The nineteenth century is popularly regarded as the century of the clippers, the magnifìcent fast sailing vessels which plied the trade routes of the world, and which bore witness to the fine nowering or ship design and building married to the ability of sailors to wring the utmost from wind and water. There were, however, other types of vessel whose trade and economie viability depended on speed. The fruit schooners, packet ships and small opium-runners are only some, and they play just as important a part in the story of the development of fast sailing ships. From a massive corpus or raw material, the author traces the development or these merchant ships, from the small coasting smacks to the great wool clippers. He describes the economie and legal influences on their design, the effects or the changing materials from wood through composite construction to iron and steel, and the changing roles or the builders and naval architects. From alI this material emerges a fascinating history of the shipping industry as a whole. - Tutti gli appassionati di clippers, potranno trovare in queste pagine tutta la storia di queste famose navi, scritta in lingua inglese. Un ottimo libro, utile non solo agli storici, ma anche ai modellisti navali esperti. Perchè contiene molti piani di costruzione che non sono sviluppati in tema modellistico, ma sono i cosiddetti progetti di cantiere.