Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-05-14

Interesting to all persons engaged in Navigation
or in commercial pursuits:
/ NATIONAL OBSERVATORY,
/ WASHINGTON, NAY 10, 1893.
SIR The clippersh Sovereign of the Seas" MCKAY,
has made such extraordinary that beg to make
it the ubject-matteg of an official report It is due to
builders owners, and masters well as to navigation
that such achievement should be made known,
This ship of the glorious fleet Of thousand san
that is voluntarily engaged in making observations for
wind and current charts She it is will be recoected,
who taking them for her guide made the extraordinary
Of 03 days from New York to San Francisco, both
crossing the equator in the Pacific and arriving in port
on the day predicted
Returning from the Sandwich Islands to New York in
the remarkably short of 50 days. she passed through
part of the great South Sea which has been seldom
rayersed by radersat least have the records of none
| such.
Little or nothing except what conjecture suggested,
known to the winds in this part of the The
results of my investigations elsewhere with regard to
winds and the circulation Of the atmosphere had enabled
me to announce, theoretical deduction, that the
winds in the '.variables of the South Pacific would
probably be found to prevail from the westward with
understandable regularity.
Between the parallels of As degrees and So degrees S.
from the meridian Of the Cape of Good Hope eastward
around to that of Cape Horn there is land other
disturbing agent interrupt the wind in its regular cir
cults Here the winds would be found blowing from the
west with greater force than from the in the trade
wind region, and, giving rise that long rolling swell
peculiar to those regions of the Pacific they would
bic ships steering make the remarkable
that have ever been accomplished under canvass.
The Sovereign Of the Seas" has afforded the most
beautiful illustration to the correctness of these theo
retical deductions.
Leaving Oahu for New York via Cape Horn, 18th of
February last she stood the southwark through the
belts both of the northeast and the southeast trades
making course good the average through them
little the west of south She finally cot clear of them
March Gth after crossing the parallel OF 45s south upon
the meridian Of l6ao west.
The Sh and 9th she in tbs horse latitude wealth
Of the southern hemisphere So far her had been
coed, but there nothing remarkable in it.
Having crossed the parallel of 4S' south, she found
herself the 10th fairly within the radeke winds
of the Southern ocean, and here commenced succession
ofthe extraordinary days that have been
| linked together acrcss the ocean.
From March 9th to March 31st from the parallel of
4Se south in the Pacific $50 south in the Atlantic
during interval Of twenty-five days, that ship made
9 OF latitude and 1869 of longitude her shortest days
during the ntervaldetermined by calculation,
by the log-beiug enc hundred and fifty knots. The
wind all this time recorded with casting it.
1t was steady and fresh from the westward.
In these twenty-five days that ship made 5,391 nautical
miles But that you may the more conveniently contrast
her performance with that of railroad and river
steamers, viii quote her in statute miles.
Here then is ship under canvass and with the winds
alone as propellpg power. and with crew, too,
short, the captain informs me, that she but half
manned accomplishing in twenty-five days the
Of G245 miles one-fourth the distance round the
earth,) and making the daily average of two hundred
and eightyhree statute miles and nnetenths, (2s29)
During eleven of these days consecuvey her daily
rage G54 statute miles and during four days. also
|
From moan of one 10 the Of the next day, the
greatest distance made 3G2 knots 4lo miles and
the greatest reported by the captain is S knots
y statute miles, the hour This is pretty fair railroad
speed.
The greatest distance before performed from noon
to the ga knots 433l statute miles,
by the cpper-ship Flying Cloud" in her celebrated
passage of SO days and q hours San Francisco in
1851, and which yet stands unequaled. say from
to noon because from TO not with either
Of these ships, the exact measure Of twentyfour hours
The Flying Ceud" going 70 the northward and
westward and the day of her great she made A.
46> Of longitude which in time is l9< 81 that IS her
noon to noon for that day "a hours 19f ~.
On the other hand the " Sovereign Of the Seas
steering the eastward aud the day Of her great
she made So AZ Of longitude which in time is S4 56
that is her for that day only % hours
25< ~ longitude
Thus the Flying Clouds run in "A hours 10, ~ was
433 statute miles and the other 4l9 in % hours 25< A.
Reducing these each to the performance pro rata
according the log for "a hours have for the for
ship 4275 against 4276 by the latter that s the
best "a consecutive hours by the Sovereign Of the
Seas exceeds the best consecutive "a hours of the Fly
ing Cloud only BY The one-tcnuh part Of one mile
These two ships certainly par mobile but the great
days performance Of each does prove the Sover-
egn of the Seas" to be faster ship than the Flyng
| Cloud"
The Sovereign Of the Seas had in her favor that long
rolling swell from the westward that is peculiar to high
southern atitudes, and which helped nightly heaye
! her along All seamen who have doubled Cape Horn
/ know what 1t is, and need not describe it,
II is true the Flying Cloud, her great day, had
during the latter part strong gales and high
ming still those high like that long rolling
Cape Horn swell that from the westward with such
heaying force and which had been chasing the Sow
| ereign Of the Seas" steadily for ten days.
On the other hand it may be urged in favor Of the lat
ter that she shorhanded with oretopmast disabled
and jury topgaHantmast Her abstract log, it should
also be mentioned says nothing the force Of the
wind the heaye of the sea, the sails se while that Of
the Flying Cloud is quite full upon these points.
Though unwilling therefore decide against the
Flying Cloud" as TO the greatest days made,
it is clear that her competitor has borne off the palm
to the length Of time for which she has kept up her great
speed Her log stops March 3D. latitude 33o 16/ north,
432 nautical miles in straight line from Sandy Hook.
Taking it. therefore for the seventy nine days for which
she gives it, and stating the distance by straight line
from her place Of day the Of the next
it appears that her daily average 1927 statute miles,
making the whole distance sailed during the interval
be IL, 597 statute miles which gives for the
markable achievement Of accomplishing distance
than wothrds Of that which requires to encrcle the
earth the average Of nine miles and upwards the
hour for ], S96 consecutive hours.
As / write this the abstract Of another ship, the
a. Comet" E. C. Gardner from San Francisco to New
i lie pvpl hae nodo d;nar