The East India Company about the year 1813 paid £40 per ton for their ships, as against about £25 per ton by other traders; the latter sum was about the same as that paid in America. The East Indiaman had a crew in the ratio of one to 10 or 12 tons, while one to 25 tons sufficed for the West Indiaman. The speed of the western ship was greater, largely by reason of the difference in proportions and lines. The clipper built on the Clyde and in America had a length equal to five or six times the beam, against four times the beam in the case of the East India Company's ships. In the design of these clippers the Scotts took an important part. Charles Cuningham Scott was then at the head of the concern. An ingenious method of making model experiments in the graving dock at the works was evolved in the 'forties, whereby the firm were able to arrive at the most satisfactory form of hull to give the minimum of resistance, and at the same time a large capacity for cargo per registered ton. In this latter respect they were more successful than the designers of the East Indiamen, notwithstanding the bluff form of the latter.
As rapidity in answering the helm was a most important element in tacking, and therefore in speed, the firm about this time prepared full-rigged models, about 5 ft. long, for experimental trials as to the ship's form and rudder, on Loch Thom, on the hill above Greenock, in an exposed place where the conditions of wind were analogous to those at sea. The results proved satisfactory. In fact, in these years, when the _Minerva_, _Acbar_, and other noted clippers were built, the care used in design and construction was almost as great as that now devoted in the case of racing yachts.
[Illustration: Plate VII. THE "ARCHIBALD RUSSELL." (_See page 14._)]
The Scotts, in the first half of the nineteenth century, continued to produce a long series of successful sailing ships, while at the same time taking a creditable part in the evolution of the steamship. Steam, however, was not possible in long-distance voyages until pressures had been increased, and coal consumption reduced to moderate limits; and thus it came that, although the steam engine was used in the early years of the nineteenth century in river, and later in coasting, craft, the sailing ship continued supreme almost until the middle of the century. We do not propose, however, to refer to all of the later sailing ships built by the Scotts, but it may be interesting to give some details of the construction.