Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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Japan through the Dutch in the East Indies. They were among the first to trade along the east coast of South America, and for a long time they had a monopoly of the West African trade. In all their commerce they followed the same plan, that of exchanging what they had that somebody else needed for what somebody else had that they needed. As the traders ventured out into the ocean, the builders ventured in- to new fields of construction and built more and better ships. In 1769 the colonies were launching approximately 389 vessels a year. One out of every six vessels built was sold to foreign concerns, and this led to disputes with English shipbuilders. A vessel could be built for twenty dollars less a ton in the colonies than it could be built in England and built better in the bar- gain. Business dropped off sharply for the English shipbuilding firms, and many of the workers left Eng- land to come to work in the Ameri- can shipping industry. The ship- builders demanded legislation to protect them from the rising Amer- ican building, and their demand was answered by the Government in the law forbidding British sub- jects to buy ships built in the colo- nies. Then the ambitious Yankee mer- chant-ship owners began to tread on the toes of the British merchants, and the Americans began to look towards liberty. To crush the free- dom movement and to aid the bleat- ing British merchants, Parliament passed laws limiting and hampering American commerce. By this legis- lation they aimed to destroy the direct trade of the colonists with Europe and their trade with the West Indies. However, the colonists entirely disregarded these laws, sometimes successfully, and some- times at the loss of a beautiful ship and her cargo. American shipping slumped de- cidedly during the Revolution, but maritime initiative was kept alive by privateering. These privateers took more prizes than the United States Navy did, and they made great sums of money from these ventures. The Revolution ended, our mariners, feeling secure in their newly won independence, planned more adventurous voyages than they had ever dreamed of be- fore. They fared forth and found that the sea was not the freeman’s paradise of which they had dreamed. Preying on American commerce became an international maritime sport. England stopped American ships on the high seas and impressed American seamen into her navy and passed legisla- tion at home which allowed her subjects to buy only the crudest of American products. During the Napoleonic wars our shipping was ravaged severely, many ships and their crews being captured by the opposing factions. Each side for- bade neutrals to trade with the other, and each side seized vessels caught doing so. Yet under these conditions our shipping attained its most rapid growth. The Yankee shipowner with his fast, fleet ves- sels was able to carry cargoes to the waring nations at high profits to himself, even if he did lose a vessel now and then by confiscation. 30

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portant factor in regard to the tenth Olympiad was its position as a “depression buster.” Six million dollars was spent in preparation for it, and many thousand men were given employment in preparing for and producing the games. In these games “equality” is the slogan. A small town boy has as great a chance to make good as a city-bred boy. A fine example of this “equality” is the case of David Colwell of Byfield, who is a relative of one of Manning ' s recent gradu- ates. He made a remarkable show- ing in one of the recent Olympiads and was highly honored. The Olympics are rapidly spread- ing over the entire world and many small countries hold games every four years which are similar to the world-wide Olympics. These Olym- piads are producing a group of husky, healthy champions who are nearly as great as the true Olympic victors. In gazing back into the athletic history of yore, one cannot but be impressed by the manifold advan- tages the youth of today has over his athletic ancestors of twenty cen- turies ago. Likewise, it becomes clear that the modem Olympic Games have become, in all human probability, a permanent feature in the world’s calendar of sport; and athletics is making better men and women of the present-day youth. American Shipping By John Alexander, Jr. A merican shipping had its birth with the coming of the Pilgrims. These adventurer s were financed by English merchants who were interested in the possibilities of building a new commerce with a new land. Every boatload of new emigrants brought manufactured articles to the colonies and re- turned to Britain laden with raw materials from the new America. The Puritans were even more ambi- tious for commerce with England, for their larger settlement needed more supplies. The Dutch in New Amsterdam, of course, carried on a lively trade with their own mother country as did the Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, and Germans, who came to the new land in increasing numbers. Every ship brought more immigrants, and thus the supply of imports increased to meet the ever growing demand, and the colonies exported all surplus products. Be- sides this need for trade the new Americans were people from great seafaring nations, and they turned naturally to the sea as the element with which they were the most familiar. Thus the American mer- chant marine flourished and grew. As the years passed, the Yank- ees began to branch out in their commerce. They developed a trade with the West Indies in rum and molasses. They sent their vessels di- rectly to the Cape of Good Hope, to Hindustan, Java, and Sumatra. They carried on a lively trade with 29

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Spirit was so aroused against the English, however, for their impres- sing of American seamen that we went to war with them in 1812, and during the war shipping here was at a standstill. At the close of the struggle, however, the Yankee again sprang to the fore in ship- ping circles and shortly after gained the advantage over Great Britain which gave America the rule of the seas. r: Britian ' s commerce became so great that the mercantile houses and the shipping companies, which had been one and the same up to this time, were forced to separate. The merchant was no longer able to keep up with the ever changing routes, the tremendous importa- tions, reladings, and re-exporta- tions. New ship owning companies were formed to relieve the conges- tion. These companies carried the goods of several merchants over a fixed route at fixed rates. This new arrangement had a baneful effect upon European commerce primari- ly because the new ship-owner had no interest in the trade he was counted on to serve. Merchants could not come to rely on the new companies as they had on their own ships. The new companies had not the resources of the mercantile houses and if they suffered a loss they would not return to their orig- inal port. They invoked insurance protection to an extent unknown before, and they compelled the mer- chant to carry costly protection on his goods. The rates increased rapidly and mercantile initiative failed. The Americans, with their shipping a part of the commerce it served, stepped in and seized the markets Europe could no longer handle. Their shipbuilders answered the call for more vessels by producing the packet ship. They placed these ships in the trans-Atlantic service and no other nation sought to rival them. The packet was built with the necessary bluffness and free- board for the rough Atlantic cross- ing, but below decks they had the fineness of yachts. They were used mostly for passenger service, mail, and package freight. At this time, steam was first used as a means of propulsion on ships. The ‘ ' Savannah ' an American ves- sel, made a trial passage from New York to Havre and although it was successful, the steamship met with little favor in America. Britain, eager to obtain a means by which to regain her power on the sea and despairing of ever equaling the American skill in building sailing ships, began to investigate and im- prove the new steam vessel. In 1840, the Cunard line, under special government subsidy, placed the four steamers “Arcadia, “Britan- nia. “Columbia, and “Caledonia in the trans-Atlantic trade. These steamers did not rival in the least the packet ship in speed or luxuri- ousness of appointment, but to the attentive American shipper they represented the nucleus of a great change in shipping. In answer to the challenge of the steamship the Americans built the famous clippers. They had their packet ships to make the New York Liverpool trip in nine days; so they 31