's authority in this respect was
unchecked and unlimited, it was easy to mistake the harshest tyranny for
wholesome discipline.

Reenforcing the bucko mate was the tradition that the sailor was a dog,
a different human species from the landsman, without laws and usages
to protect him. This was a tradition which, for centuries, had been
fostered in the naval service, and it survived among merchant sailors as
an unhappy anachronism even into the twentieth century, when an
American Congress was reluctant to bestow upon a seaman the decencies of
existence enjoyed by the poorest laborer ashore.

It is in the nature of a paradox that the brilliant success of the
packet ships in dominating the North Atlantic trade should have been a
factor in the decline of the nation's maritime prestige and resources.
Through a period of forty years the pride and confidence in these ships,
their builders, and the men who sailed them, was intense and universal.
They were a superlative product of the American genius, which still
displayed the energies of a maritime race. On other oceans the situation
was no less gratifying. American ships were the best and cheapest in the
world. The business held the confidence of investors and commanded an
abundance of capital. It was assumed, as late as 1840, that the wooden
sailing ship would continue to be the supreme type of deep-water vessel
because the United States possessed the greatest stores of timber,
the most skillful builders and mechanics, and the ablest merchant
navigators. No industry was ever more efficiently organized and
conducted. American ships were most in demand and commanded the highest
freights. The tonnage in foreign trade increased to a maximum of 904,476
in 1845. There was no doubt in the minds of the shrewdest merchants and
owners and builders of the time that Great Britain would soon cease to
be the mistress of the seas and must content herself with second place.

It was not considered ominous when, in 1838, the Admiralty had requested
proposals for a steam service to America. This demand was prompted by
the voyages of the Sirius and Great Western, wooden-hulled sidewheelers
which thrashed along at ten knots' speed and crossed the Atlantic in
fourteen to seventeen days. This was a much faster rate than the average
time of the Yankee packets, but America was unperturbed and showed no
interest in steam. In 1839 the British Government awarded an Atlantic
mail contract, with an annu