ABSTRACT
BRITISH merchant vessels of the Napoleonic period were but little changed from those of the time of Elizabeth, which laid the foundation for four centuries of British maritime supremacy. Nor had the American merchant marine altered greatly from early colonial times. But from 1815 to 1860 the merchant shipping of the world underwent truly revolutionary changes—changes in the organization of maritime trade and also in the structure, size, speed, and means of propulsion of ocean-going ships. This was the golden age of the United States merchant marine. Ocean shipping flourished as one of the major industries, and in many of the new developments of the period the United States was the outstanding leader.
