{"product_id":"2940013691704","title":"THE OLD MERCHANT MARINE, A CHRONICLE OF AMERICAN SHIPS \u0026 SAILORS","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     I.    COLONIAL ADVENTURERS IN LITTLE SHIPS\u003cbr\u003e     II.   THE PRIVATEERS OF '76\u003cbr\u003e     III.  OUT CUTLASES AND BOARD!\u003cbr\u003e     IV.   THE FAMOUS DAYS OF SALEM PORT\u003cbr\u003e     V.    YANKEE VIKINGS AND NEW TRADE ROUTES\u003cbr\u003e     VI.  \"FREE TRADE AND SAILORS' RIGHTS!\"\u003cbr\u003e     VII.  THE BRILLIANT ERA OF 1812\u003cbr\u003e     VIII. THE PACKET SHIPS OF THE \"ROARING FORTIES\"\u003cbr\u003e     IX.   THE STATELY CLIPPER AND HER GLORY\u003cbr\u003e     X.    BOUND COASTWISE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE OLD MERCHANT MARINE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I. COLONIAL ADVENTURERS IN LITTLE SHIPS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe story of American ships and sailors is an epic of blue water which\u003cbr\u003eseems singularly remote, almost unreal, to the later generations. A\u003cbr\u003epeople with a native genius for seafaring won and held a brilliant\u003cbr\u003esupremacy through two centuries and then forsook this heritage of\u003cbr\u003etheirs. The period of achievement was no more extraordinary than was its\u003cbr\u003eswift declension. A maritime race whose topsails flecked every ocean,\u003cbr\u003ewhose captains courageous from father to son had fought with pike and\u003cbr\u003ecannonade to defend the freedom of the seas, turned inland to seek a\u003cbr\u003edifferent destiny and took no more thought for the tall ships and rich\u003cbr\u003ecargoes which had earned so much renown for its flag.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVanished fleets and brave memories--a chronicle of America which had\u003cbr\u003ewritten its closing chapters before the Civil War! There will be other\u003cbr\u003eYankee merchantmen in times to come, but never days like those when\u003cbr\u003eskippers sailed on seas uncharted in quest of ports mysterious and\u003cbr\u003eunknown.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Pilgrim Fathers, driven to the northward of their intended\u003cbr\u003edestination in Virginia, landed on the shore of Cape Cod not so much to\u003cbr\u003eclear the forest and till the soil as to establish a fishing settlement.\u003cbr\u003eLike the other Englishmen who long before 1620 had steered across to\u003cbr\u003eharvest the cod on the Grand Bank, they expected to wrest a livelihood\u003cbr\u003emostly from salt water. The convincing argument in favor of Plymouth was\u003cbr\u003ethat it offered a good harbor for boats and was \"a place of profitable\u003cbr\u003efishing.\" Both pious and amphibious were these pioneers whom the\u003cbr\u003ewilderness and the red Indian confined to the water's edge, where\u003cbr\u003ethey were soon building ships to trade corn for beaver skins with the\u003cbr\u003eKennebec colony.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083153654000,"sku":"2940013691704","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013691704_p0.jpg?v=1763584037","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013691704","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}