nada never even attempted to compete with other countries
in building metal sailing vessels. If Canada had developed her metal
industries a generation sooner she would have had steel clippers running
against 'Yankees,' 'Britishers,' and German 'Dutchmen'; for there was a
steel-built sailing-ship age that lasted into the twentieth century and
that is not really over yet. Indeed, even wooden and composite sailers
are still at work; and with their steel comrades {77} they still make a
very large fleet. Singular proof of this is sometimes found. Nothing
collects sailing ships like a calm; vessels run into it from all quarters
and naturally remain together till the breeze springs up. But, even so,
most readers will probably be surprised to learn that, only a few years
ago, a great calm off the Azores collected a fleet of nearly three
hundred sail.

Canadian shipbuilders had some drawbacks to contend with. One was of
their own making. Certain builders in the Maritime Provinces, especially
at Pictou and in Prince Edward Island, turned out such hastily and ill
constructed craft as to give 'Bluenoses' a bad name in the market. By
1850, however, the worst offenders were put out of business, and there
was an increasing tendency for the builders to sail their own vessels
instead of selling them.

A second, and this time a general, drawback was the difficulty of getting
Canadian-built vessels rated A1 at Lloyd's. 'Lloyd's,' as every one
knows, is the central controlling body for most of the marine insurance
of the world, and its headquarters are in London. There were very few
foreign 'Lloyd's' then, and no colonial; so it was a serious matter when
the {78} English Lloyd's looked askance at anything not built of oak.
Canada tried her own oak; but it was outclassed by the more slowly
growing and sounder English oak. Canada then fell back on tamarac, or
'hackmatac,' as builders called it. This was much more buoyant than oak,
and consequently freighted to advantage. But it was a soft wood, and
Lloyd's was slow to rate it at its proper worth. Tamarac hulls went
sound for twenty years, and sometimes forty, especially when hardwood
treenails were used--a treenail being a bolt that did the service of a
nail in woodwork or a rivet in steel plating. At first Canadian vessels
were only rated Al for seven years, as compared with twelve for those
built of English oak. A year was added for hardwood treenails, and
another for 'sal