By 1815 the name "Baltimore clipper" was taken all over the world to signify the highest type of merchant vessel that man's skill could design.

It was a Baltimore ship which first, in 1785, displayed the American flag in the Canton River and brought thence the first cargo of silks and teas.

Thereafter, until the decline of American shipping, the Baltimore clippers led in the Chinese trade.

These clippers in model were the outcome of forty years of effort to evade hostile cruisers, privateers, and pirates on the lawless seas.

To be swift, inconspicuous, quick in maneuvering, and to offer a small target to the guns of the enemy, were the fundamental considerations involved in their design.