Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a new firm was established in Bath, Maine, at a time when established yards in the City of Ships were turning to steel construction. Percy & Small would set unrivaled records for wooden shipbuilding and ship management, launching 22 giant five- and six-masted schooners (along with 16 four-masters) in two decades. Not just builders, Percy & Small also demonstrated an unusual knack for making money as managing owners of a large fleet of schooners, and the stories of their ships are told in these pages in wonderful detail, from the wooing of potential shareholders and the elaborate launching festivities (with one schooner stuck on the ways) to deeply laden coal schooners struggling to