Celebrated as one of the most handsome, fast, and versatile sailing rigs, schooners plied the trade winds of the world for more than two hundred-fifty years. This comprehensive new history traces the evolution of the ship through Europe and the United States and offers a new hypothesis, based on primary source material, on the schooner's English origins in 1697. The historical record is brought to life by examining four types of schooners that typify the major variations of the ship: the Baltimore clipper Berbice, the Coast Guard vessel Elgen, the gunboat Axel Thorsen, and the merchant schooners The Schooner of Port Jackson and Enterprize. The author includes full specifications, illustrations, model photographs, and detailed line drawings for each vessel and general details on the construction, fitting, masting, rigging, and armament of both merchant and naval schooners. This copiously illustrated volume, containing 143 large-scale drawings and an additional 97 plans, photographs, and art works, is sure to please both modelers and schooner enthusiasts alike.