540 tons, for A. A. Low & Brother, and the Panama, 670 tons, for N. L. & G. Griswold, both vessels for the China trade, and Samuel Hall, of East Boston, built the barque Coquette, 420 tons, commanded by Captain Oliver Eldridge. The Coquette sailed from Boston, June 29, 1844, was 76 days to Java Head, and 99 days to Canton. She was owned by Russell & Co., of China, and made several fast passages between Calcutta and ports in China. Young James H. Perkins made a voyage to China as a passenger on board this vessel, and his famous schooner yacht Coquette, which defeated the sloop Maria in a match off Sandy Hook in 1846, was named for the clipper barque.
These were among the first clipper ships built in the United States, and while by no means extreme clippers, they were sharper and finer models than any vessels which had been constructed up to that time, and clearly indicated the dawn of a new epoch in naval architecture.
I have now brought this narrative to the opening of the clipper ship era, and have endeavored to sketch the development of the merchant marine of Great Britain and the United States from the common starting point—where the ship-builders of both countries derived their best knowledge of ship models and construction from the French—as they advanced along diverging lines under different climatic, social, and political conditions, until we now find them at points widely distant from each other—Great Britain with her stately, frigate-built Indiaman, embodying the glories of the past; the United States with her wild packet ship scending
