Chapter III., was one of the full-pooped New Orleans packets, and was

[Illustration: The “Flying Cloud"]

The

Clipper Ship Era

An Epitome of Famous American and British

Clipper Ships, Their Owners, Builders,

Commanders, and Crews

1843-1869

By

Arthur H. Clark

Late Commander of Ship “Verena,” Barque “Agnes,”

Steamships “Manchu,” “Suwo Nada,” “Venus,”

and “Indiana.” (1863-1877)

Author of “The History of Yachting”

_With 39 Illustrations_

G. P. Putnam’s Sons

New York and London

The Knickerbocker Press

1911

COPYRIGHT, 1910

BY

ARTHUR H. CLARK

Published, November, 1910

Reprinted, January, 1911; March, 1911

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

To

THE MEMORY OF

A FRIEND OF MY BOYHOOD

DONALD McKAY

BUILDER OF SHIPS

PREFACE

The Clipper Ship Era began in 1843 as a result of the growing demand for

a more rapid delivery of tea from China; continued under the stimulating

influence of the discovery of gold in California and Australia in 1849

and 1851, and ended with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. These

memorable years form one of the most important and interesting periods

of maritime history. They stand between the centuries during which man

navigated the sea with sail and oar--a slave to unknown winds and

currents, helpless alike in calm and in storm--and the successful

introduction of steam navigation, by which man has obtained mastery upon

the ocean.

After countless generations of evolution, this era witnessed the highest

development of the wooden sailing ship in construction, speed, and

beauty. Nearly all the clipper ships made records which were not

equalled by the steamships of their day; and more than a quarter of a

century elapsed, devoted to discovery and invention in perfecting the

marine engine and boiler, before the best clipper ship records for speed

were broken by steam vessels. During this era, too, important

discoveries were made in regard to the laws governing the winds and

currents of the ocean; and this knowledge, together with improvements in

model and rig, enabled sailing ships to reduce by forty days the average

time formerly required for the outward and homeward voyage from England

and America to Australia.

In pursuing this narrative we shall see the stately, frigate-built

Indiaman, with her batteries of guns and the hammocks stowed in

nettings, disappear, and her place taken by the swift China, California,

and Australian clippers, which in their turn, after a long and gallant

contest, at last vanish before the advancing power of steam.

Many of the clipper ships mentioned in this book, both American and

British, were well known to me; some of the most celebrated of the

American clippers were built near my early home in Boston, and as a boy

I saw a number of them constructed and launched; later, I sailed as an

officer in one of the most famous of them, and as a young sea-captain

knew many of the men who commanded them. I do not, however, depend upon

memory, nearly all the facts herein stated being from the most reliable

records that can be obtained. So far as I am aware, no account of these

vessels has ever been written, beyond a few magazine and newspaper

articles, necessarily incomplete and often far from accurate; while most

of the men who knew these famous ships have now passed away. It seems

proper, therefore, that some account of this remarkable era should be

recorded by one who has a personal knowledge of the most exciting

portion of it, and of many of the men and ships that made it what it

was.

Of late years there has been a confusing mixture of the terms _knot_ and

_mile_ as applied to the speed of vessels. As most persons are aware,

there are three kinds of mile: the geographical, statute, and sea mile

or knot. The geographical mile is based on a measure upon the surface of

the globe, and is a mathematical calculation which should be used by

experts only. The statute mile, instituted by the Romans, is a measure

of 5280 feet. The sea mile or knot is one sixtieth of a degree of

latitude; and while this measurement varies slightly in different

latitudes, owing to the elliptical shape of the globe, for practical

purposes the knot may be taken as 6080 feet.

The word knot is now frequently used to express long distances at sea.

This is an error, as the term knot should be used only to denote an

hourly rate of speed; for instance, to say that a vessel is making nine

knots means that she is going through the water at the rate of nine

knots an hour, but it would be incorrect to say that she made thirty-six

knots in four hours; here the term miles should be used, meaning sea

miles or knots. The term knot is simply a unit of speed, and is derived

from the knots marked on the old-fashioned log line and graduated to a

twenty-eight-second log glass which was usually kept in the binnacle. In

this book the word mile means a sea mile and not a geographical or

statute mile.

I wish to make my grateful acknowledgment to the Hydrographic Office at

Washington, the British Museum, Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, the

American Bureau of Shipping, the Boston Athenæum, and the Astor Library,

for much of the data contained in this book.

A. H. C.

NEW YORK, 1910.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. AMERICAN SHIPPING TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812 1

II. BRITISH SHIPPING AFTER 1815--THE EAST INDIA COMPANY 19

III. THE NORTH ATLANTIC PACKET SHIPS, 1815-1850 38

IV. OPIUM CLIPPERS AND EARLY CLIPPER SHIPS, 1838-1848 57

V. TWO EARLY CLIPPER SHIP COMMANDERS 73

VI. THE REPEAL OF THE BRITISH NAVIGATION LAWS--THE “ORIENTAL” 88

VII. THE RUSH FOR CALIFORNIA--A SAILING DAY 100

VIII. THE CLIPPER SHIP CREWS 119

IX. CALIFORNIA CLIPPERS OF 1850 AND THEIR COMMANDERS--MAURY’S WIND AND

CURRENT CHARTS 134

X. CALIFORNIA CLIPPERS OF 1851 AND THEIR COMMANDERS--A DAY ON BOARD THE

“WITCH OF THE WAVE” 151

XI. CALIFORNIA CLIPPER PASSAGES IN 1851 173

XII. AMERICAN COMPETITION WITH GREAT BRITAIN IN THE CHINA TRADE 195

XIII. CALIFORNIA CLIPPERS OF 1852--THE “SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS” 211

XIV. CALIFORNIA CLIPPERS OF 1853 224

XV. THE “GREAT REPUBLIC” AND THE “DREADNOUGHT” 235

XVI. AMERICAN CLIPPERS OF 1854 AND 1855 248

XVII. AUSTRALIAN VOYAGES, 1851-1854 260

XVIII. AUSTRALIAN CLIPPERS, 1854-1856 273

XIX. LAST YEARS OF THE AMERICAN CLIPPER SHIP ERA--SUMMARY OF CALIFORNIA

PASSAGES 289

XX. THE GREATNESS AND THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN MERCHANT

MARINE 308

XXI. THE LATER BRITISH TEA CLIPPERS 318

XXII. THE FATE OF THE OLD CLIPPER SHIPS 340

APPENDICES 349

INDEX 377

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

THE “FLYING CLOUD” _Frontispiece_

EAST INDIAMEN, 1720 24

AN EAST INDIAMAN, 1788 30

THE “MARLBOROUGH” AND “BLENHEIM” 36

THE “ENGLAND” 40

THE “MONTEZUMA” 44

THE “YORKSHIRE” 48

JACOB A. WESTERVELT 104

JACOB BELL 104

WILLIAM H. WEBB 106

SAMUEL HALL 106

ROBERT H. WATERMAN 112

N. B. PALMER 112

JOSIAH P. CREESY 122

H. W. JOHNSON 122

DAVID S. BABCOCK 128

GEORGE LANE 128

LAUCHLAN MCKAY 130

PHILIP DUMARESQ 130

THE “SURPRISE” 136

THE “STAG-HOUND” 142

MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 148

THE “NIGHTINGALE” 164

THE “CHALLENGE” 186

THE “STORNOWAY” 198

THE “SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS” 218

THE “COMET” 224

THE “YOUNG AMERICA” 232

THE “GREAT REPUBLIC” 242

THE “DREADNOUGHT” 246

THE “BRISK” AND “EMANUELA” 252

DONALD MCKAY 256

THE “RED JACKET” 272

THE “JAMES BAINES” 282

THE “SCHOMBERG” 286

THE “SWEEPSTAKES” 290

THE COMPOSITE CONSTRUCTION 322

THE “ARIEL” AND “TAEPING” RUNNING UP CHANNEL, SEPTEMBER 5, 1866 328

THE “LAHLOO” 336

The Clipper Ship Era

CHAPTER I

AMERICAN SHIPPING TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR OF 1812

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 other nation was represented in

this spirited contest upon the sea. In order, therefore, to form an

intelligent idea of this era, it is necessary to review the condition of

the merchant marine of the two countries for a considerable period

preceding it, as well as the events that led directly to its

development.

From the earliest colonial days, ship-building has been a favorite

industry in America. The first vessel built within the present limits of

the United States was the _Virginia_, a pinnace of thirty tons,

constructed in 1607 by the Popham colonists who had arrived during the

summer at Stage Island, near the mouth of the Kennebec River, on board

the ships _Gift of God_ and _Mary and John_. When these vessels returned

to England, leaving forty-five persons to establish a fishing station,

and a severe winter followed, the colonists became disheartened and

built the _Virginia_, which carried them home in safety and which

subsequently made several voyages across the Atlantic.

The _Onrust_, of sixteen tons, was built at Manhattan in 1613-14, by

Adrian Block and his companions, to replace the _Tiger_, which had been

damaged by fire beyond repair. After exploring the coasts of New England

and Delaware Bay, she sailed for Holland with a cargo of furs. The

_Blessing of the Bay_, a barque of thirty tons, was built by order of

Governor John Winthrop at Medford, near Boston, and was launched amid

solemn rejoicings by the Puritans on July 4, 1631. This little vessel

was intended to give the New England colonists a means of communication

with their neighbors at New Amsterdam less difficult than that through

the wilderness. So we see that ship-building was begun in America under

the pressure of necessity, and it was fostered by the conditions of life

in the new country.

In the year 1668, the ship-building in New England, small as it may now

seem, had become sufficiently important to attract the attention of Sir

Josiah Child, sometime Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East

India Company, who in his _Discourse on Trade_ protests with patriotic

alarm: “Of all the American plantations, His Majesty has none so apt for

building of shipping as New England, nor any comparably so qualified for

the breeding of seamen, not only by reason of the natural industry of

that people, but principally by reason of their cod and mackerel

fisheries, and, in my poor opinion, there is nothing more prejudicial,

and in prospect more dangerous, to any mother kingdom, than the increase

in shipping in her colonies, plantations, and provinces.”

The apprehension of the worthy Sir Josiah was well founded, for at that

period most of the spars and much of the timber which went into the

construction of the East Indiamen and the fighting ships of his royal

master, King Charles II., had grown in American soil, and of 1332

vessels registered as built in New England between 1674 and 1714, no

less than 239 were built for or sold to merchants abroad. Not that they

were better than foreign built vessels, but on account of the plentiful

supply of timber they could be built more cheaply in America than in

Great Britain and on the Continent.

The industry was in a promising and healthy condition, and so continued,

until in 1720 the London shipwrights informed the Lords of Trade that

the New England shipyards had drawn away so many men “that there were

not enough left to carry on the work.” They therefore prayed that

colonial built ships be excluded from all trade except with Great

Britain and her colonies, and that the colonists be forbidden to build

ships above a certain size. The Lords of Trade, though fine crusty old

protectionists, were unable to see their way to granting any such prayer

as this, and so ship-building continued to flourish in America. In the

year 1769, the colonists along the whole Atlantic coast launched 389

vessels, of which 113 were square-riggers. It should not, however, be

imagined that these vessels were formidable in size. The whole 389 had

an aggregate register of 20,001 tons, an average of slightly over 50

tons each. Of these vessels 137, of 8013 tons, were built in

Massachusetts; 45, of 2452 tons in New Hampshire; 50, of 1542 tons, in

Connecticut; 19, of 955 tons, in New York; 22, of 1469 tons, in

Pennsylvania. It is probable that few of them exceeded 100 tons

register, and that none was over 200 tons register.

With the advent of the Revolutionary War, the rivalry on the sea between

the older and the younger country took a more serious turn. Centuries

before clipper ships were ever thought of, England had claimed, through

her repeated and victorious naval wars against Spain, Holland, France,

and lesser nations, the proud title of Mistress of the Seas, but in the

Revolutionary War with her American colonies and the War of 1812 with

the United States, her battleships and fleets of merchantmen were sorely

harassed by the swift, light-built, and heavily-armed American frigates

and privateers. While it cannot be said that the naval power of England

upon the ocean was seriously impaired, yet the speed of the American

vessels and the skill and gallantry with which they were fought and

handled, made it apparent that the young giant of the West might some

day claim the sceptre of the sea as his own.

During the latter half of the eighteenth century, however, the leading

nation in the modelling and construction of ships was France, and during

this period the finest frigates owned in the British Navy were those

captured from the French. The frigate was indeed invented in England,

the first being the _Constant Warwick_, launched in 1647, by Peter Pett,

who caused the fact of his being the inventor of the frigate to be

engraved upon his tomb; but in the improvement of the type, England had

long been outstripped by her neighbor across the channel. William

James,[1] the well known historian of the British Navy, makes mention of

the French forty-gun frigate _Hebe_ which was captured by the British

frigate _Rainbow_ in 1782, and records that “this prize did prove a most

valuable acquisition to the service, there being few British frigates

even of the present day (1847) which, in size and exterior form, are not

copied from the _Hebe_.” As late as 1821 the _Arrow_, for many years the

fastest yacht owned in England, was modelled from the lines of a French

lugger, recently wrecked upon the Dorset coast, which proved to be a

well known smuggler that had for years eluded the vigilance of H. M.

excise cutters, always escaping capture, although often sighted, through

her superior speed.

The United States no less than Great Britain was indebted to France for

improvements in the models of her ships at this period. During the

Revolutionary War, when a treaty was entered into between France and the

United States in 1778, a number of French frigates and luggers appeared

in American waters. The luggers, rating from one hundred and fifty to

two hundred tons and some even higher, belonged to the type used by the

privateersmen of Brittany, a scourge upon every sea where the merchant

flag of an enemy was to be found. They were the fastest craft afloat in

their day. When the French frigates and luggers were dry docked in

American ports for cleaning or repairs, their lines were carefully taken

off by enterprising young shipwrights and were diligently studied. It

was from these vessels that the first American frigates and privateers

originated, and among the latter were the famous Baltimore vessels which

probably during the War of 1812 first became known as “Baltimore

clippers.”

Congress ordered four frigates and three sloops of war to be built in

1778, and almost countless privateers suddenly sprang into existence at

ports along the Atlantic seaboard, most of them copied from models of

the French vessels. One of the frigates, the _Alliance_, named to

commemorate the alliance between France and the United States, was built

at Salisbury, Massachusetts, by William and John Hackett. Her length was

151 feet, breadth 36 feet, and depth of hold 12 feet 6 inches, and she

drew when ready for sea 14 feet 8 inches aft and 9 feet forward. She was

a favorite with the whole navy by reason of her speed and beauty, and

on her first voyage she had the honor of conveying Lafayette to France.

At the close of the war she was sold by the Government and became a

merchantman famous in the China and India trade. Several of the

privateers were built and fitted out at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and

Newburyport, Massachusetts. Those in which Nathaniel Tracy was

interested captured no less than 120 vessels, amounting to 23,360 tons,

which with their cargoes were condemned and sold for 3,950,000 specie

dollars; and with these prizes were taken 2220 prisoners of war. Many

other instances of this nature might, of course, be mentioned, but the

important point is the fact that in the latter part of the eighteenth

century and the early part of the nineteenth, as well, the fastest

vessels owned or built in the United States and Great Britain were from

French models.[2]

The characteristics of the French model were a beautifully rounded bow,

by no means sharp along the water-line, easy sectional lines developing

into a full, powerful forebody and midship section, and great dead rise

at half floor. The greatest breadth was well forward of amidships and at

the water-line, with a slight, gracefully rounded tumble home to the

plank-sheer. The after-body was finely moulded, clean, sharp, and long,

with a powerful transom and quarters. The time-honored cod’s head and

mackerel’s tail: the figureheads and ornamentation of the quarters and

stern, were veritable works of art. By comparing the models of the

British frigates of that day to be seen in the Naval Museum at

Greenwich, and the lines of the American frigates and Baltimore clippers

of the same period, with the models still preserved in the Louvre, it is

easy to trace a family likeness among them all, the parent being of

French origin. The grandparent also might easily be identified, in the

Italian galleys of Genoa and Venice, though this is of no importance to

our present purpose.

That the American vessels showed a marked superiority in point of speed

over British men-of-war and merchant ships during these two wars is the

more remarkable from the fact that frigates had been built in England

for a century and a half, as we have seen, and, while it is true that

two vessels for the British Government were built at Portsmouth previous

to the Revolutionary War--the _Faulkland_, fifty-four guns, in 1690,

and the _America_, fifty guns, in 1740--still, at the outbreak of the

Revolution, the shipwrights of America scarcely knew what a frigate was,

and much less had thought of building one. It had been the policy of

Great Britain to keep her American colonies as much as possible in

ignorance concerning naval affairs, doubtless from fear of their growing

ambition. They were therefore led to copy the models of French vessels,

not only from choice, on account of their excellence, but from necessity

as well. Thus it came about that the frigates of Great Britain and the

United States were developed from the same source.

A sailing ship is an exceedingly complex, sensitive, and capricious

creation--quite as much so as most human beings. Her coquetry and

exasperating deviltry have been the delight and despair of seamen’s

hearts, at least since the days when the wise, though much-married,

Solomon declared that among the things that were too wonderful for him

and which he knew not, was “the way of a ship in the midst of the sea.”

While scientific research has increased since Solomon’s time, it has not

kept pace with the elusive character of the ship, for no man is able to

tell exactly what a ship will or will not do under given conditions.

Some men, of course, know more than others, yet no one has ever lived

who could predict with accuracy the result of elements in design,

construction, and rig. History abounds in instances of ships built for

speed that have turned out dismal failures, and it has occasionally

happened that ships built with no especial expectation of speed have

proven fliers. It would seem, after ages of experience and evolution,

that man should be able at last to build a sailing ship superior in

every respect to every other sailing ship, but this is exactly what he

cannot and never has been able to accomplish. A true sailor loves a fine

ship and all her foibles; he revels in the hope that if he takes care of

her and treats her fairly, she will not fail him in the hour of danger,

and he is rarely disappointed.

While all this is true in the abstract, yet it is not difficult to

account for the performance of ships in retrospect, and in this

particular matter, the superior speed of American frigates during the

two wars with the mother country, it is quite easy to do so.

In the first place, British men-of-war and merchantmen were at that time

built with massive oak frames, knees, and planking, the timber of which

had lain at dockyards seasoning in salt water for many years, and was as

hard and almost as heavy as iron, while they were fastened with weighty

through-and-through copper bolts; so that the ships themselves became

rigid, dead structures--sluggish in moderate winds, and in gales and a

seaway, wallowing brutes--whereas the American frigates and privateers

were built of material barely seasoned in the sun and wind, and were put

together as lightly as possible consistent with the strength needed to

carry their batteries and to hold on to their canvas in heavy weather.

Also, the British ships were heavy aloft--spars, rigging, and

blocks--yet their masts and yards were not so long as those of the

American ships, nor did they spread as much sail, although their canvas

was heavier and had the picturesque “belly to hold the wind,” by which,

when close-hauled, the wind held the vessel.

Then the British men-of-war were commanded by naval officers who were

brave, gallant gentlemen, no doubt, but whose experience at sea was

limited to the routine of naval rules formulated by other gentlemen

sitting around a table at Whitehall. The infraction of one of these

regulations might cost the offender his epaulets and perhaps his life.

In this respect the captains of the American Navy enjoyed a great

advantage, for at this early period the United States authorities had

their attention fully occupied in preserving the government, and had no

time to devote to the manufacture of red tape with which to bind the

hands and tongues of intelligent seamen. We think, and rightly, too, of

Paul Jones, Murray, Barry, Stewart, Dale, Hull, Bainbridge, and others,

as heroes of the navy, yet it is well for us sometimes to remember that

all of these splendid seamen were brought up and most of them had

commanded ships in the merchant marine. They were thus accustomed to

self-reliance, and were filled with resource and expedient; they had

passed through the rough school of adversity, and their brains and

nerves were seasoned by salted winds, the ocean’s brine mingling with

their blood.

What wonder then that the American frigates, so built and so commanded,

proved superior in point of speed to the British men-of-war? Less

wonder still that the American privateers, whose men in the forecastle

had in many instances commanded ships, should sweep the seas, until the

despairing merchants and ship-owners of Great Britain, a nation whose

flag had for a thousand years “braved the battle and the breeze” and

which boasted proudly and justly that her home was upon the sea,

compelled their government to acknowledge as political equals a people

who had proved themselves superior upon the ocean.

So in the struggle for a national existence and rights as a nation, the

foundations of the maritime power of the United States were laid. The

ship-builders and the seamen of the Revolution and the War of 1812 were

the forefathers of the men who built and commanded the American clipper

ships.

After the Revolutionary War the merchants of Salem, Boston, New York,

and Philadelphia vied with each other in sending their ships upon

distant and hazardous voyages. Notwithstanding the natural difficulties

of navigating, what to their captains were unknown seas, and the

unnatural obstacles invented by man in the form of obstructive laws, the

merchant marine of the United States steadily increased not only in

bulk, but what was of far more importance, in the high standard of the

men and ships engaged in it.

Salem took the lead, with her great merchant, Elias Hasket Derby, who

sent his barque _Light Horse_ to St. Petersburg in 1784, and soon after

sent the _Grand Turk_ first to the Cape of Good Hope and then to China.

In 1789, the _Atlantic_, commanded by his son, Elias Hasket Derby, Jr.,

was the first ship to hoist the Stars and Stripes at Calcutta and

Bombay, and she was soon followed by the _Peggy_, another of the Derby

ships, which brought the first cargo of Bombay cotton into Massachusetts

Bay. Mr. Derby owned a fleet of forty vessels, and upon his death in

1799 left an estate valued at more than $1,000,000, the largest fortune

at that time in America, as well as a name honored for integrity

throughout the mercantile world. William Gray, another famous Salem

merchant, owned in 1807 fifteen ships, seven barques, thirteen brigs,

and one schooner, his fleet representing one quarter of the total

tonnage of Salem at that time. Then there were Joseph Peabody, Benjamin

Pickman, and Jacob Crowninshield, all ship-owners who contributed to the

fame of this beautiful New England seaport.

Many of the merchants had been sea-captains in their youth, and it was

the captains who really made Salem famous. These men, from the training

of the New England schoolroom and meeting-house, went out into the world

and gathered there the fruits of centuries of civilization, which they

brought home to soften the narrow self-righteousness of their

fellow-citizens. In later years these captains carried missionaries to

India, China, and Africa, unconscious that they were themselves the real

missionaries, whose influence had wrought so desirable a change in New

England thought and character. When Nathaniel Hawthorne served in the

Custom House at Salem, the friends in whom he most delighted were

sea-captains, for it was through their eyes that he looked out upon the

great world, and gathered the knowledge of human nature that enabled him

to portray in such grim reality the hidden springs of human thought and

action. These captains were the sons of gentlemen, and were as a class

the best educated men of their time in the United States, for they could

do more important and difficult things, and do them well, than the men

of any other profession. The old East India Museum at Salem is a

monument to their taste and refinement. Nowhere else, perhaps, can be

found another little museum as unique and beautiful, of treasures

brought home one by one from distant lands and seas by the hands that

gave them.

Boston, too, had her ships and seamen. From that port were sent out in

1788 the _Columbia_, a ship of two hundred and thirteen tons, and the

sloop _Washington_, of ninety tons, commanded by Captains John Kendrick

and Robert Gray, who took them round Cape Horn to the northwest coast of

America, and then after trading for cargoes of furs, went across to

China. The _Columbia_ returned to Boston by way of the Cape of Good

Hope, and was the first vessel to carry the United States ensign round

the globe. Subsequently she discovered the majestic river that bears her

name, and so won the great Northwest for the flag under which she

sailed. The _Massachusetts_, of six hundred tons, the largest merchant

vessel built in America up to her time, was launched at Quincy in 1789

and was owned in Boston. She sailed for Canton and was sold there to the

Danish East India Company for $65,000.

Ezra Western was the most famous of the old time Boston ship-owners. He

began business in 1764, and owned his own shipyard, sail-loft, and

extensive rope-walk at Duxbury, Massachusetts, where his vessels were

built and equipped. In 1798 his son Ezra became a partner, and this firm

continued until the death of the father in 1822. The son Ezra then went

on in his own name until 1842, when his sons Gersham, Alden, and Ezra,

were taken into the firm, and they continued it until 1858, in all some

ninety-three years, the last place of business being Nos. 37 and 38,

Commercial Wharf. From the year 1800 to 1846 the Westerns owned

twenty-one ships, ranging in tonnage from the _Hope_, of 880 tons, to

the _Minerva_, of 250 tons; one barque, the _Pallas_, of 209 tons;

thirty brigs, from the _Two Friends_, of 240 tons, to the _Federal

Eagle_, of 120 tons; thirty-five schooners, from the _St. Michael_, of

132 tons, to the _Star_, of 20 tons; and ten sloops, from the _Union_,

of 63 tons, to the _Linnet_, of 50 tons. The brig _Smyrna_, one of the

Western fleet, built in 1825, of 160 tons, was the first American vessel

to bear the flag of the United States into the Black Sea after it was

opened to commerce. She arrived at Odessa July 17, 1830. The Westerns

were easily the largest ship-owners of their time in the United States,

and not only built but loaded their own vessels. Their house-flag was

red, white, and blue horizontal stripes.

In the year 1791, Stephen Girard, who was born near Bordeaux in 1750 and

had risen from cabin-boy to be captain of his own vessel, built four

beautiful ships at Philadelphia for the China and India trade--the

_Helvetia_, _Montesquieu_, _Rousseau_, and _Voltaire_. These vessels,

long the pride of Philadelphia, greatly enriched their owner.

The sloop _Enterprise_, of eighty tons, built at Albany and commanded by

Captain Stewart Dean, was sent from New York to China in 1785. This was

the first vessel to make the direct voyage from the United States to

Canton. She returned during the following year with her crew of seven

men and two boys all in excellent condition. When she warped alongside

the wharf at New York, Captain Dean and his crew were in full uniform,

and the scene, which was witnessed by an admiring throng, was enlivened

by “martial music and the boatswain’s whistle.”

Thomas Cheesman was one of the first ship-builders in New York, and he

was succeeded in business, before the end of the eighteenth century, by

his son Forman, born in 1763. The latter built the forty-four-gun

frigate _President_, launched in the year 1800 at Corlear’s Hook--by far

the largest vessel built in New York up to that time. Previous to this,

however, he had built the _Briganza_ and the _Draper_, each of three

hundred tons, and the _Ontario_, of five hundred tons. Thomas Vail,

William Vincent, and Samuel Ackley also built several vessels prior to

the year 1800. The ships _Eugene_, _Severn_, _Manhattan_, _Sampson_,

_Echo_, _Hercules_, _Resource_, _York_, and _Oliver Ellsworth_ were

launched from their yards. In 1804 the _Oliver Ellsworth_, built by Vail

& Vincent and commanded by Captain Bennett, made the passage from New

York to Liverpool in fourteen days, notwithstanding that she carried

away her foretopmast, which was replaced at sea.

All of these shipyards were below Grand Street, on the East River.

Samuel Ackley’s yard was at the foot of Pelham Street, and here the

_Manhattan_, of six hundred tons, was built for the China and East India

trade. She was regarded as a monster of the deep, and when she sailed

upon her first voyage in 1796, it took nearly all the deep water seamen

in the port to man her. Henry Eckford opened a shipyard at the foot of

Clinton Street in 1802. From this yard he launched, in 1803, John Jacob

Astor’s famous ship _Beaver_, of four hundred and twenty-seven tons. It

was on board this ship that Captain Augustus De Peyster made his first

voyage as a boy before the mast. Subsequently he commanded her, and upon

retiring from the sea in 1845 he became the Governor of the Sailors’

Snug Harbor at Staten Island. The _Beaver_ once made the homeward run

from Canton to Bermuda in seventy-five days. Christian Bergh began

ship-building in 1804 with the ship _North America_, of four hundred

tons, built for the Atlantic trade, and the brig _Gipsey_, of three

hundred tons, a very sharp vessel for those days. She was dismasted off

the Cape of Good Hope upon her first voyage to Batavia, and afterwards

foundered in a heavy squall, all hands being lost. The _Trident_, of

three hundred and fifty tons, was built by Adam and Noah Brown in 1805,

and the _Triton_, of three hundred and fifty tons, by Charles Brown

during the same year, both for the China and India trade. John Floyd

began ship-building in 1807, and launched the _Carmelite_, a ship of

four hundred tons, during that year, but was soon appointed naval

constructor at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Until 1794 ships had been built from skeleton models composed of pieces

that showed the frames, keel, stem, and stern post, but were of little

use in giving an accurate idea of the form of a vessel, while it

required much time and labor to transfer the lines of the model to the

mould loft. In this year, however, Orlando Merrill, a young ship-builder

of Newburyport, at that time thirty-one years old, invented the

water-line model, which was composed of lifts joined together,

originally by dowels and later by screws. These could be taken apart and

the sheer, body, and half-breadth plans easily transferred to paper,

from which the working plans were laid down in the mould loft. This

ingenious though simple invention, for which, by the way, Mr. Merrill

never received any pecuniary reward, revolutionized the science of

ship-building. The original model made by him in 1794 was presented to

the New York Historical Society in 1853. Mr. Merrill died in 1855 at the

age of ninety-two.

CHAPTER II

BRITISH SHIPPING AFTER 1815--THE EAST INDIA COMPANY

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 Waterloo. And so at last the

battle flags were furled. The long-continued wars of England had,

through neglect, reduced her merchant marine to a low standard of

efficiency, and both men and ships were in a deplorable condition. There

was no government supervision over British merchant shipping except

taxation, the only check, and that but partially effective, being the

Underwriters at Lloyd’s. Unscrupulous ship-owners might and often did

send rotten, unseaworthy vessels to sea, poorly provisioned, short of

gear and stores, with captains, mates, and crews picked up from low

taverns along the docks. These vessels were fully covered by insurance

at high rates of premium, with the hope, frequently realized, that they

would never be heard from again.

The “skippers,” “maties,” and “jackies” alike belonged to the lowest

stratum of British social classification, which, according to the

chronicles of those days, was pretty low. They were coarse, vulgar,

ignorant men, full of lurid oaths; their persons emitted an unpleasant

odor of cheap rum and stale tobacco; they had a jargon of their own and

were so illiterate as to be unable to speak or write their own language

with any degree of correctness. In a certain sense the captains were

good sailors, but their knowledge and ambition were limited to dead

reckoning, the tar bucket and marlinspike, a wife in every port, and

plenty of rum and tobacco with no desire or ability to master the higher

branches of navigation and seamanship. Mariners that a landsman delights

to refer to as “real old salts,” of the Captain Cuttle and Jack Bunsby

species, are amusing enough, perhaps, in the hands of a skilful

novelist, but not at all the class of men that one would willingly

select to assist in carrying forward the commerce of a great maritime

nation.

Then the stupid and obsolete Tonnage Laws encouraged and almost

compelled an undesirable type of vessels, narrow, deep, flat-sided, and

full-bottomed--bad vessels in a seaway, slow, and often requiring a

considerable quantity of ballast, even when loaded, to keep them from

rolling over.

It is, of course, always hazardous to deal in generalities, but I think

that this may be accepted as a fair description of the merchant marine

of Great Britain up to 1834, when the Underwriters at Lloyd’s and the

better class of ship-owners founded Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, to

provide for the proper survey and classification of the merchant ships

of Great Britain. This first important step in a much needed reform was

followed in 1837 by the appointment of a committee by Parliament to

investigate the general condition of shipping engaged in foreign trade.

The committee reported as follows:

“The American ships frequenting the ports of England are stated by

several witnesses to be superior to those of a similar class amongst the

ships of Great Britain, the commanders and officers being generally

considered to be more competent as seamen and navigators, and more

uniformly persons of education, than the commanders and officers of

British ships of a similar size and class trading from England to

America, while the seamen of the United States are considered to be more

carefully selected, and more efficient. American ships sailing from

Liverpool to New York have a preference over English vessels sailing to

the same port, both as to freight and the rate of insurance; and, the

higher wages being given, their whole equipment is maintained in a

higher state of perfection, so that fewer losses occur; and as the

American shipping having increased of late years in the proportion to

12¾% per annum, while the British shipping have increased within the

same period only 1½% per annum, the constantly increasing demand for

seamen by the rapidly growing maritime commerce of the whole world, the

numbers cut off by shipwrecks, and the temptations offered by the

superior wages of American vessels, cause a large number of British

seamen every year to leave the service of their own country, and to

embark in that of the United States; and these comprising chiefly the

most skilful and competent of our mariners, produce the double effect

of improving the efficiency of the American crews, and in the same ratio

diminishing the efficiency of the British merchant service.”

In 1843 a circular was issued from the Foreign Office to all British

consuls requesting information on the conduct and character of British

shipmasters, especially with regard to the “incompetence of British

shipmasters to manage their vessels and crews, whether arising from

deficiency of knowledge in practical navigation and seamanship, or of

moral character, particularly want of sobriety.” The consular reports

revealed a startling condition of affairs, requiring immediate

attention, and led to the establishment in 1847, of the Marine

Department of the Board of Trade, with authority to supervise maritime

affairs. From such unpromising material the formation was begun of the

greatest merchant marine that has ever existed.

Meanwhile, one of the most important branches of British commerce, the

East India trade, had been following an independent career, for the

ships of the East India Company, although engaged in commercial

pursuits, were under the direct patronage of the government, and cannot

be regarded as forming part of the merchant marine of Great Britain. Yet

as this Company had an important bearing upon the mercantile affairs of

the nation, I propose to review as briefly as possible some of its

remarkable exploits.

“The United Company of Merchant Venturers of England trading to the East

Indies” was familiarly known as the “John Company,” and among those

endowed with a larger bump of reverence, as the “Honorable John

Company”; but by whatever name it may be called, this was the most

gigantic commercial monopoly the world has ever known, since the days

when the merchants of Tyre claimed the exclusive right to send their

ships across certain waters known by common consent as Tyrian Seas.

The East India Company was founded in the year 1600, during the reign of

Queen Elizabeth. The subscribed capital of £72,000 was expended on the

first voyage in five vessels with their cargoes. This fleet consisted of

the _Dragon_, of 600 tons, her commander receiving the title of Admiral

of the squadron; the _Hector_, 300 tons, with a Vice-Admiral in command;

two vessels of 200 tons each; and the _Guest_, a store ship of 130 tons.

Four hundred and eighty men were employed in the expedition, including

twenty merchants as supercargoes. The vessels were all heavily armed and

were provided with small arms and an abundance of ammunition. They cost,

with their equipment, £45,000, and their cargoes £27,000.

Friendly relations were formed with the King of Achin, in Sumatra, and a

station, known in those days and long afterward as a “factory,” was

established at Bantam, in Java. The fleet returned to England richly

laden with silks and spices in 1603. In 1609 the _Trades Increase_, of

1209 tons, the largest ship launched in England up to that time, was

built, but she was wrecked and became a total loss on her first voyage.

Sir Henry Middleton, her commander, died soon after. This was an

unfortunate expedition and resulted in heavy losses to the Company, but

in 1611 the _Globe_ cleared 218%, and in the following year the _Globe_,

_Thomas_, and _Hector_ turned over profits amounting to 340% upon the

capital invested. Other successful voyages followed, so that in 1617 the

stock of the Company reached a premium of 203%.

The East India Company had its troubles, to be sure, which were many and

great, yet it increased in power, wealth, and strength, until at the

close of the eighteenth century it had become possessed of a large

portion of the continent of India, maintaining its own armies, forts,

palaces, Courts of Directors, Boards of Council, Governors, and

Typeans.[3] Eventually, this Company became the ruler of more than one

hundred million human beings, not naked savages, but civilized men and

women, many of whose ancestors had been learned scholars and merchant

princes long prior to the invasion of Britain by the Roman, Dane, and

Saxon.

It is not, however, with the political affairs of this Company that I

wish to deal, but rather with the ships and the men who navigated them.

The princely emoluments known as “indulgences” in which the captains and

officers of these ships participated, naturally attracted the attention

of parents and guardians, so that younger sons, otherwise destined for a

life of ill-requited repose in the church, the Army, or the Navy, found

lucrative service with the East India Company. These perquisites, which

were handed out by the Honorable Court of

[Illustration: East Indiamen, 1720]

Directors, were no doubt intended to be of pleasing variety and

magnitude. The Company adhered strictly to promotion by seniority as

vacancies occurred, from ship to ship when necessary. Captains were

appointed to their ships before launching, in order that they might

superintend their equipment and get them ready for sea. Midshipmen were

appointed by the Court of Directors, and no youth of less than thirteen

or over eighteen years was eligible. Second mates were required to be at

least twenty-two, chief mates twenty-three, and commanders twenty-five

years of age.

Captains were entitled to fifty-six and one half tons of space on board

the ships commanded by them, which they might use at their discretion,

either to collect the freight or to carry cargo on their own account,

credit being furnished by the company for the latter purpose at the

usual interest. The rate of freight ranged from £35 to £40 per ton,

though in 1796 the _Admiral Gardner_, a ship of 813 tons, commanded by

John Woolmore, Esq., was chartered for “six voyages certain” from London

to India and return, at £50 for every ton of cargo carried. Even at the

lowest rate of £35 per ton, the voyage out and home of about eighteen

months yielded a captain some £3955, and if he carried goods on his own

account, as was usually the case, he realized a much larger sum.

Captains were also allowed primage, which was a percentage upon the

total gross freight earned by the ship, and the passage money for

passengers carried, except the Company’s troops, less the cost of

living. Considering that the passage money to or from India or China

was for a subaltern £95, and for a general officer £234, to say nothing

of directors and governors and their families, and that these ships

usually carried from twenty to thirty passengers, we may conclude that

this also was a considerable source of revenue.

Then captains were permitted to own the dunnage used for the protection

of homeward cargoes, which they supplied in the form of stone and

chinaware, canes, bamboos, rattans, sapan-wood, horns, nankins, etc. All

of these goods might in those days be bought at very low prices in India

and China, and under the monopoly of the East India Company, they sold

at very high prices in London. Most of this “dunnage,” however, came to

the captains in the form of presents, known in the fragrant language of

the Far East as “cumshaws,” from admiring Indian and Chinese merchants.

Naturally all of the cargoes were well dunnaged, so much so, indeed, as

finally to attract the attention of the benevolent Court of Directors,

who deemed it expedient to restrain the zeal of their captains in this

direction by issuing an order that “as dunnage has been brought home in

the Company’s ships far beyond what is necessary for the protection of

the cargo and stores, occupying tonnage to the exclusion of goods, or

cumbering the ship, the court have resolved that unless what is brought

home of those articles appears absolutely and _bona fide_ necessary for

and used as dunnage, the exceeding of such requisite quantity shall be

charged against the tonnage of the commanders and officers.” This

dunnage business had been progressing favorably for about two centuries

when this mandate was issued, and had enriched many a deserving mariner.

It was estimated that an Indiaman’s captain received in one way or

another from £6000 to £10,000 per annum, and there is a record of one

ship that made what was known as a double voyage--that is, from London

to India, China, and return--a twenty-two months’ cruise--whose

commander made profits amounting to the tidy sum of £30,000.

The mates and petty officers were also well provided for, having forty

and one half tons of space allotted among them to do with as they

pleased, and all hands were supplied with wines, spirits, and beer in

quantities which if stated might seem like an attempt to impose upon the

reader’s credulity.

A more showy if less substantial honor was conferred by the distinctive

dress of the company’s servants. The captains were arrayed in a

picturesque uniform consisting of a blue coat with black velvet lapels,

cuffs and collar, bright gold embroidery, and yellow gilt buttons

engraved with the Company’s crest, waistcoat and breeches of deep buff,

black stock, or neck-cloth, cocked hat and side-arms. The chief, second,

third, and fourth officers wore uniforms of a similar though less

gorgeous character, and all were particularly requested “not on any

account to appear in boots, black breeches, and stockings” and “to

appear in full dress when attending the Court of Directors.”

The charter of the East India Company provided that its ships should fly

the long coach-whip pennant of the Royal Navy. During the last quarter

of the eighteenth and first part of the nineteenth centuries, the ships

were built, rigged, equipped, armed, manned, and handled like the

frigates of the Royal Navy, though they were beautifully and luxuriously

fitted for passengers, many of whom were personages of high social and

official rank. They differed, however, from the frigates in one

important particular. Whereas, the navy constructors, as we have seen,

profited by the models of the French frigates, the builders of the

Indiamen kept to the full-bodied, kettle-bottomed model, in order that

these ships might carry large cargoes. They were of quite as bad a type

as the ships of the more humble merchant marine. I have before me the

particulars of one of the East India Company’s ships that carried four

hundred and nineteen tons of general cargo, and required eighty tons of

iron kentledge to keep her on her legs. They were nevertheless grand,

stately-looking ships, and were well cared for.

The crews were divided into the usual two watches, but the officers had

three watches, four hours on and eight hours off. The watches were

divided into messes of eight men each, who had a space allotted to them

between the guns in the between-decks. Here their hammocks were slung

and their chests, mess-kits, copper pots, kettles, and tin pannikins

were stowed, clean and bright, under the inspection of the commander and

the surgeon, who were assisted in their duties by wearing white gloves

with which to test the appearance of cleanliness. The crews slept in

hammocks which were stowed in nettings at seven bells in the morning

watch, to the pipe of the boatswain’s whistle. The decks were washed

and holystoned in the morning watch, and at eight bells all hands

breakfasted. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, the between-decks were turned

out, washed, and holystoned. On Sunday mornings the crew was mustered

and inspected by the chief officer, and then assembled for Divine

service, which was read by the commander, as the Court of Directors

required the captains “to keep up the worship of Almighty God, under a

penalty of two guineas for every omission not satisfactorily accounted

for in the log-book.”

The crews were drilled at the guns and with cutlass, musket, and

boarding-pikes, and other small arms, Courts-martial were held on board

and the rawhide cat-o’-nine-tails was freely used by the boatswain upon

the naked backs and shoulders of triced-up seamen--one, two, three

dozen, perhaps, with a bucket of salt water to rinse off the blood. This

was not so brutal a form of punishment as may perhaps appear to

landsmen, and was probably the best method of enforcing proper

discipline among the reckless men who for the most part formed the crews

of ships at that period.

These vessels carried large crews, whose work was easy and who were well

looked after and provided for. They had plenty of the best food and

quite as much rum as was good for them. In the dog-watches they were

allowed and even encouraged to enjoy themselves in the manner known on

board ship as “skylarking.” Saturdays they had to themselves to wash and

mend their clothes, and in the dog-watches of that day they were given

an extra allowance of grog, with which to drink long life and happiness

to sweethearts and wives, with music, dance, and song. Seamen who had

served eight years in the Company’s ships were entitled to liberal

pensions, as were also the wives and children of those who had been

killed in the service of the Company, or who had been so maimed or

wounded as to be unable to perform further service. There can be no

question that the directors of the East India Company took good care of

those who served them faithfully.

The East Indiamen were always fine, strong ships, built of oak, elm, and

teak, copper-fastened throughout, their cost being £40 per ton ready for

sea; but they were very slow, and their passages were reckoned not by

days but by months. Every evening, no matter how fine the weather,

royals and all light sails were taken in and stowed, and the royal yards

sent on deck. If the weather looked at all as if it might become

threatening during the night, the topgallantsails and mainsail were

stowed and a single reef put in the topsails. Safety and comfort were

the watchwords, with no desire or effort for speed. No one ever knew how

fast these vessels really could sail, as they never had any one on board

who tried to get the best speed out of them, but without doubt their

passages might have been considerably shortened with even a moderate

amount of vigilance and energy. All we know is, how slow they were. Yet

these ships were fought through many a desperate battle upon the sea,

with foreign men of war, privateers, and other foes, and the skill and

valor of their captains, officers, and

[Illustration: An East Indiaman, 1788]

crews shed a new lustre upon the ensign under which they sailed. Indeed,

the maritime records of the East India Company read more like a naval

history than the annals of ships engaged in commercial pursuits.

In some respects these Indiamen were remarkable ships, and they should,

like men, be judged by the standards of the times in which they existed.

They were owned by a company which for more than two centuries held a

monopoly of the British China and East India trade without the spur of

competition urging them to perfect their vessels and to exact vigorous

service from the officers and crews who sailed them. Under such a system

there could be no marked progress in naval science. It would, of course,

be an exaggeration to say that there had been no improvement in British

shipping from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the Victorian era, but it

was so gradual as to be perceptible only when measured by centuries.

Thus we speak of the ships of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth

centuries, and upon examination are surprised to find how few and slight

were the improvements made during these three hundred years in the

design and construction of hulls or in spars, rigging, and sails. The

only striking improvement was a modification of the really beautiful

ornamentation which embellished and at the same time lumbered up the

lofty hulls of the earlier ships.

Some of the Indiamen were built in Wigram’s famous yard at Blackwall on

the Thames, which was in existence for more than two centuries. Indeed,

some of the first ships owned by the East India Company, the _Dragon_,

_Susannah_, and _Merchants’ Hope_ were launched there. During the reigns

of Elizabeth, James, Charles I., Charles II., and the Georges, this yard

turned out many of the ships owned in the Royal Navy, and through all

these years it had in time of need been a faithful standby of the

British Government. Some of the ships of the Company were, however,

built in other yards and in their own building establishment at Bombay.

During the years 1819 and 1820 the Company sent to their different

stations in Bengal, Madras, Bombay, China, Ceylon, and Penang,

twenty-three of their own ships aggregating 26,200 tons, besides

twenty-one chartered vessels measuring 10,948 tons. Among the Company’s

ships were the _Canning_, _Duke of York_, _Kellie Castle_, _Lady

Melville_, _Thomas Coutts_, and _Waterloo_, built by Wigram, and all

from 1325 to 1350 tons, each mounting 20 guns with a crew of 130 men.

The _Buckinghamshire_, _Earl of Balcarras_, _Herefordshire_, _Thomas

Granville_, _Minerva_, and _Charles Grant_, all from 923 to 1417 tons,

26 guns, and 130 men with the exception of the _Minerva_ and _Thomas

Granville_ which mounted the same number of guns but had 115 and 107

men, respectively, were built by the Company at Bombay. The _Asia_,

_Dorsetshire_, _Duneira_, _Marquis of Wellington_, _Prince Regent_,

_Princess Amelia_, and _Windsor_, which were all over 1000 tons and

mounted 26 guns with crews of from 115 to 130 each, were built in the

Barnard yard, also on the Thames. The _London_, _Lowther Castle_,

_Marquis of Camden_, and _Perseverance_, all from 1329 to 1408 tons, 26

guns, and 130 men each, were built in the Pitcher yard at Northfleet in

Kent. The _Earl of Balcarras_, of 1417 tons, built in 1815 at Bombay,

was the largest ship owned by the Company. She was built of India teak,

copper-fastened throughout, and mounted batteries on two decks. Her crew

of 133 men was made up as follows: Commander, 6 mates, 2 surgeons, 6

midshipmen, purser, gunner, carpenter, master-at-arms, armour, butcher,

baker, poulterer, caulker, cooper, 2 stewards, 2 cooks, 8 boatswains,

gunner’s, carpenter’s, caulker’s, and cooper’s mates, 6 quartermasters,

sailmaker, 7 servants for the commander and officers, and 78 seamen

before the mast.

These facts illustrate not only the manner in which the ships of the

East India Company were officered and manned, but also the extravagant

scale upon which the affairs of the Company were administered. Of

course, a gross monopoly like this, legalized though it was by Acts of

Parliament, could not continue indefinitely among a free and intelligent

people. For many years mutterings of discontent, gathering in force and

volume, had been heard from all parts of Great Britain, indicating the

disapproval of the people concerning the methods of the Company. At

last, in 1832, these mutterings burst into a storm of indignation from

the people through their representatives in Parliament, which swept the

frigates of the Honorable John Company off the face of the deep; for in

that year commerce to the Orient was thrown open to all British ships,

and knowing their utter inability to compete successfully with free and

intelligent personal energy, the East India Company condemned or sold

their entire fleet. Sixteen ships were broken up for their massive

copper fastenings and other valuable material, while forty-six were

sold, and no finer tribute can be offered to the excellent construction

of these vessels than the figures which they realized at what may justly

be called a forced sale.

Naturally these ships were not all sold at the some moment, as some of

them were on their way to China and India when the crash came; in fact,

it required about three years to close them all out; still, it was well

known that the Court of Directors had decreed that they must all be

sold, and this gave bargain hunters a chance to practise their wiles. At

first two or three of the ships were put up at public auction; the bids

were few and meagre, indicating an assumed and perhaps preconcerted

apathy. Negotiations of a less public nature ensued, which resulted as

follows: The _Buckinghamshire_, of 1369 tons, then eighteen years old,

was sold to Thacker & Mangels for £10,550. The _Canning_, 1326 tons,

seventeen years old, sold for breaking up to Joseph Somes at £5750. The

_Minerva_, 976 tons, eighteen years old, ready for sea, to Henry

Templer, at £11,800; this ship, after thirty-seven years of service in

the India trade was wrecked off the Cape of Good Hope in 1850. The _Earl

of Balcarras_, 1417 tons, nineteen years old, to Thomas A. Shuter for

£15,700; this ship after fifty-two years’ service, became a receiving

hulk on the west coast of Africa. The _Bombay_, 1246 tons, twenty-two

years old, sold to Duncan Dunbar for £11,000, was wrecked after

fifty-nine years of service. The _Lowther Castle_, 1408 tons, nineteen

years old, went to Joseph Somes for £13,950. The _Waterloo_, 1325 tons,

eighteen years old, was sold for breaking up at £7200. The _Thames_,

1360 tons, thirteen years old, went to James Chrystall at £10,700. The

remaining ships of the fleet brought equally good prices. Thus ended the

maritime exploits of the “United Company of Merchant Venturers of

England trading to the East Indies”; although its influence upon the

merchant marine of Great Britain continued for many years.

With the opening of the China and India trade to all British ships,

there came the long-wished for competition--one of the hinges upon which

commerce swings--and a number of British ship-owners, hardly known

before, now came into prominence. Among them were Green, Wigram, Dunbar,

and Somes, of London, and the Smiths, of Newcastle. So strongly was the

example of the East India Company impressed upon their minds that they

still continued to construct frigate-built ships, though with some

slight effort toward economy and speed. Many of the former captains,

officers, and seamen of the East India Company sailed for the private

firms, and so the personnel of the British merchant marine was much

benefited. The private ships, of course, were not permitted to fly the

naval pennant, but in other respects the service remained pretty nearly

the same. Much of the wasteful extravagance was naturally eliminated,

and the “indulgences” were substantially reduced, but the time-honored

practice of “making snug for the night” was too ancient and comfortable

a custom to be very speedily abolished.

Joseph Somes, one of the promoters of Lloyd’s Register, bought a number

of the Company’s old ships, as we have seen, and in addition he built

the _Maria Somes_, _Princess Royal_, _Sir George Seymour_, and _Castle

Eden_. Thomas and William Smith, of Newcastle, were an old ship-building

firm, who had in 1808, at their yard in St. Peter’s, constructed the

frigate _Bucephalus_, 970 tons, 52 guns, for the Royal Navy, while in

later years they built many merchant vessels. The finest of their new

ships were the _Marlborough_ and the _Blenheim_, of 1350 tons each,

built under special government survey and granted certificates as

frigates equipped for naval service. This firm also built the

_Gloriana_, 1057 tons, _Hotspur_, 1142 tons, and _St. Lawrence_, 1049

tons, all of the frigate type, though employed as merchantmen.

Duncan Dunbar owned a number of fine ships and eventually became the

largest ship-owner of his time in Great Britain. Many of his vessels

were built in India. The _Marion_, 684 tons, built in Calcutta in 1834,

was in active service until 1877, when she was wrecked on the

Newfoundland coast. The _David Malcolm_ was built in 1839, and the

_Cressy_, 720 tons, and the _Hyderabad_, 804 tons, in 1843, at

Sunderland.

Robert Wigram and Richard Green, at one time partners, built and owned

their own ships, known as the “Blackwall frigates.” In 1834-35, they

brought out the _Malabar_, _Monarch_, and _Windsor Castle_, and

subsequently the _Carnatic_, _Prince of Wales_, _Agamemnon_, _Alfred_,

and others, from 1200 to 1400 tons each. As late as 1849 the _Alfred_,

of

[Illustration: The “Marlborough” and “Blenheim”]

only 1291 tons, commanded by Captain Henning, carried a crew of eighty

men, which included five mates, three boatswains, two carpenters, four

quartermasters, a number of stewards and cooks, with sixty men before

the mast.

These were the last of the frigate-built ships; for when the Navigation

Laws were repealed in 1849, and the carrying trade of Great Britain and

her colonies was thrown open to all nations, the British merchants and

ship-builders found it necessary to construct a very different type of

vessel in order to compete in the ocean carrying trade.

Farewell, then, to the gallant old Indiaman, with her hammock nettings,

bunt jiggers, rolling tackles, jeers, gammon lashings, bentinck shrouds,

and cat harpings, dear to sailors’ hearts; and good-bye to her sailors,

too, sons of the men who fought in the victorious fleets of Nelson,

fellows who drank gunpowder in their rum before stripping to battle with

the enemy, who could stand triced up by the thumbs and take their

four-and-twenty of rawhide on the naked back without wetting an eyelash.

And farewell to the merry dance and song, the extra dram of grog in the

dog-watch, and jovial toasts to sweethearts and wives, as the sun sinks

beneath the blue wave and the cool evening trade wind fills the sails.

CHAPTER III

THE NORTH ATLANTIC PACKET SHIPS, 1815-1850

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 both Great Britain and France, but in

1815, when the smoke of battle had cleared away and the rights of

American ships and seamen had been established upon the sea,

ship-building was taken up with renewed energy.

The famous New York-Liverpool packets came out in 1816. The pioneer,

Black Ball Line, established by Isaac Wright, Francis and Jeremiah

Thompson, Benjamin Marshall, and others, led the van for years. The

original ships belonging to this line were the _Amity_, _Courier_,

_Pacific_, and _James Monroe_, of about 400 tons; they were followed by

the _New York_, _Eagle_, _Orbit_, _Nestor_, _James Cropper_, _William

Thompson_, _Albion_, _Canada_, _Britannia_, and _Columbia_, vessels of

from 300 to 500 tons register. For the first ten years the passages of

the fleet averaged 23 days outward and 40 days to the westward. The

fastest outward passage was made by the _Canada_ in 15 days, 18 hours,

and her total averages--19 days outward and 36 days homeward--were the

best of that period.

These ships were all flush deck, with a caboose or galley and the

housed-over long-boat between the fore-and main-masts. The long-boat,

which was, of course, securely lashed, carried the live stock,--pens for

sheep and pigs in the bottom, ducks and geese on a deck laid across the

gunwales, and on top of all, hens and chickens. The cow-house was lashed

over the main hatch, and there were also other small hatch-houses and a

companion aft leading to the comfortable, well-appointed cabins, which

were lighted by deck skylights, candles, and whale-oil lamps. The

steerage passengers lived in the between-decks amidships, and the crew’s

forecastle was in the fore-peak. The stores, spare sails, gear, etc.,

were kept in the lazarette abaft the cabins, with a small hatch leading

to the main-deck. The hulls were painted black from the water-line up,

with bright scraped bends, which were varnished, and the inner side of

the bulwarks, rails, hatch-houses, and boats were painted green. It was

said that some of the early Black Ball captains had commanded privateers

during the War of 1812. At all events, these little ships, with their

full-bodied, able hulls, and their stout spars, sails, and rigging, were

driven outward and homeward across the Atlantic, through the fogs and

ice of summer and the snow, sleet, and gales of winter, for all the

speed that was in them. They were in their day the only regular means of

communication between the United States and Europe. Their captains were

the finest men whose services money could secure, and to their care were

entrusted the lives of eminent men and women, government despatches, the

mails and specie. Rain or shine, blow high, blow low, one of the Black

Ball liners sailed from New York for Liverpool on the first and

sixteenth of each month, and for many years these were the European mail

days throughout the United States.

In 1821, Thomas Cope of Philadelphia started his line of packets between

that port and Liverpool with the ships _Lancaster_, of 290 tons, and

_Tuscarora_, of 379 tons, which were soon followed by larger vessels,

among them some of the finest ships on the Atlantic.

The Red Star Line of Liverpool packets from New York was also

established in 1821 with the _Panther_, _Meteor_, _Hercules_, and second

_Manhattan_, and soon after, the Swallow Tail Line of Grinnell, Minturn

& Co., came into existence with the _Napoleon_, _Silas Richards_,

_George_, and _York_. Grinnell, Minturn & Co.’s London Line was

established in 1823 with the _Brighton_, _Columbia_, _Cortes_, and

_Corinthian_, of less than 500 tons each, and during this year John

Griswold’s London Line was also started with the _Sovereign_,

_President_, _Cambria_, _Hudson_, and the second _Ontario_.

The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 gave a great impetus to commerce,

causing New York to become the eastern gateway of the United States, and

from that date to 1850 may be counted the glorious years of the Atlantic

packet ships.

The Dramatic Line to Liverpool was started in 1836 with the _Siddons_,

_Shakespeare_, _Garrick_, and _Roscius_, under the management of E. K.

Collins. These vessels did not much exceed 700 tons, and when, in 1837,

Isaac Webb & Co. built the _Sheridan_,

[Illustration: The “England”]

of 895 tons for this line, she was regarded as too large for a Liverpool

packet, and after a few voyages was placed in the China trade.

The first Havre line of packets was founded by Francis Depaw in 1822

with the _Stephania_, _Montana_, _Henry IV._, _Helen Mar_, _Louis

Philippe_, and _Silvia de Grasse_. A second line was formed in 1827 with

the _Baltimore_, _Charles Carroll_, _Erie_, _France_, _Oneida_,

_Mercury_, _Utica_, _Rhone_, _William Tell_, and in 1832 a third line,

with the _Formosa_, _Galia_, _Albany_, _Duchesse d’Orléans_, _Isaac

Bell_, _Queen Mab_, and _Don Quixote_.

In 1831 the New Orleans Line from New York was formed with the

_Nashville_, _Huntsville_, _Louisville_, _Creole_, and _Natchez_. These

were the first packet ships built with full poop-decks, then quite a new

feature in ship-building. Gradually the flush deck gave place to

house-and poop-deck cabins, then to the topgallant, forecastle, and

house from the foremast to the main hatch. The fashion of painting also

changed, and most if not all the packets carried painted ports, while

the inside green was replaced by white or light shades of other colors.

After the Black Ball Line passed into the hands of Captain Charles H.

Marshall in 1836, the _Columbus_, _Oxford_, _Cambridge_, _New York_,

_England_, _Yorkshire_, _Fidelia_, _Isaac Wright_, _Isaac Webb_, the

third _Manhattan_, _Montezuma_, _Alexander Marshall_, _Great Western_,

and _Harvest Queen_ were gradually added to the fleet. To meet the

competition of the Black Ball Line, the Swallow Tail Line built the

_Washington_, _Independence_, _Pennsylvania_, _Roscoe_, _Patrick Henry_,

_Ashburton_, _Hottinger_, _Queen of the West_, _Liverpool_, _New

World_, and _Cornelius Grinnell_.

The packet ships slowly increased in tonnage, but did not much exceed

1000 tons until 1846 when the _New World_, of 1404 tons, was built by

Donald McKay, followed by the _Guy Mannering_, of 1419 tons, and the

_Albert Gallatin_, of 1435 tons, built by William H. Webb in 1849, these

three vessels being the largest merchant ships afloat at that period.

The Black Ball ships carried a large painted black ball below the

close-reef band in their foretopsails, while the Dramatic Line, not to

be outdone, carried a black X which extended diagonally, almost from

clew to earring, across their foretopsails. All packet ships carried a

white light at the bowsprit cap from sunset to sunrise, but side-lights

did not come into use until some years later. These ships also carried a

flare-up which was kept in the companion ready for immediate use.

Throughout the various changes of management the Black Ball liners

carried a crimson swallowtail flag with a black ball in the centre; the

Dramatic liners, blue above white with a white L in blue and a black L

in white for the Liverpool ships, and a red swallowtail with white ball

and black L in the centre for the New Orleans ships; the Union Line to

Havre, a white field with black U in the centre; John Griswold’s London

Line, red swallowtail with black X in centre; the Swallowtail Line, red

before white, swallowtail for the London ships, and blue before white,

swallowtail for the Liverpool ships; Robert Kermit’s Liverpool Line,

blue swallowtail with red star in the centre; Spofford & Tillotson’s

Liverpool Line, yellow field, blue cross with white S. T. in the centre.

These flags disappeared from the sea many years ago.

The packet captain, no matter what his age might be, was usually spoken

of as “the old man,” a title frequently embellished by the crew with

vigorous epithets, which seemed to them appropriate, but which must now,

I fear, be left to the imagination of the reader. Few if any Americans

sailed regularly before the mast on board of these vessels, the crews

being largely composed of the most abandoned scoundrels out of British

and continental jails. I shall have something further to say concerning

these interesting beings in connection with their exploits on board of

the California clipper ships.

Among the famous New York packet captains, and there were many of them,

were Charles H. Marshall, of the _South America_, _James Cropper_, and

_Britannia_; N. B. Palmer, of the _Siddons_, _Garrick_, _Huntsville_,

and _Hibernia_, and his brother, Alexander, later of the _Garrick_; F.

A. De Peyster, of the _Columbus_ and _Ontario_; John Collins, an uncle

of E. K. Collins, of the _Shakespeare_; John Eldridge, of the

_Liverpool_, and his brother Asa, of the _Roscius_, and Oliver, another

brother, who was mate with Captain John; Ezra Nye, of the _Independence_

and _Henry Clay_; William Skiddy, an older brother of Francis Skiddy, of

the _New World_; Benjamin Trask, of the _Virginia_, _Jamestown_, and

_Saratoga_; Joseph Delano, of the _Columbia_ and _Patrick Henry_; John

Britton, of the _Constitution_, later United States consul at

Southampton; Ira Bursley, of the _Hottinger_; Philip Woodhouse, of the

_Queen of the West_; James A. Wooton, of the _Havre_; William H. Allen,

of the _Virginia_, _Waterloo_, _West Point_, and _Constellation_; E. E.

Morgan, of the _Hudson_ and _Victoria_; John Johnston, of the _Rhone_

and _Isaac Bell_; and of a later period, Robert C. Cutting, of the

_Adelaide_; and Samuel Samuels, of the _Dreadnought_.

It required an unusual combination of qualities to command these Western

Ocean packet ships successfully. Above all things it was necessary that

the captains should be thorough seamen and navigators; also that they

should be men of robust health and great physical endurance, as their

duties often kept them on deck for days and nights together in storm,

cold, and fog. Then there were frequently desperate characters among the

crew and steerage passengers, who required to be handled with moral

courage and physical force, while the cabin passengers were usually

gentlemen and gentlewomen of good breeding, accustomed to courtesy and

politeness, which they expected to find in the captains with whom they

sailed. These requirements evolved a remarkable type of men, hearty,

bluff, and jovial, without coarseness, who would never be mistaken for

anything but gentlemen.

The packet mates, having no social duties on shipboard to distract their

attention, were able to devote their time and energies to improving the

morals and manners of the crew, and it was on board the Black Ball

liners that “belaying pin soup” and “handspike hash,” so stimulating to

honest toil, were first introduced for the benefit of mutinous or

slothful mariners.

Plenty of sail was carried by the packet ships

[Illustration: The “Montezuma”]

of this period--square lower, topmast and topgallant studding sails,

skysails set on sliding gunter masts which were struck in the winter

time, with three reefs in the topsails and single reefs in the

topgallantsails. The racing was fast and furious. In 1837 a match was

made between the Black Ball liner _Columbus_, 597 tons, Captain De

Peyster, and the _Sheridan_, Captain Russell, of the Dramatic Line, then

on her first voyage, for a stake of $10,000 a side, from New York to

Liverpool, play or pay. The _Sheridan_, though only 895 tons, carried a

crew of forty picked men before the mast, with regular pay of $25 a

month, and the promise of a bonus of $50 each, provided their ship won

the race. The ships sailed together from New York on Thursday, February

2, 1837, and the _Columbus_ won the race in sixteen days, followed two

days later by the _Sheridan_. This is the first ocean match across the

Atlantic of which any record has been preserved, though, of course,

there had been many informal races long before.

The _Isaac Bell_, commanded by Captain John Johnston, made three voyages

from Havre to New York in less than eighteen days each, one being in the

month of January, which is about the hardest month in the twelve for a

ship bound to the westward. The _Independence_, 734 tons, built by Smith

& Dimon in 1834, for a number of years when commanded by Captain Ezra

Nye, took the President’s message to England, her sailing day being

fixed for the 6th of March for that purpose. She more than once made the

passage from New York to Liverpool in fourteen days. In November, 1846,

the _Yorkshire_, Captain Bailey, made the passage from Liverpool to New

York in sixteen days. This is believed to be the fastest passage ever

made from Liverpool to the westward by a packet ship. The _Montezuma_,

1070 tons, and the _Patrick Henry_, 997 tons, the _Southampton_, 1273

tons, built by Westervelt & Mackay, in 1849, also the _St. Andrew_,

Captain William C. Thompson, of Robert Kermit’s Line, all made the

passage from New York to Liverpool in fifteen days.

It should, however, be remembered that these packet ships, running

regularly across the Atlantic for many years, necessarily at times

encountered favorable conditions of wind and weather; whereas, a single

ship making the passage occasionally, as did the clipper ships in later

years, might not find so favorable a slant in a lifetime. None of the

packet ships that made these remarkable passages could average more than

twelve knots for twenty-four hours, and the utmost limit of their speed

under the most favorable conditions was not more than fourteen knots, if

as much. Most of these ships, however, made the passage from New York to

Liverpool at one time or another in sixteen days, and there were few

that did not at least once make the run in seventeen days. The secret of

the speed of these ships was that they were commanded by men who kept

them moving night and day, in all sorts of weather, and never let up on

their ships or crews from the time they cast off from the wharf at New

York until they ran their lines ashore on the pier-head at Liverpool.

While it is true that the New York packet ships were by no means

clippers, still, their models and rig were admirably adapted to the

work which they had to perform. It was a splendid service and a fine

prelude to the clipper ship era.

Of the earlier New York ship-builders, Henry Eckford, who came from

Scotland in 1796, when twenty years of age, died in New York in 1832;

Christian Bergh, who was born in Wettenburgh, Rhinebeck precinct, in

1763, died in New York in 1843; and Isaac Webb, born in Stamford,

Connecticut, in 1794, the son of Wilsey Webb, died in New York in 1840.

To the memories of these men, the founders of modern ship-building in

the United States, the highest praise is due for their integrity,

perseverance, and mechanical skill.

Of the next generation of builders, Stephen Smith, who like Isaac Webb

was born in Stamford, formed with John Dimon the firm of Smith & Dimon,

and prior to 1843 they had built among other vessels the packet ships

_Roscoe_ and _Independence_, the ship _Mary Howland_, the North River

steamboats _Rochester_, _James Kent_, and _Oregon_, and the Greek

frigate _Liberator_. Their building yard was at the foot of Fourth

Street, East River. David Brown and Jacob Bell formed the firm of Brown

& Bell, and had a yard at the foot of Stanton Street, a part of which

had formerly been the Henry Eckford yard. Prior to 1843, this firm had

built the ships _Orbit_ and _William Tell_ in 1821, the _Canada_,

_Calhoun_, _Savannah_, _Pacific_, _Washington_, _Great Britain_, _John

Jay_, _Britannia_, _George Canning_, _Caledonia_, _Hibernia_, and

_Congress_ from 1821 to 1831; the _Victoria_, _Europe_, _Francis Depaw_,

_Silvia de Grasse_, _Vicksburg_, _Emerald_, _Switzerland_,

_Shakespeare_, _Garrick_, _Sheridan_, _Siddons_, _Roscius_, and

_Cornelia_ from 1831 to 1841; and the _Liverpool_, _Queen of the West_,

and _Henry Clay_ in the period from 1841 to 1843, inclusive. Besides

these, they built fifteen other ships, seven steamers, eight barques and

brigs, thirty-nine steamboats, six ferry-and tow-boats, nineteen sloops

and schooners, seven pilot boats, and four yachts.

Upon the death of Isaac Webb in 1840, his son William H. Webb, then only

twenty-four years of age, continued the firm of Webb & Allen which built

during the next ten years the packet ships _Montezuma_, _Yorkshire_,

_Havre_, _Fidelia_, second _Columbia_, _Sir Robert Peel_, _Splendid_,

_Bavaria_, _Isaac Wright_, _Ivanhoe_, _Yorktown_, _London_, _Guy

Mannering_, _Albert Gallatin_, _Isaac Webb_, and _Vanguard_. Their yard

extended from the foot of Fifth to Seventh Street, East River.

Jacob A. Westervelt, born at Hackensack, New Jersey, in 1800, was the

son of a ship-builder. He went to sea before the mast and upon his

return served his apprenticeship with Christian Bergh, subsequently

becoming a partner in the firm and retiring with an ample fortune in

1837. Mr. Westervelt then made an extensive trip through Europe, and

after returning built two ships at Williamsburg. He formed the firm of

Westervelt & Mackay and built a number of London and Havre packet ships,

among which were the _Ocean Queen_, _West Point_, _Toronto_,

_Devonshire_, and _American Eagle_. The front door of Mr. Westervelt’s

house in East Broadway was ornamented with a beautiful carved stone cap

representing the stern of a packet ship. In later

[Illustration: The “Yorkshire”]

years, he took his sons Daniel and Aaron into partnership, the firm

being known as Westervelt & Co. Jacob A. Westervelt was Mayor of New

York in 1854.

George Steers, destined to become famous as the designer of the

_Adriatic_, the _Niagara_, and the yacht _America_, was born in

Washington, D. C., in the year 1819, and in 1843, after having built a

number of fast sail-and row-boats for racing, entered into partnership

with William Hathorne, the firm being known as Hathorne & Steers. Up to

this time Mr. Steers, though he had shown unusual ability as a mechanic,

cannot be said to have done anything predicting his future triumphs.

Other firms that were building good vessels at this time were Thomas and

William Collier; Perin, Patterson & Stack; Laurence & Folkes, and John

Englis, some of whom we shall hear of again.

The merchants of Boston after the War of 1812, built or bought most of

their vessels at Medford, Newburyport, Salem, Scituate, and Duxbury,

within the State, and at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and other ports

where timber was more plentiful. It was not until 1834, when the East

Boston Timber Company was incorporated by James Paige, Francis Oliver,

and Gideon Barstow, that ship building began to flourish about Boston.

Stephen White was the moving spirit in this transaction, as in 1833 he

had bought on behalf of himself and associates, eighty thousand feet of

land in East Boston, between Border and Liverpool streets, at three

cents per foot, for the establishment of a timber yard and dock. Mr.

White also purchased Grand Island, in the Niagara River, which was

covered with valuable timber. Sawmills were erected on the island, and

a supply of the finest quality of ship timber was created, and brought

by the Erie Canal to tide-water, thence by coasting vessels to East

Boston. This attracted ship-builders from other towns, and eventually

made Boston a famous ship-building centre. Stephen White owned the first

ship built in East Boston, the _Niagara_, of 460 tons, appropriately

named after the river from which the timber used in her construction had

come. She was built in 1834, by Brown, Bates & Delano in their yard at

the foot of Central Square, and was launched amid an uproar of guns,

fire crackers, shouts, and music, with a bottle of good Medford rum

trickling down her port bow.

The first Boston ferry-boats, the _East Boston_, _Essex_, and

_Maverick_, were built at East Boston in 1834-35, but nothing further

was done in ship-building there until 1839, when Samuel Hall a

well-known builder, of Marshfield and Duxbury, removed to East Boston

and established a yard at the west end of Maverick Street. Mr. Hall not

only contributed to the reputation and welfare of East Boston by

building a large number of splendid vessels and providing employment for

a great number of men, but he was also active in all municipal affairs.

In appreciation of his successful efforts for the introduction of

Cochituate water into East Boston in 1851, his fellow-citizens presented

him with a thousand-dollar service of plate, consisting of eleven

pieces, with the usual inscription, with which most of us are more or

less familiar.

The Briggs Brothers, of South Boston, came from an old and celebrated

ship-building family of Scituate, their great-grandfather having been a

ship-builder of note in colonial times, while their grandfather, James

Briggs, was the builder of the famous _Columbia_, in 1773. After his

death the yard was continued by his sons, Henry and Cushing, who built

some of the finest ships sailing out of Boston, besides many of the New

Bedford and Nantucket whalers, during the first half of the last

century. The brothers E. & H. O. Briggs, who established their yard at

South Boston in 1848, were the sons of Cushing Briggs, and they

possessed the skill in design and thorough knowledge of construction for

which the family had long been famous among the merchants and

underwriters of Boston.

At Medford, on the Mystic, Thatcher Magoun established his shipyard in

1802, and there built the brig _Mt. Etna_, of 187 tons, in 1803,

followed by other merchant vessels as well as privateers for the War of

1812. The _Avon_, the most famous of these privateers, was launched in

twenty-six days after her keel was laid. In 1822, Mr. Magoun built the

_Amethyst_, _Emerald_, _Sapphire_, and _Topaz_, ships of about 350 tons,

for the Boston and Liverpool Packet Company, which ran for a few years

between Boston, Charleston, S. C., and Liverpool, and home direct to

Boston. One of the novel features of this line was the arrangement as to

agents, their office being at the end of India Wharf, but in Liverpool

each ship had a separate agent, as it was imagined that four agents

would attract so many times the more business. It is evident that the

promoters of this line had something to learn concerning Liverpool

ship-brokers and their system of working freights, for the enterprise

was not successful.

Another Liverpool Line was started in Boston in 1828, and the ships

_Boston_, _Lowell_, _Liverpool_, _Plymouth_, and _Trenton_ of this line

were built by Mr. Magoun. He also built between 1822 and 1829, the ships

_Lucilla_, 369 tons, owned by Daniel P. Parker; _Brookline_, 376 tons,

and _Courser_, 300 tons, owned by Henry Oxnard; and the _Margaret

Forbes_, 398 tons, owned by Bryant & Sturgis, all sailing out of Boston.

Other Medford ship-builders were Sprague & James, Isaac Taylor, Hayden &

Cudworth, J. O. Curtis, Waterman & Elwell, Samuel Lapham, and Paul

Curtis. Their ships were known all over the world as fine, well-built

vessels. In 1845 one quarter of all the shipwrights in Massachusetts

were employed in Medford, and 9660 tons of shipping were launched from

its building yards.

The leading ship-builder at Newburyport was John Currier, Jr., who from

1831 to 1843 built the ships _Brenda_, _Republic_, _Oberlin_, _St.

Clair_, _Leonore_, and _Columbus_ for the Black Ball Line, and in 1836

the _Talbot_, _Flavio_, _Navigator_, _Huntress_, _Strabo_, and

_Virginia_, ranging from 339 to 365 tons, as well as several barques,

brigs, and schooners. The firms of George W. Jackman and Currier &

Townsend had not been formed at this date.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was also noted for her ships and seamen, the

principal builders in 1840 being George Raynes, Fernald & Pettigrew, and

Toby & Littlefield, while the Shackfords and Salters had been

sea-captains for generations. Mr. Raynes was born at York, Maine, in

1799 and in 1835 removed to Portsmouth where he established a shipyard

upon the famous Boyd estate, with its fine old trees, lawns, and gardens

of vegetables, fruits, and flowers sloping to the clear blue water’s

edge. The family residence, erected by Colonel George Boyd in 1767, was

an excellent example of colonial architecture. In later days it became

known as the Raynes mansion, and for many years was one of the show

places of Portsmouth. The original beauty of the grounds was preserved

so far as possible, and this was perhaps the most beautiful and

picturesque shipyard of modern times.

The most famous clipper-ship builder of his time, Donald McKay, was born

at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, in 1810, and was a descendant of that sturdy

Highland chieftain, Donald McKay, who died at Tain, County Ross,

Scotland, in 1395. At about the age of sixteen, Donald went to New York,

where he worked and learnt his trade in the shipyards of Isaac Webb,

Brown & Bell, and perhaps others. By his energy and mechanical talents,

he soon became a master shipwright, and turned his face toward the

Eastern country again. In 1840 he finished the ship _Delia Walker_, of

427 tons, for John Currier at Newburyport. This vessel was owned by

Dennis Condry, who, when visiting his ship from time to time, was

impressed by Mr. McKay’s superior mechanical ability and energetic

manner of handling his men. In 1841, Mr. McKay became a partner in the

firm of Currier & McKay, and the barque _Mary Broughton_, 323 tons, was

built by them during this year, followed in 1842 by the ships

_Courier_, 380 tons, and _Ashburton_, 449 tons. The firm then dissolved,

the models and moulds being equally divided--with a saw.

The little ship _Courier_ was the first vessel designed by Mr. McKay.

She was owned by W. Wolfe & A. Foster, Jr., of New York, who employed

her in the Rio coffee trade. She proved a wonder for speed, and

outsailed everything, big and little, that she fell in with at sea. No

one at that time believed that such a vessel could be built outside of

New York or Baltimore. She not only made a great deal of money for her

owners, but at once brought her designer prominently before the maritime

public.

In 1843 the firm of McKay & Pickett was formed, and the New York packet

ships _St. George_, 845 tons, in 1843, and _John R. Skiddy_, 930 tons,

in 1844, were built by them at Newburyport. In this year Enoch Train, a

well-known ship-owner and merchant of Boston, engaged in the South

American trade and who had already sent the ships _Cairo_, _St.

Patrick_, and _Dorchester_ to England, decided to put on a regular line

of packets between Liverpool and Boston. While crossing the Atlantic on

board one of the early Cunarders, for the purpose of establishing his

European agencies, it happened that he found himself a fellow-passenger

with Dennis Condry, owner of the _Delia Walker_, the gentleman who had

been so much impressed during his visits to Newburyport, by the energy

and skill of Donald McKay. Mr. Train and Mr. Condry soon became

acquainted and naturally talked a good deal about shipping. Mr. Train

was in doubt as to whom he should entrust the building of his ships; he

did not like to construct them in New York, yet he felt unwilling to

risk failure through employing local talent, however able, for Boston

builders were inexperienced in building this class of vessel, while the

construction of packet ships had been developed to a high degree of

perfection in New York. His doubts were freely expressed, but Mr. Condry

had a strong conviction on this subject, and so convincing were his

arguments in favor of his young ship-builder friend, that Mr. Train,

before landing at Liverpool, had promised that he would see Mr. McKay

upon his return to the United States.

The meeting at Newburyport of these two really great men, Enoch Train

and Donald McKay, should be memorable in the maritime annals of the

United States. It was the swift contact of flint and steel, for within

an hour a contract had been signed for building the _Joshua Bates_, the

pioneer ship of Train’s famous Liverpool Line, and Mr. Train was

returning to his home in Boston. He visited Newburyport frequently while

his ship was building, and whether Mr. McKay, during the four years that

had elapsed, had further developed the qualities which Dennis Condry had

so admired, as seems probable, or whether Mr. Train’s perceptive

faculties were keener than those of his fellow-passenger, it is a fact

that on the day when the _Joshua Bates_ was launched and floated safely

on the Merrimac River, Mr. Train grasped Donald McKay by the hand and

said to him: “You must come to Boston; we need you; if you wish

financial assistance to establish a shipyard, let me know the amount and

you shall have it.”

So the young ship-builder had on that day launched his last ship at

Newburyport. He soon closed the pleasant relations which had existed

with his partner, and at the age of thirty-four opened his great

shipyard at the foot of Border Street, East Boston. There he built in

rapid succession, between 1845 and 1850, the packet ships _Washington

Irving_, _Anglo-Saxon_, _Ocean Monarch_, _Anglo-American_, and _Daniel

Webster_ for Train’s Liverpool Line. These ships carried a black T in

their foretopsail below the close reef band, and flew the Enoch Train

signal, a red field with white diamond. The ships _New World_ and

_Cornelius Grinnell_ were built here for Grinnell, Minturn & Co.’s

Swallowtail Line; the _A. Z._, _L. Z._, and _Antarctic_ for Zerega &

Co., New York; the _Jenny Lind_ for Fairbank & Wheeler, Boston; the

_Parliament_, _Plymouth Rock_, _Reindeer_, and barque _Helicon_ for

George B. Upton, Boston; the _Moses Wheeler_ for Wheeler & King, Boston;

and the barque _Sultana_ for Edward Lamb & Co., Boston. These vessels

were much admired in New York, London, Liverpool, and other seaports,

and established the reputation of Donald McKay as a ship-builder equal

to the best.

CHAPTER IV

OPIUM CLIPPERS AND EARLY CLIPPER SHIPS, 1832-1848

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. Dryden uses it to describe the flight of

a falcon[4]:

“Some falcon stoops at what her eye designed,

And, with her eagerness the quarry missed,

Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind.”

The word survived in the New England slang expression “to clip it,” and

“going at a good clip,” or “a fast clip,” are familiar expressions there

to this day. It therefore seems reasonable to suppose that when vessels

of a new model were built, which were intended, in the language of the

times, to clip over the waves rather than plough through them, the

improved type of craft became known as clippers because of their speed.

It is probable that the swift privateers built at Baltimore during the

War of 1812 became known as “Baltimore clippers,” and while the first

application of the term in a nautical sense is by no means certain, it

seems to have had an American origin.

The first clipper constructed in Great Britain was the schooner

_Scottish Maid_, one hundred and fifty tons, built in 1839 by Alexander

Hall & Co., of Aberdeen, to compete with the paddle steamers between

Aberdeen and London. She proved a very fast vessel, and saw half a

century of service before she was wrecked on the coast of England. Three

schooners of the same model and tonnage, the _Fairy_, _Rapid_, and

_Monarch_, were built by this firm in 1842. These four were the first

Aberdeen clippers. The earliest competition between American and British

clippers was in the China seas. As early as 1831 three small English

schooners, the _Jamesina_, _Lord Amherst_, and _Sylph_, were engaged in

the opium trade, which proved exceedingly lucrative. In 1833 the

_Jamesina_ sold opium from India to the value of £330,000 at Foo Chow,

Amoy, Ningpo, and other ports in China. This business increased and

attracted the attention of the American merchants in China. In 1841, the

_Angola_, a schooner of 90 tons, built by Brown & Bell, of New York, for

Russell & Co., China, was despatched to Hong-kong. She was followed in

1842 by the schooners _Zephyr_, 150 tons, built by Samuel Hall at East

Boston; _Mazeppa_, 175 tons, built by Brown & Bell, and _Ariel_, 100

tons, built by Sprague & James, Medford, and in 1843 by the brig

_Antelope_, 370 tons, built by Samuel Hall at East Boston. These

vessels, owned by John M. Forbes and Russell & Co., soon controlled the

opium-trade and became known as opium clippers. It was necessary that

they should be swift in order to contend with the strong tides and

currents on the China coast, and to beat against the monsoons in the

China Sea. The _Antelope_, under the command of Captain Philip Dumaresq,

still has the reputation of having been the only square-rigged vessel

which could beat through the Formosa Channel against the northeast

monsoon. Moreover, these vessels required speed to escape from the

heavily manned piratical craft which infested the China seas, and which

were formidable vessels, especially in light winds and calms, when they

were propelled by long sweeps.

In 1846, Alexander Hall & Co. built the clipper schooner _Torrington_

for Jardine, Matheson & Co., to compete with the American opium clippers

in China. This schooner, the first British clipper in the China seas,

was followed by the _Wanderer_, _Gazelle_, _Rose_, the brig _Lanark_,

and others, until almost every British and American firm in China owned

one or more of these smart vessels. The competition among them was keen,

and the American clippers had decidedly the best of it. The last of

these famous little vessels were the sister schooners _Minna_ and

_Brenda_, of 300 tons each, built in 1851 by George Raynes at

Portsmouth, for John M. Forbes, of Boston, and others, and the schooner

_Wild Dayrell_, 253 tons, built in 1855 by the well-known yacht builders

J. White, of Cowes, Isle of Wight, for Dent & Co., China. These opium

clippers, all beautifully modelled and equipped with long raking masts

and plenty of canvas, like yachts rather than merchant vessels, were

heavily armed and carried large crews. They all made a great deal of

money for their owners until they were superseded by steamers.

From the earliest times in maritime history it had been the custom to

build large vessels of a model suitable for carrying heavy

cargoes--“ships of burden” they were called,--while the vessels designed

for speed,--the galley of the Mediterranean, caravel of Portugal and

Spain, lugger of France, cutter of England, yacht of Holland, schooner

and sloop of America, had been comparatively small. To the latter class

belonged the earlier British and American clippers of the nineteenth

century. The Baltimore clippers, as we have said, were modelled after

the French luggers which visited American ports during the Revolutionary

War. They gained a world-wide reputation for speed as privateers during

the War of 1812, and later also as African slavers, many of them sailing

under the flags of Portugal and Spain. These vessels were brigs,

brigantines, fore-and-aft or topsail schooners, and rarely exceeded two

hundred tons register.

So far as history records, no one had ever attempted to reproduce the

lines of a small, swift vessel in a large one, until in 1832 Isaac

McKim, a wealthy merchant of Baltimore, commissioned Kennard and

Williamson, of Fell’s Point, Baltimore, to build a ship embodying as far

as possible the lines of the famous Baltimore clipper brigs and

schooners. This ship was the _Ann McKim_, named in honor of the owner’s

wife, of 493 tons register, a large vessel for those days. She measured:

Length 143 feet, breadth 31 feet, depth 14 feet, and drew 17 feet aft

and 11 feet forward. She possessed many of the striking features of the

Baltimore clippers of that period; namely, great dead-rise at her

midship section, long, easy convex water-lines, low freeboard, and

raking stem, stern-post and masts, and was really an enlarged clipper

schooner rigged as a ship.

The _Ann McKim_ was a remarkably handsome vessel, built as the pet ship

of her owner without much regard to cost. Her frames were of live oak,

she was copper-fastened throughout and her bottom was sheathed with red

copper imported for this purpose. The flush deck was fitted with Spanish

mahogany hatch combings, rails, companions, and skylights. She mounted

twelve brass guns, and was equipped with brass capstan heads, bells,

etc., and carried three skysail yards and royal studding-sails. She

proved to be very fast, though of small carrying capacity, and the

latter quality together with her elaborate and expensive fittings caused

the older merchants to regard her unfavorably; so that for some years

they still adhered to their full-bodied ships. The _Ann McKim_ sailed in

the China trade for a number of years, and upon the death of Mr. McKim

in 1837, she was purchased by Howland & Aspinwall, of New York, and was

commanded by Captain Perry. Eventually she was sold at Valparaiso in

1847, and ended her days under the Chilian flag.

Although the _Ann McKim_ was the first clipper ship ever constructed, it

cannot be said that she founded the clipper ship era, or even that she

directly influenced ship builders, since no other ship was built like

her; but she may have suggested the clipper design in vessels of ship

rig, and owing to the fact that she fell into the hands of Howland &

Aspinwall, she without doubt hastened the opening of that era, as the

first really extreme clipper ship, the _Rainbow_, was owned by that

firm.

It is difficult at this distance of time to determine exactly what

influence the _Ann McKim_ exercised upon the science of ship-building,

though from the fact that no ship had ever been built like her, it is

probable that she was an object of considerable interest in the maritime

world, and it is certain that during the years following her appearance

a more determined effort was made in the United States to improve the

model and sailing qualities of ships. Among the most notable of these

attempts were the _Courier_, already mentioned, built by Donald McKay in

1842, and the _Akbar_, a ship of six hundred and fifty tons, built by

Samuel Hall at East Boston in 1839, for John M. Forbes, and others, who

employed her in the China trade. On her first voyage the _Akbar_ made

the passage from New York to Canton in one hundred and nine days,

beating up the China Sea against the northeast monsoon. On this voyage

she was commanded by Captain James Watkins, in after years commodore of

the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. Later she was commanded by Captain Philip

Dumaresq, who made a number of rapid passages in her to and from China.

Then came the _Helena_, of 650 tons, built by William H. Webb in 1841.

This ship was owned by N. L. and G. Griswold, and also sailed in the

China trade under the command of Captain Benjamin, who made some fine

passages. The _Paul Jones_, of 620 tons, built by Waterman & Elwell at

Medford in 1842, was owned by John M. Forbes and Russell & Co., of

China. She was commanded by Captain N. B. Palmer and on her first voyage

in 1843 she sailed from Boston for Hong-kong, January 15th, crossed the

equator 26 days out, was 54 days to the Cape of Good Hope, 88 days to

Java Head, and arrived at Hong-kong 111 days from Boston. In 1848, this

ship made the run from Java Head to New York in 76 days.

In 1844, A. A. Low & Brother, of New York, contracted with Brown & Bell

to build the _Houqua_, of 706 tons, constructed for Captain N. B.

Palmer. She made a number of very fast passages. On her first voyage she

made the passage from New York to Java Head in 72 days, thence to

Hong-kong in 12 days, total 84 days. Her best records from China were as

follows: From Hong-kong, December 9, 1844, passed Java Head 15 days out,

was 70 days to the Equator in the Atlantic, thence 20 days to New York,

total 90 days--distance by log, 14,272 miles. December 9, 1845, sailed

from Hong-kong, passed Java Head 16 days out, arrived at New York, March

10, 1846, 91 days’ passage. Under the command of Captain McKanzie, in

1850, she made the passage from Shanghai to New York in 88 days, the

shortest passage up to that time. This ship was named in honor of

Houqua, the well-known Canton merchant who was beloved and respected by

American and English residents in China, no less for his integrity than

for his great kindness and his business ability.

In 1844 also William H. Webb built the _Montauk_, 540 tons, for A. A.

Low & Brother, and the _Panama_, 670 tons, for N. L. & G. Griswold, both

vessels for the China trade, and Samuel Hall, of East Boston, built the

barque _Coquette_, 420 tons, commanded by Captain Oliver Eldridge. The

_Coquette_ sailed from Boston, June 29, 1844, was 76 days to Java Head,

and 99 days to Canton. She was owned by Russell & Co., of China, and

made several fast passages between Calcutta and ports in China. Young

James H. Perkins made a voyage to China as a passenger on board this

vessel, and his famous schooner yacht _Coquette_, which defeated the

sloop _Maria_ in a match off Sandy Hook in 1846, was named for the

clipper barque.

These were among the first clipper ships built in the United States, and

while by no means extreme clippers, they were sharper and finer models

than any vessels which had been constructed up to that time, and clearly

indicated the dawn of a new epoch in naval architecture.

I have now brought this narrative to the opening of the clipper ship

era, and have endeavored to sketch the development of the merchant

marine of Great Britain and the United States from the common starting

point--where the ship-builders of both countries derived their best

knowledge of ship models and construction from the French--as they

advanced along diverging lines under different climatic, social, and

political conditions, until we now find them at points widely distant

from each other--Great Britain with her stately, frigate-built Indiaman,

embodying the glories of the past; the United States with her wild

packet ship scending into a long, sweeping head sea, and flinging a

rainbow of flying spray across her weather-bow, in which was imaged the

promise of a glorious future.

In 1841, John W. Griffeths, of New York, proposed several improvements

in marine architecture, which were embodied in the model of a clipper

ship exhibited at the American Institute, in February of that year.

Later he delivered a series of lectures on the science of ship-building,

which were the first discourses upon this subject in the United States.

Mr. Griffeths advocated carrying the stem forward in a curved line,

thereby lengthening the bow above water; he also introduced long, hollow

water-lines and a general drawing out and sharpening of the forward

body, bringing the greatest breadth further aft. Another improvement

which he proposed was to fine out the after body by rounding up the ends

of the main transom, thus relieving the quarters and making the stern

much lighter and handsomer above the water-line.

This proposed departure from old methods naturally met with much

opposition, but in 1843 the firm of Howland & Aspinwall commissioned

Smith & Dimon, of New York, in whose employ Mr. Griffeths had spent

several years as draughtsman, to embody these experimental ideas in a

ship of 750 tons named the _Rainbow_. This vessel, the first extreme

clipper ship ever built, was therefore, the direct result of Mr.

Griffeths’s efforts for improvement. Her bow with its concave

water-lines and the greatest breadth at a point considerably further aft

than had hitherto been regarded as practicable, was a radical departure,

differing not merely in degree but in kind from any ship that preceded

her. One critical observer declared that her bow had been turned

“outside in,” and that her whole form was contrary to the laws of

nature. The _Rainbow_ was designed and built with great care and was not

launched until January, 1845.

Mr. Griffeths relates a good story about the masting of this vessel. It

appears that Mr. Aspinwall, who had an excellent idea of what a ship

ought to be, had come to the conclusion that the masting of vessels was

a question of no small moment in ship-building, and determined that his

new ship should have the benefit of foreign aid in placing the masts.

Accordingly, he informed the builders that he would obtain assistance

from abroad, for their benefit as well as his own. The builders

naturally paid little attention to this information. The port-captain,

who was appointed to superintend the construction, was directed by Mr.

Aspinwall to select the best authorities in Europe on masting ships. The

European experts were written to in reference to this important matter,

and after they had duly considered the principal dimensions of the

vessel, the trade in which she was to be employed, etc., a spar draft

and elaborate calculations were prepared and forwarded to New York.

In the meantime, the construction of the _Rainbow_ had progressed

steadily. The clamps being ready, the deck beams were placed according

to the original drawings, the framing of the decks completed, hatches

and mast partners framed, channels and mast-steps secured; the masts and

yards were also made and the ship planked and caulked by the time the

important despatches arrived. They were examined by the port-captain,

Mr. Aspinwall was informed that they were all right, and the

port-captain was requested to give the information to the builders,

which, of course, was done. The ship, however, was finished without the

slightest alteration from the original plans. Mr. Aspinwall, who never

doubted that his pet project had been carefully carried out, attributed

much of the success of this vessel to the placing of her masts by

foreign rules.

The sharp model of the _Rainbow_ gave rise to a great deal of discussion

while she was on the stocks in course of construction. It was generally

admitted by the recognized shipping authorities of South Street, that

she was a handsome vessel, but whether she could be made to sail was a

question on which there were varieties of opinion. She proved an

excellent ship in every way and exceedingly fast. Her second voyage to

China out and home, was made in six months and fourteen days, including

two weeks in port discharging and loading cargo. She went out to China

against the northeast monsoon in ninety-two and home in eighty-eight

days, bringing the news of her own arrival at Canton. Captain John Land,

her able and enthusiastic commander, declared that she was the fastest

ship in the world, and this was undeniably true; finding no one to

differ from him, he further gave it as his opinion that no ship could be

built to outsail the _Rainbow_, and it is also true that very few

vessels have ever broken her record. She was lost on her fifth voyage

while bound from New York for Valparaiso in 1848 under command of

Captain Hayes, and it was supposed that she foundered off Cape Horn.

The _Ariel_, 572 tons, was built by John Currier at Newburyport in 1846,

for Minot & Hooper, of Boston. This ship became celebrated in the China

trade and was bought by N. L. & G. Griswold, and has a record of 90 days

from Canton to New York.

In 1846, Howland & Aspinwall, for whom Captain Robert H. Waterman had

been making some remarkably fast voyages in the old packet ship

_Natchez_, had a clipper ship built especially for him, entrusting the

design and construction to Smith & Dimon, the builders of the _Rainbow_,

though all the details of spars, sails, and rigging were carried out

under the supervision of Captain Waterman. This ship was the famous _Sea

Witch_, of 890 tons, length 170 feet, breadth 33 feet 11 inches, and

depth 19 feet. She carried a cloud of canvas; three standing skysail

yards, royal studding sails, large square lower studding sails with

swinging booms, ringtail, and water sails.

When loaded the _Sea Witch_ lay low on the water; her hull was painted

black and her masts had a considerable rake; her figurehead was an

aggressive-looking dragon, beautifully carved and gilded. She had the

reputation at that time of being the handsomest ship sailing out of New

York, and her officers and crew were picked men, several of whom had

sailed with Captain Waterman on his voyages in the _Natchez_. She sailed

on her first voyage, bound for China, December 23, 1846, went to sea in

a strong northwest gale, and made a remarkable fine run southward,

arriving off the harbor of Rio Janeiro in twenty-five days, where she

exchanged signals with the shore and sent letters and New York

newspapers by a vessel inward bound. She made the passage from New York

to Hong-kong in 104 days, and arrived at New York from Canton July 25,

1847, in 81 days, making the run from Anjer Point to Sandy Hook in 62

days. On her second voyage she arrived at New York from Hong-kong,

November 7, 1847, in 105 days, and arrived from Canton at New York,

March 16, 1848, in 77 days. On this passage she made the run from St.

Helena to Sandy Hook in 32 days. Her next voyage was from New York to

Valparaiso, where she arrived July 5, 1848, in 69 days, thence to

Hong-kong, where she arrived December 7, 1848, in 52 days. She arrived

at New York March 25, 1849, 79 days from Canton. She next sailed from

New York for Canton via Valparaiso and arrived at Canton July 23, 1849,

118 sailing days from New York. She arrived at New York March 7, 1850,

from Canton in 85 days, making the run from Java Head in 73 days.

This is a most remarkable series of passages, especially considering the

seasons of the year during which most of her China voyages were made.

Her best twenty-four hours’ run was 358 miles, a speed far in excess of

any ocean steamship of that period. The _Sea Witch_ during the first

three years of her career, was without doubt the swiftest ship that

sailed the seas, and she continued to distinguish herself later on, in

her passages from New York to San Francisco under the command of Captain

George Fraser.

In 1847, A. A. Low & Bro. brought out the _Samuel Russell_, of 940 tons,

built by Brown & Bell and commanded by Captain N. B. Palmer, formerly of

the _Houqua_. Her first voyage from New York to Hong-kong was made by

the eastern passages in 114 days. On a voyage from Canton in 1851 she

sailed 6780 miles in 30 days, an average of 226 miles per day, her

greatest twenty-four hours’ run being 328 miles. This ship was named for

the eminent New York merchant, founder of the house of Russell & Co., of

China, with whom the brothers Low began their career as merchants and

ship-owners. She was a beautiful vessel, heavily sparred, with plenty of

light canvas for moderate weather, and every inch a clipper.

The _Architect_, 520 tons, was also built in 1847, at Baltimore, for

Nye, Parkin & Co., American merchants in China, and was commanded by

Captain George Potter.

The _Memnon_, 1068 tons, owned by Warren Delano, was built by Smith &

Dimon in 1848, and on her first voyage to China was commanded by Captain

Oliver Eldridge.

These were the most celebrated of the clipper ships built in the United

States prior to the discovery of gold in California in 1848, though

there were, of course, many other fine vessels engaged in the China

trade, which had for years brought home cargoes of tea, silk, and

spices. During the twelve months from June 30, 1845 to July 1, 1846,

forty-one vessels arrived at New York from China, and probably as many

more at other Atlantic ports, chiefly Boston and Salem. Besides these

vessels there were the South American, African, and East India fleets,

as well as the lines of splendid packet ships sailing from New York,

Boston, and Philadelphia to European ports. In 1847, the ships owned in

the United States and engaged in foreign commerce registered 1,241,313

tons.

The American clippers were decidedly the fastest ships built up to that

time, yet much of their speed was due to the skill and energy of their

commanders. The manner in which American vessels were handled at this

period will be seen by extracts from the log-book of the ship _Great

Britain_, 524 tons, Captain Philip Dumaresq, on her homeward voyage from

China in 1849-50. She left Java Head December 22, 1849, and by January

14, 1850, had passed seven vessels bound the same way. The log from this

date reads in part as follows:

“Squally, under double reefed topsails, passed a ship laying-to under a

close reefed main topsail.... January 24th, a southwest gale, close

reefed topsails, split courses; before doing this we were going seven

and one half knots close-hauled, within six points of the wind under

double-reefed topsails and courses; January 25th, split all three

topsails and had to heave-to; five vessels in sight, one a Dutch

frigate, all hove-to; January 27th, seven vessels in sight and we

outsail all of them; January 29th passed the Cape of Good Hope and

anchored in Table Bay, parted both chains and split nearly all the

sails; hove-to outside, blowing a gale offshore; January 30th, at 6 A.M.

bore up for St. Helena; February 1st, fresh trades, passed a ship under

double reefs, we with our royals and studdingsails set; February 8th,

anchored at St. Helena with a stream anchor backed by remainder of one

of the chains; February 10th, having procured anchors and water, left

St. Helena; February 21st, crossed the line in longitude 31; March 12th,

under double-reefed topsails, passed several vessels laying-to; March

17th, took pilot off Sandy Hook, 84 days from Java Head, including

detentions.”

Probably few if any of the vessels which Captain Dumaresq passed hove-to

or under short canvas were sailing under the American flag. It is worthy

of note that the _Great Britain_ was at that time twenty-six years old,

having been built by Brown & Bell for the New York and Liverpool packet

service in 1824, and of course, was by no means a clipper.

CHAPTER V

TWO EARLY CLIPPER SHIP COMMANDERS

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 navigator, but he first began to

attract public attention about 1844 by some remarkably fast voyages in

the ship _Natchez_. Captain Waterman was born in the city of New York,

March 4, 1808, and at the age of twelve shipped on board of a vessel

bound for China. After working through the grades of ordinary and able

seaman, and third, second, and chief mate on board of various vessels,

he sailed for a number of voyages as mate with Captain Charles H.

Marshall in the Black Ball packet ship _Britannia_ between New York and

Liverpool. At that time he was counted one of the smartest mates sailing

out of New York, and was noted for keeping the _Britannia_ in fine

shape, as well as for his ability in maintaining proper order and

discipline among the steerage passengers and crew, who were always a

source of anxiety and trouble to packet-ship captains. When his vessel

was bound to the westward in 1831, one of the sailors fell overboard

from aloft during a heavy gale, and Mr. Waterman saved the man’s life

at the risk of his own. The cabin passengers of the _Britannia_

presented him with a substantial testimonial in appreciation of his

humane and gallant conduct. At this time he was twenty-three years old.

Two years later he was promoted to captain, and in this capacity he made

five voyages round the globe.

In 1843 he took command of the _Natchez_. This ship, as we have seen in

Chapter III., was one of the full-pooped New Orleans packets, and was

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 for New York, and made the passage home

in 94 days and the voyage round the globe in 9 months and 26 days. In

1844 Captain Waterman sailed again in the _Natchez_ from New York for

Valparaiso and made the passage in 71 days, thence to Callao in 8 days,

and to Hong-kong in 54 days. She again loaded tea for New York and

sailed from Canton January 15, 1845, passed Java Head on the 26th, and

39 days out was off the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the equator 61 days

out, arriving in New York April 3d, 78 days from Canton, a total

distance of 13,955 miles. Her run from the equator to New York in 17

days, and indeed, this whole passage, was most remarkable, as the

_Natchez_ during her packet days had established the reputation of being

an uncommonly slow ship. Captain Waterman received a grand ovation in

New York upon this record passage from China, and it was suggested that

he had brought the old hooker home by some route unknown to other

navigators. In 1845-46 Captain Waterman made one more voyage to China in

the _Natchez_, from New York direct to Hong-kong in 104 days, and

returned to New York in 83 days.

A series of voyages such as these, by a ship of the type and character

of the _Natchez_, would probably have established the reputation of any

one commanding her, and when we consider that “Bob” Waterman, for so he

was known, was at this time a young captain of an unusually attractive

personality, it is not difficult to understand the pride and admiration

with which he was regarded by his friends, of whom he had many, both in

New York and in the various foreign ports to which he had sailed. The

owners of the _Natchez_, Howland & Aspinwall, were so favorably

impressed not only by his ability as a seaman and navigator, but by his

loyalty to their interests, that, as we have seen, they built the

clipper ship _Sea Witch_ for him in 1846. While she was building,

Captain Waterman married Cordelia, a daughter of David Sterling, of

Bridgeport, and Mrs. Waterman was present as a bride when the ship was

launched.

In 1849, Captain Waterman resigned from the _Sea Witch_ to take the

Pacific Mail steamship _Northerner_ from New York to San Francisco.

During the three years that he had commanded the _Sea Witch_, she had

made a large amount of money for her owners, and Captain Waterman had

added to his reputation,--so much so, indeed, that certain good people

began to say unpleasant things of him. It was alleged that Captain

Waterman carried sail too hard, that he exceeded the bounds of prudence

in this respect, and kept padlocks on the topsail sheets and rackings on

the topsail halliards fore and aft; also that he maintained a standard

of discipline far more severe than was necessary.

It is probable that Captain Waterman did carry sail rather hard--most

American captains who wanted to get anywhere in those days usually

did--and as to the padlocks and rackings, more than one captain used

these precautions to prevent villainous or cowardly sailors from letting

go sheets and halliards by the run, when according to their ideas the

ship had too much canvas on her. The fact, however, remains that in the

eighteen years during which Captain Waterman commanded various ships, he

never lost a spar or carried away rigging of any importance, and never

called on underwriters for one dollar of loss or damage. The record

shows that six of the men before the mast sailed with him upon all his

voyages in the _Natchez_ and the _Sea Witch_, a rare occurrence at that

period, or at any other time of which we have knowledge, and creditable

alike to the sailors, the ships, and their commander.

The truth is that Captain Waterman was a humane, conscientious,

high-minded man, who never spared himself nor any one else when a duty

was to be performed. There are, and always have been, lazy, incompetent,

mutinous sailors, a type of men that Captain Waterman detested. They

found no comfort in sailing with him, and were glad when the voyage was

ended, so that they might scramble ashore and relate their woes to the

sympathetic legal “gents” who were usually to be found hanging about

Pier 9, East River, when the _Sea Witch_ was reported coming up the bay.

We shall hear more of Captain Waterman and his crew on board of the

_Challenge_ in a later chapter.

The celebrated clipper-ship captain, Nathaniel Brown Palmer, the first

commander of the _Paul Jones_, _Houqua_, _Samuel Russell_, and

_Oriental_, was born in the pretty town of Stonington, on Long Island

Sound in 1799, and came from distinguished colonial ancestry. His

grandfather’s only brother fell mortally wounded at the battle of Groton

Heights in 1771, while his father was an eminent lawyer and a man of

marked ability.

At the age of fourteen or just as the War of 1812 was fairly under way,

Nathaniel shipped on board of a coasting vessel which ran to ports

between Maine and New York, and continued in this service until he was

eighteen, when he was appointed second mate of the brig _Hersilia_,

bound down somewhere about Cape Horn on a sealing voyage.

These sealing expeditions were also at that period more or less voyages

of discovery. For years there had been rumors of a mythical island

called Auroras, embellished with romance and mystery by the whalers of

Nantucket, New Bedford, and New London, and described as lying away to

the eastward of the Horn, concerning which no forecastle yarn was too

extravagant for belief. Whaling captains by the score had spent days and

weeks in unprofitable search for it. On this voyage Captain J. P.

Sheffield, of the _Hersilia_, landed at one of the Falkland Islands,

where he left his second mate and one sailor to kill bullocks for

provisions, and then sailed away in search of the fabled island.

Young Nat Palmer proceeded to capture and slay bullocks, and when, after

a few days, a ship hove in sight, he piloted her into a safe anchorage,

and supplied her with fresh meat. This vessel proved to be the _Espirito

Santo_, from Buenos Ayres, and the captain informed Nat that he was

bound to a place where there were thousands of seals, and where a cargo

could be secured with little effort, but he declined to disclose its

position. The mind of the young sailor naturally turned to the magic

isle of Auroras, where, according to the saga preserved beside the

camp-fires of corner grocery stores in New England whaling towns,

silver, gold, and precious gems lay scattered along the beach in

glittering profusion, the treasure of some huge galleon, wrecked and

broken up centuries ago, when Spain was powerful upon the sea.

There must have been something about the whale fishery highly inspiring

to the imagination, though to see one of the greasy old Nantucket or New

Bedford blubber hunters wallowing about in the South Pacific, one would

hardly have suspected it, yet among the spinners of good, tough tarry

sea yarns, some of the authors of narratives relating to the pursuit and

capture of the whale are easily entitled to wear champion belts as

masters of pure fiction. Whaling is one of the least hazardous, the most

commonplace, and, taken altogether about the laziest occupation that

human beings have ever been engaged in upon the sea. Sailors aboard the

clippers fifty years ago used to refer to whale ships as “butcher shops

adrift,” and on account of the slovenly condition of their hulls, spars,

sails, and rigging, a “spouter” was generally regarded among seamen as

one of the biggest jokes afloat. As a matter of fact the whale is about

as stupid and inoffensive a creature as exists, and when occasionally he

does some harm--smashing up a boat, for instance--it is usually in a

flurry of fright, with no malice or intent to kill. If a whale possessed

the instinct of self-defence he could never be captured with a harpoon,

but he has evidently been created as he is for the benefit of mankind,

and incidentally as a temptation to scribes, from the days of the

indigestible Jonah even to the piscatory romancers of our own times.

Well, the captain of the _Espirito Santo_, after filling his

water-casks, laying in a stock of provisions, and giving his crew a run

ashore sheeted home his topsails, hove up anchor, and departed. Young

Nat took such a lively interest in the welfare of this craft that he

carefully watched her progress until the last shred of her canvas faded

upon the horizon. He judged by the sun, for he had no compass, that her

course was about south.

Three days after the departure of the _Espirito Santo_, the _Hersilia_

appeared. Captain Sheffield had found nothing and seen nothing, except

the cold, gray sky, and the long, ceaseless heaving of the Southern

Ocean’s mighty breast, a few stray, hungry, screeching albatross, and

once in a while, for a moment, a whale, with smooth, glistening back,

spouting jets of feathery spray high in the keen, misty air, then

sounding among the caverns of the deep. He had returned, like so many

other credulous mariners, empty-handed, but he found his young second

mate in a white heat of enthusiasm as he reported to his commander what

he had learned, and finally, with the hopefulness of youth, declared his

belief that “we can follow that _Espirito Santo_, and find her, too.”

And they did, for in a few days she was discovered lying at anchor in a

bay off the South Shetlands, islands at that time unknown in North

America, though soon to become famous as the home of seals. The officers

and crew of the _Espirito Santo_ greeted them with surprise, while their

admiration took the substantial form of assisting to load the _Hersilia_

with ten thousand of the finest sealskins, with which she returned to

Stonington.

This exploit spread like wildfire through New England whaling ports, and

secured Captain Palmer at the age of twenty, command of the Stonington

sloop _Hero_, “but little rising forty tons,” on board of which he

sailed again for the Antarctic seas, as tender to the _Hersilia_, in

1819. Upon this voyage, after calling at the Falkland Islands for water

and provisions, they again steered for the South Shetlands, and the

_Hersilia_ and _Hero_ returned to Stonington with full cargoes of

sealskins.

In 1821, Captain Palmer again sailed in the _Hero_ upon an expedition to

the South Shetlands, composed of six vessels commanded by Captain

William Fenning of the brig _Alabama Packet_. By this time, however, the

seals had been nearly exterminated, and Captain Palmer sailed farther

south in search of new sealing-grounds, until he sighted land not laid

down on any chart. He cruised along the coast for some days and

satisfied himself that it was not an island, and after anchoring in

several bays without finding any seals, although the high cliffs and

rocks were covered by multitudes of penguin, he steered away to the

northward with light winds and fog.

One night the _Hero_ lay becalmed in a dense fog, the cold, penetrating

mist drenching her sails and dripping from the main boom along her

narrow deck. At midnight Captain Palmer relieved his mate and took the

deck for the middle watch. When the man at the helm struck one bell, the

captain was somewhat startled to hear the sound repeated twice at short

intervals, for he knew, or thought he knew, that the only living things

within many leagues were whales, albatross, penguin, and the like, nor

did he recall ever hearing that these harmless creatures carried bells

with them. The men of the watch on deck were really alarmed, for in

those days superstition had not by any means departed from the ocean.

The crew had heard of the fierce Kraken of northern seas, and suddenly

remembered all about the doomed and unforgiven Vanderdecken, to say

nothing of mythical local celebrities, renowned in all the barrooms of

coast towns between Cornfield Point and Siasconset Head, nor were their

fears assuaged when at two bells the same thing happened again, and so

on through the watch.

Captain Palmer, however, concluded that, strange as it seemed, he must

be in company with other vessels, and so at four o’clock he left the

mate in charge of the deck with orders to call him if the fog lifted,

and turned in for his morning watch below. At seven bells the mate

reported that the fog had cleared a little and a light breeze was

springing up, and by the time Captain Palmer got on deck two large

men-of-war were in sight not more than a mile distant--a frigate on the

port bow and a sloop of war on the starboard quarter, both showing

Russian colors. Soon the United States ensign was run up at the main

peak of the _Hero_ and floated gaily in the morning breeze. The three

vessels were now hove to, and a twelve-oared launch was seen approaching

from the frigate, her crew and officer in the stern sheets in uniform.

As she swept round the stern of the _Hero_ the crew tossed oars and the

coxswain shot her alongside. She really looked almost as large as the

little sloop; at all events the Russian officer stepped from her gunwale

to the deck of the _Hero_. The officer spoke English fluently, and

presented the compliments of Commander Bellingshausen, who invited the

captain of the American sloop to come on board his ship.

Captain Palmer was all his life a man of purpose rather than of

ceremony, though by no means deficient in dignity and self-respect. He

accepted the invitation, and giving an order or two to his mate, stepped

into the launch just as he stood, in sea boots, sealskin-coat, and

sou’wester. They were soon alongside the frigate, and Captain Palmer was

ushered into the commander’s spacious and luxurious cabin. The scene was

impressive; the venerable, white-haired commander surrounded by his

officers in uniform, and the stalwart young American captain standing

with respectful dignity, his rough weather-worn sea-dress contrasting

with his fresh, intelligent, handsome face. Commander Bellingshausen

smiled pleasantly, and taking his guest by the hand, said kindly, “You

are welcome, young man; be seated.”

After questioning Captain Palmer about himself, his vessel, and the land

he had discovered, and incidentally remarking that he himself had been

two years upon a voyage of discovery, the commander asked to see Captain

Palmer’s chart and log-book. These were sent for on board the _Hero_

while an elaborate luncheon was being served, and were afterwards

carefully examined. The commander then rose from his seat and placing

his hand in a parental manner upon the young captain’s head, delivered

quite an oration: “I name the land you have discovered ‘Palmer Land’ in

your honor; but what will my august master say, and what will he think

of my cruising for two years in search of land that has been discovered

by a boy, in a sloop but little larger than the launch of my frigate?”

Captain Palmer was unable to offer any information on this point, but he

thanked his host for the honor conferred upon him, and for his kindness

and hospitality, remaining somewhat non-committal in his opinion as to

the old gentleman’s qualifications as an explorer.

It may be mentioned that upon all charts this portion of the Antarctic

Continent is laid down as “Palmer Land,” also that some twenty years

elapsed before it was rediscovered by the British explorer, Sir James

Ross, in command of the famous _Erebus_ and _Terror_ expedition.

Captain Palmer next took command of the schooner _Cadet_, owned by

Borrows & Spooner, of New York, on board of which he made a number of

voyages to the Spanish Main. In 1826 he took the brig _Tampico_ to

Carthagena, and upon his return he married a daughter of Major Paul

Babcock and sister of Captain David S. Babcock, afterwards famous as

commander of the clipper ships _Sword-Fish_ and _Young America_, and

subsequently President of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. Captain Palmer

then took the brig _Francis_ on several voyages to Europe, and in 1829

was in command of the brig _Anawan_, exploring new sealing-grounds among

the islands about Cape Horn. In 1833 he took command of the New Orleans

packet ship _Huntsville_, and then of the _Hibernia_, _Garrick_, and

_Siddons_. In 1842 and the years following, as we have seen, he

commanded the clippers _Paul Jones_, _Houqua_, _Samuel Russell_, and

_Oriental_, and in 1850 retired from the sea.

At this time he was well known, not only among his neighbors and friends

at Stonington, but in the great seaports of Europe and China as “Captain

Nat,” and many of those who talked about what he had said and what he

had done were apparently unaware that he possessed any other name. It is

pleasant to reflect that the neighboring seaport of Bristol has

perpetuated the title in one who is respected and beloved, not more for

his genius than for his modesty and reserve.

It was, of course, impossible for a man of Captain Palmer’s earnest

temperament and varied activities to lead a life of pleasure and

idleness, so one of the first things that he did upon his retirement was

to take the auxiliary steamship _United States_ from New York to Bremen

where she was sold. When some of his friends rallied him, asking whether

he considered this giving up the sea, Captain Palmer replied, “Well, I

really don’t know how you can call a trip like this going to sea.”

For many years Captain Palmer was the confidential adviser of A. A. Low

& Brother in all matters relating to their ships, which occupied a

considerable portion of his time, and while he was a seaman _par

excellence_, he also possessed other accomplishments. He had much

knowledge of the design and construction of ships, and many of his

suggestions were embodied in the _Houqua_, _Samuel Russell_, _Oriental_,

and other ships subsequently owned by the Lows. He was also a fine

all-round sportsman, being a skilful yachtsman, excellent shot, and

truthful fisherman. Altogether, he owned some fifteen yachts, and he was

one of the earliest members of the New York Yacht Club, joining on June

7, 1845. The beautiful schooner _Juliet_, of seventy tons, designed by

himself, was the last yacht owned by him. On board of her he sailed,

summer after summer, upon the pleasant waters of the New England coast

that he had known from boyhood and loved so well.

Captain Palmer stood fully six feet, and was a man of great physical

strength and endurance. He was an active member of the Currituck Club,

and at the age of seventy-six, on his annual cruise to the Thimble

Islands for duck shooting, few of the party of much younger men held so

steady a gun, or could endure the fatigue and exposure for which he

seemed to care nothing. Though rugged in appearance, his roughness was

all on the outside; his heart was filled with kindness and sympathy for

the joys and sorrows of others. His brother, Captain Alexander Palmer, a

seaman only less famous than himself, once said: “My home is here in

Stonington, but Nat’s home is the world.” Captain Palmer was deeply

though not vainly religious, and was long a warden of Calvary Episcopal

Church at Stonington.

In 1876 he accompanied his nephew, Nathaniel B. Palmer, his brother

Alexander’s eldest son, who was in feeble health, to Santa Barbara, but

as the invalid derived no benefit there, they went for the sea voyage to

China on board the clipper ship _Mary Whitridge_. At Hong-kong, Captain

Palmer received an ovation, for, while few of his old friends there were

still alive, those who were left had good memories. On the return voyage

to San Francisco on the steamship _City of Pekin_, Captain Palmer’s

nephew died when the vessel was but one day out. This was a terrible

blow to Captain Palmer, from which he never recovered. On arriving at

San Francisco he was confined to his bed, and although he received every

care, he died there on June 21, 1877, in his seventy-eighth year. At the

close of a glorious summer day, the remains of the devoted uncle and

nephew were laid at rest in the churchyard at Stonington, by the hands

of those who had known and loved them well.

Captain Palmer was a fine type of the American merchant seaman of that

period, and I have thought it worth while to trace the leading events of

his life, because he always seemed to me to be the father of American

clipper-ship captains. Probably no one ever brought up so many young men

who afterward became successful shipmasters, while his character and

example were an inspiration to many who never sailed with him. It is

indicative of the broad and far-reaching sympathies of Captain Palmer’s

life, that not only a part of the Antarctic Continent bears his name--an

enduring monument to his memory--but that A. A. Low & Brother named one

of their finest clipper ships, the _N. B. Palmer_, and the famous

schooner-yacht _Palmer_, owned for many years by Rutherfurd Stuyvesant,

was also named for him. Few men in private life have had part of a

continent, a clipper ship, and yacht named for them.