As business grew larger ones were built--stout ships of 900 to 1100 tons, double-decked, with a poop-deck aft and a top-gallant forecastle forward.
The first three-decker was the "Guy Mannering," 1419 tons, built in 1849 by William H.Webb, of New York, who later founded the college and home for ship-builders that stands on the wooded hills north of the Harlem River.

In 1841, Clark & Sewall, of Bath, Me .-- an historic house--built the "Rappahannock," 179.6 feet long, with a tonnage of 1133 tons.

For a time she was thought to be as much of a "white elephant" as the "Great Eastern" afterwards proved to be.

People flocked to study her lines on the ways and see her launched.

They said only a Rothschild could afford to own her, and indeed when she appeared in the Mississippi--being built for the cotton trade--freights to Liverpool instantly fell off.