Ebook: Fast Sailing Ships: Their Design and Construction, 1775-1875

From a massive corpus of raw material, the author traces the development of merchant ships, from the small smacks to the great wood clippers. He describes the economic and legal influences on their design, the effects of the changing materials from wood through composite construction to iron and steel, and the changing roles of the builders and naval architects. From all this material emerges a fascinating history of the shipping industry as a whole. First published in 1973, Fast Sailing Ships received the best book of Sea Award for its important contribution to our knowledge of 19th century maritime history.