An American first demonstrated the commercial possibilities of the steamboat, and if history denies to Fulton entire precedence with his "Clermont," in 1807, it may still be claimed for John Fitch, another American, with his imperfect boat on the Delaware in 1787.

But perhaps none of these inventions had more homely utility than the New England schooner, which had its birth and its christening at Gloucester in 1713.

The story of its naming is one of the oldest in our marine folk-lore.
"See how she schoons!" cried a bystander, coining a verb to describe the swooping slide of the graceful hull down the ways into the placid water.
[Illustration: SCHOONER-RIGGED SHARPIE] "A schooner let her be!" responded the builder, proud of his handiwork, and ready to seize the opportunity to confer a novel title upon his novel creation.

Though a combination of old elements, the schooner was in effect a new design.

Barks, ketches, snows, and brigantines carried fore-and-aft rigs in connection with square sails on either mast, but now for the first time two masts were rigged fore and aft, and the square sails wholly discarded.