File:Bulletin - United States National Museum (1960) (20319568880).jpg

Title: Bulletin - United States National Museum
Identifier: bulletinunitedst2191960unit (find matches)
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: United States National Museum; Smithsonian Institution; United States. Dept. of the Interior
Subjects: Science
Publisher: Washington : Smithsonian Institution Press, (etc. ); for sale by the Supt. of Docs. , U. S. Govt Print. Off.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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.SlIlI'VAKD Hi 1111. .\l\\ i,.\L.LA.ND iSHU'UL ILUl.M. (, :iJ,\ll'A.\ \ , IjUlll, MjUir, 111 1 Ol-)U. LiilIci CUIlSlrUCtiuil IS lllC Steamer Portland, lost with all hands November 26-27, '898 in a storm that became known as the "Portland Gale." A 3-masted coaster is building in background. (Smithsonian photo 44^^2-6.) Sound service, New York to Fall River for example. After 1880 few wooden steamers were btiilt, and the then still popular iron vessels soon gave way to steel. Vessels employed as freighters were the last coasting steamers to be built of wood. The Pacific Coast shipbuilding industry was late in developing and it was not until after the Civil War that many yards were established. The ship- builders and carpenters were mainly from the East, and in the 1880's the yards were producing from native timber vessels having local characteristics. The sailing craft of the Pacific Coast were often very handsome and some were notable sailers. Likewise, the Pacific Coast shipbuilders produced for both coastal and ocean trade, a number of very fine wooden steamers whose form was much admired at home and in Europe. Steel shipbuilding did not become well established on the Pacific Coast until the 1890's. On the Gulf of Mexico shipbuilding was largely centered at New Orleans and the nearby region. In the years after the War of 1812, New Orleans shipyards had produced small, fast sailing vessels of the Baltimore-clipper type and a few freighting vessels of fuller model. After 1825 a few small steamers were also produced, but after the Civil War shipbuilding almost ceased and only small craft were built—luggers, sloops, schooners, scows, barges, and tugs. In the 1890's some of the coastal trades began to feel the competition of the railroads, as did some of the river steamship lines, and between 1888 and 1910 the railroads obtained control of many lines, as well as many ferries, liquidating those that competed with their rail traflic. Some roads laid their rails up both banks of a river to cut ofT the steamers from their shore connections, and thus force them to cease operations. A common practice was to purchase a controlling interest in a coastal or river steamship line and then, by raising the water freight rates, put the line out of business. Another practice was for the railways to reduce their freight rates to a ruinous level, so that the steamship lines had to cease opera- tions, for they were commonly small companies dependent upon a limited area of coast for their income whereas the railways, drawing support from operations elsewhere, could take a loss in a limited area for a long period. 118

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