Dryden uses to describe the flight of the falcon that
"clips it down the wind." The essential difference between the
clipper ship and other kinds of merchant craft was that speed and
not capacity became the chief consideration. This was a radical
departure for large vessels, which in all maritime history had
been designed with an eye to the number of tons they were able to
carry. More finely molded lines had hitherto been found only in
the much smaller French lugger, the Mediterranean galley, the
American schooner.

To borrow the lines of these fleet and graceful models and apply