User:KraftyKat323

In the 1840s,the builders began to widen and deepen canals to make space for steamboats. By 1860, about 3,000 steamboats traveled the country's major rivers and canals, as well as the Great Lakes. This inspired the growth of cities such as Cincinnati, Buffalo, and Chicago.

Sailing technology has improved in the 1840s. The new clipper ships featured tall sails and sleek hulls. They could sail 300 miles (483 km) per day, as fast as most steamships at that time. Clipper ships got their name because they "clipped" time from long journeys. Before the clippers, the journey from New York to Great Britain took about 21 to 28 days. A clipper ship could usually cut that time in half.

Clipper ships were sailing around 50 years prior to the golden era, with the first ships built in Normandy and Brittany in France around 1800. Around this time, the term “clipper” did not yet exist but the ships had similar qualities. These ships were used for smuggling and privateering during the troubled Napoleonic period. British ships did not compare to the speed and elegance of these French ships and Lord Nelson even admitted the best ships in his fleet were those captured from the French fleet.

During the 1812 war between Britain and the United States, America introduced a type of ship known as the Baltimore Clipper. These ships, lightly equipped with armour, sailed very well and were perfect for privateering. They were so impressive in fact that they were discussed by British MPs and were labelled as “packet ships.” Sailings between New York and Liverpool were the most frequent, but sailings also occurred between other US and British ports and to Australia – carrying emigrants and cargo.

In 1847, only a handful of people resided in the tiny village of San Francisco – but in January the following year, everything changed. James Wilson Marshall discovered gold in California and hundreds of ships docked into San Francisco on their route. Many decided to sail the entire distance around Cape Horn as opposed to making the journey by land which involved facing the wrath of unfriendly Indians.

Many ships became stuck in San Francisco and were converted into hotels, bars, shops, brothels and prisons. San Francisco became a vital trading destination and it was thought that whatever could be bought in New York for one dollar, could be sold in San Francisco for ten dollars.

Although somewhat obscure in origin, the Baltimore clipper was probably a natural development of the known principles of fast-sailing-ship design popular in England in the 16th century. The basic hull form has a heart-shaped midsection, a short keel with very raking stern and stem outline, and a low-sided and sharp-bowed hull.

This hull form, in modified detail, is known to have been used in England in the 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries and on the islands of Jamaica and Bermuda from late in the 17th century to well into the 19th.