From its emergence in Holland in the early seventeenth century to its present renaissance as a luxury charter vessel, the sleek and elegant schooner has embodied the romance of the seas. It has been used in just about every seafaring role from modest coastal craft navigating narrow inland waterways to high speed clippers plowing the world's oceans. Though schooners in Britain, America, and Canada were primarily cargo carriers, they were also used as Grand Banks fishing schooners, pilot boats, Baltimore clippers, colonial schooners, and yachts. This comprehensive history describes in detail the development of the beautiful rig and gives examples of all if its variations.