proportion to its depth of hull. After such a variety of boat had been
worked out and constructed, lines were established on several of the
large rivers, and immediately the same old spirit of rivalry that
pervaded the Hudson years before cropped up in these other localities.
Bitter competition, for example, raged between the boats that plied up
and down the Mississippi; and in 1870 a very celebrated race took place
between the _Natchez_ and the _Robert E. Lee_. The distance to be
covered was 1218 miles and the latter ship made it in three days,
eighteen hours, and thirty minutes. The test, however, was not a totally
fair one since the _Natchez_ ran into a fog that held her up for six
hours. But the event illustrates the keen interest with which men
followed the progress of American shipping; and you can see how natural
it was that after the river boats, lake steamers, coastwise vessels and
tugs had had their day the next logical step (and very prodigious one)
was the--"

"The ocean liner!" ejaculated Stephen.

"Precisely!" nodded his father. "Now there are two separate romances of
our ocean-going ships. The first one is of the sailing vessels and is a
chronicle of adventure and bravery as enthralling as any you could wish
to read. I wish I had time to tell it to you in full and do it justice,
but I fear I can only sketch in a few of the facts and leave you to read
the rest by yourself some time. You probably know already that whalers
went out from Gloucester, New Bedford, and various of our eastern ports
and often were gone on two or three-year cruises; and when you recall
that in those early days there not only was no wireless but not even the
charts, lighthouses, and signals of a thoroughly surveyed coast you will
appreciate that setting forth on such a voyage for whale-oil (then used
almost exclusively for lighting purposes) took courage. Of course the
captains of the ships had compasses for the compass came into use just
before the beginning of the Fifteenth Century and was one of the things
that stimulated the Portuguese and Spaniards to start out on voyages of
discovery. The Spaniards built ships that were then considered the
largest and finest afloat, and probably Columbus caught the enthusiasm
of the period and with the newly invented compass to guide him was
stirred to brave the ocean and discover other territory to add to the
riches of the land he loved. It was a golden age of romance and
adventure and the j