hey were. If only some contemporary had done the same by the
trireme, what time and disputation might have been saved!

The _Iroquois_ and her sisters, built in the fifties, were vessels of
the kind to which I have applied the term corvette, then very common
in all navies; cruisers only; scouts, or commerce-destroyers. Not of
the line of battle, although good fighting-ships. Ours were of a
thousand tons, as size was then stated, or about seven hundred tons
"displacement," as the more modern expression runs; displacement being
the weight of the water displaced by the hull which rests in and upon
it. Thus measured, they were from one-third to one-fourth the
dimensions of the vessels called third-class cruisers, which now
correspond to them; but their serviceableness in their time was
sufficiently attested by the Confederate _Alabama_, substantially of
this general type, as was her conqueror, the _Kearsarge_. For external
appearance, they were something over two hundred feet long, with from
one-fifth to one-sixth that width, and sat low in the water. Low and
long are nautical features, suggestive of grace and speed, which have
always obtained recognition for beauty; and the rail of these vessels
ran unbroken, but with a fine sweep, from bow to stern. Along the
water-line, and extending a few inches above it, shone the burnished
copper, nearly parallel to the rail, between which and it glistened
the saucy black hull.

Steam had not yet succeeded in asserting its undivided sway; but the
_Iroquois_ and her mates marked a stage in the progress, for they
carried sails really as auxiliary, and were intended primarily to be
fast steamers, as speed was reckoned in their time. The larger
vessels of the service were acceptedly slow under steam. They had it
chiefly to fight with, and to help them across the places where wind
failed or weakened. These corvettes carried sails with a view to
saving coal, by utilizing the well-defined wind zones of the ocean
when fair for their course. Though the practical result for both was
much the same, the underlying idea was different. In the one, sail
held the first place; in the other, steam; and it is the idea which
really denotes and maintains intellectual movement and material
progress. This was represented accordingly in the rig adopted. Like a
ship, they had three masts, yes; but only the two forward were
square-rigged, and on each of them but three sails. The lofty royals
were discarded.