Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-02-10
A QUEEN OF THE SEAS.
The Record Breaking Trips of the Famous
Old Red Jacket.

The Record Breaking Trips of the Famous
Old Red Jacket.
In Maine they dwell with pride
upon the performance of the Red
Jacket, built in Rockland in 1853 by
Deacon George Thomas. The Red
Jacket made. the run from New
York to Liverpool in 10 days 1 hour
and Is minutes in the month of
January, 1854. This was the best
trip up to that time, and it probably
never has been beaten, although
faster trip, by a few hours, was
claimed for the Boston ship Light
ming. When the Red Jacket started
on her trip, the record was held by
the ship Sovereign of the Seas, built
in East Boston by Donald Mckay
10 days 10 hours.
The Red Jacket was 234 feet keel,
"A feet inches beam, Is feet lower
hold, s feet between decks, 1926 feet
over all and measured $500 tons,
making her the largest ship afioat
at that time. There was great ex-
citement, both in New York and in
Liverpool, over the first trip of the
Red Jacket, for it was known all
over the maritime world that she
had been built expressly to beat the
record of the Sovereign of the Seas.
She was also to set mark for the
Live Yankee, a ship built at Rock
land at about the same time, and for
several others. Large amounts of
money were wagered on the result
of her passage.
The Live Yankee hadsa hard pas
sage and came nowhere near the
Red Jackets time.
AS illustrating the shrewdness of
Deacon Thomas, it is related that,
hearing that several other builders
were about to construct ships on the
same lines as the Red Jacket, he al
tered his molds slightly, putting in
five extra frames amidships. This
probably helped the speed of the
Red Jacket. At any rate, in that
respect she differed from her rivals.
A Rockland man, who was in Liv-
erpool when the Red Jacket arrived
there, gives an interesting account
of her triulnphal entry into the
great English seaport. The excite
ment was Enthusiastically less
than in New York. A day before
the Yankee clipper was expected to
arrive the American steamer came
in and reported the ship as just
outside, and in few hours the Red
Jacket appeared at the harbor's
mouth. Hundreds of cheering sail
ors had boarded her, and two tugs
had lines to the ship, although her
speed was so great that they could
not keep the hawsers taut. She
came flying up the harbor with ev-
cry stitch drawing in a brisk north
wester, and, greatly to the iastonish-
ment of the natives, instead of COM
ing to an anchor and being laid up
to the pier head by tugs, she came
about, threw her yards hard abaok
and actually laid herself up!
About year afterward the clip
per ship Lightning was built by
Donald Mckay at East Boston for
an English firm for the express pur-
pose of beating the Red Jackets
time between New York and Liver
pool, and it was claimed that che
accomplished the feat by few
hours, but the claim has always
been disputed, and it is likely that
the Red Jacket still holds the record.
The Red Jacket never returned to
this country under the American
flag, having been sold almost as
soon as she arrived on the other side
for $3.50, 600 to an Australian packet
line. Extensive alterations were
made in her to suit the needs of the
passenger and freight business be-
tween Liverpool and Melbourne, and
she made many fast passages in that
service. She was again sold when
her rate ran out to Henry Milvain
of Newcastle, England, and ended
her days as a lumber lugger between
Quebec and the United Kingdom. -
Lewiston journal.