The clipper ship era an epitome of famous American and British clipper ships, their owners, builders, commanders, and crews, 1843-1869

The deeds that have made the Clipper Ship Era a glorious memory were wrought by the ship-builders and master mariners of the United States and Great Britain, for the flag of no...

Great Britain and the United States signed a treaty of peace and good-will at Ghent in 1814. During the following year the wars of England and France ended on the field of Water...

While progress in ship-building in the United States had been constant up to the War of 1812, American ship-owners and builders had been much hampered by the interference of bot...

The origin of the word clipper is not quite clear, though it seems to be derived from the verb clip, which in former times meant, among other things, to run or fly swiftly. Dryd...

Captain Robert H. Waterman, the first commander of the _Sea Witch_, had been known for some years among the shipping community of New York as an exceptionally skilful seaman and...

built by Isaac Webb in 1831. Captain Waterman took her around Cape Horn to the west coast of South America, thence across the Pacific to Canton, where he loaded a cargo of tea f...

The repeal of the British Navigation Laws in 1849, after violent opposition in Parliament and the House of Lords, and from almost every British ship builder and ship-owner, gave...

The world has seldom witnessed so gigantic a migration of human beings, by land and sea, from every quarter of the globe, as that which poured into California in 1848 and the ye...

The history of men before the mast on board American merchant ships is not a history of American sailors, for strictly speaking there have never been any American merchant sailo...

At the time of the discovery of gold in California, American ship-builders were well prepared for the work that lay before them. The clippers already built furnished valuable ex...

A little more than sixty thousand tons of shipping had been launched from the shipyards in and near New York during the year 1850, and over thirty thousand tons were still under...

Each of the clippers had her devoted admirers, who gave tangible proof of loyalty by investing money liberally in support of their belief in her speed. At that period the mercha...

The California clippers, after discharging their cargoes at San Francisco, either returned in ballast round Cape Horn, or continued their voyages across the Pacific and loaded c...

As one by one the California clippers came home from Asiatic ports or round Cape Horn from San Francisco in 1852, it was found that almost all of them needed a pretty thorough o...

During the year 1853, twenty ships arrived at San Francisco from Atlantic ports, chiefly New York, in 110 days or less, showing the high standard of efficiency that had been rea...

For some time Mr. McKay had contemplated building a ship for the Australian trade, but failing to find any one to join in the undertaking, and stimulated by the success of the _...

During the year 1854 no less than twenty passages were made from Atlantic ports to San Francisco in 110 days or less. The _Flying Cloud_ repeated her famous record passage of 89...

The years between 1849 and 1856 were perhaps the most prosperous that ship-owners and ship-builders have ever known. The discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 had much the same...

In view of the keen rivalry at this period, James Baines & Co. determined to own the finest and fastest ships that could be constructed, and accordingly placed an order with Don...

During the Crimean War a large number of merchant ships, many of which were American, were chartered by the British and French Governments to carry troops, but when peace was de...

The year 1851 is memorable in our maritime annals, because at that time the United States was at the zenith of her power upon the ocean, and had completely outstripped her rival...

In what may be called the ante-Suez Canal days, China was a pretty comfortable place to be in. The East India Company, with its pomp and grandeur, had passed away, but the older...

We have already seen how, about the year 1855, the extreme clippers were succeeded in the United States by a class of vessels known as medium clippers. These vessels were not so...