at his shipyards emerges. The majority of vessels that made their way down Stodder's ways was exactly what one might expect: "square-sterned schooner(s) with a square tuck, 1 deck, 2 masts"-the classic Baltimore C lipper. The first documented vessel that Stodder built in Baltimore was a ship commissioned by the merchant trader Abralum Van Bibber. The launch of Goliath was announced back in Massachusetts in the Salem Mercury, 18 D ecember 1787: "SHIP NEWS. Launched las t week, at Baltimore, by the ingenious Mr. Stodder, the beautiful ship GOLIATH, 600 tons, the property ofAbraham Van Bibber, Esq. D esigned for the East India trade." Goliath was hardly a Baltimore clipper. She would likely have been square-rigged, with a round and commodious hold. She was designed to carry the "hempen and Aax linens, woolens and broadcloths," and silks and nankeens that Van Bibber advertised for sale in the Baltimore newspapers. Shipbuilding boomed in Baltimore during the war, as orders for fast schooners for privateering piled up faster than ships could be built and launched. When the war ended in 1783, no r only did the demand for new vessels dry up, but many former privateering vessels were now available for other purposes. In the five-year period beginning in 1787, only twelve new vessels were documented as having been launched in all of Baltimore. Of those, two were launched from Stodder's yard in that first year: the schooner Betsy, for
Robert Carter of Virginia, and Goliath. In 1787, two vessels launched from anyone yard would have been considered big production, especially given the size of Goliath. Even the most productive shipbuilder of the rime, William Price, whose yard was in operation for 34 years, built only a total of 43 commercial vessels in his entire career. The peak years
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for Baltimore shipyards began right after the Revolution and ended with rhe ascendancy of steam ships by about 1835. A convincing case can be made rhar it was rhe shipbuilding industry rhar was at rhe root of rhe city's enormous eco nomic growth. There are other reasons, of course, bur everything comes back to trade. Baltimore, rhe closest deep water port to rhe burgeoning west (the "burgeoning west" in 1800 was Pittsburgh and rhe O hio Valley) had a logistical advantage over Philadelphia and New York. Baltimore's position near the northern end of rhe Chesapeake Bay offered it relative protection from invasion. TI1e city's merchant class provided a ready demand and a reliable source of banking and finance. As rhe nature of Baltimore's commercial shipping evolved, its merchants required a special type of vessel, where speed became a key part of the equation in ship design. Perishable flour and wheat supplanted tobacco as the main agricultural export, and rhe transshipment of Africans headed for the auction block, both before and after rhe slave trade was
Sharp-built clipper schooners made Baltimore famous among privateers and infamous in London, where the merchants whose cargoes were seized by Baltimore-built ships during the Revolution and the Wtir of 1812 named the city a "nest ofpirates. " The bulk of Stodder's output was in schooners like this one, long and low to the water with a blackpainted hull, sharply-raking masts and plenty of sail. The swift vessels were also popular in the slave trade, when speed meant getting more of the human cargo to America alive. abolished, also required fast passages on speedier vessels, even if it meant sacrificing cargo space. Everything combined to place Stodder and his colleagues ar me focal point ofshipbuilding technology ar the turn of rhe century. Hundreds of extrem e topsail schooners had been built in Baltimore during the Revolution. At least 248 privateers were built, launched, provisioned, and m anned there during char time. Long and sleek with very low freeboard, rhe extreme rake of the masts made Baltimore schooners look like rhey were fl yi ng even at anchor. Their hulls were sharp at both rhe stem and rhe stern, with a relatively Aar sheer between . The keel dropped at a sharp angle from bow to stern, creating a profile that is shaped almost li ke an arrowhead. Rigging was simple and light. The most famous ship ever launched in Baltimore is the frigate Constellation (left), which slid down Stodder's ways in 1797, six weeks before USS Constitution. USS Consrellarion was the first of the six frigates ordered by the Naval Act of 1794 to be commissioned and the first to see action in battle when she defeated the French Llnsurgente in the West Indies on 9 February 1799.
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SEA HISTORY 128, AUTUMN 2009