Barons of the Sea and Their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship : Simon & Schuster : 9781476745985 : 1476745986 : 11 Jul 2019 : "A fascinating, fast-paced history...full of remarkable characters and incredible stories" about the nineteenth-century American dynasties who battled for dominance of the tea and opium trades (Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award?winning author of In the Heart of the Sea). There was a time, back when the United States was young and the robber barons were just starting to come into their own, when fortunes were made and lost importing luxury goods from China. It was a secretive, glamorous, often brutal business?one where teas and silks and porcelain were purchased with profits from the opium trade. But the journey by sea to New York from Canton could take six agonizing months, and so the most pressing technological challenge of the day became ensuring one's goods arrived first to market, so they might fetch the highest price. "With the verse o