Answer:
Explanation:
In the 1840s, great wooden ships known as clippers began sailing the high seas. These narrow, swift vessels were considered the fastest ships int he world. They sailed from New england ports to the West Indies, Java, China, and India, carrying furs and bringing back tea and silks. They also sailed around the tip of South America, transporting gold seekers from the east coast of America to California. When the Civil War ended, in 1865, steamships - and later, oil-burning ships - took over the work of the clippers. The days of the great wind-drive wooden ships soon came to an end.
Stormalong was first immortalized in "Old Stormalong," a popular sea chantey, or work song, sung by sailors when they weighed anchor or hoisted the sails. In 1930, in his book Here's Audacity, Frank Shay collected and retold the old yarns about Stormalong told by sailors from the old wooden ships. And a few years later, a pamphlet published by C.E. Brown brought together more of the Stormalong tales.
The story of Stormalong has since been retold a number of times. The popularity of the tale is due at least in part to the nostalgic, romantic appeal of the tall, graceful clippers and admiration for tech skill and physical courage of the sailors who piloted them. Since the fossil fuels that have driven our ships for the last hundred years are in finite supply, perhaps it is just a matter of time before the great wind-driven ships return to the sea.
--American Tall Tales, by Mary Pope Osborne, 1991
