The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-29
AMERICAN CLIPPER sEIPS.
WOnderful PerfOEmsnees % the DPcads
nOHght and Orher Flyers.

o. the American built clipper La Rochelle. under
German colors, outAAiled the French steam
gunboat Medusa. and ran into the hATbor OF
Iquique. Chile. for refuge. Tle la Rochelle
was blOckadcd there TO the end Of the war.
In the 00s Capt. HeIlmers Of Bremen Ia the
American buht clipper Orpheus. under Ger
man oolors. regularly Outsailed the steamer
Of the German lines.
Tie prince of shipbuilders was Donald
Mckay. the head Of a noble family OF ship
builder and seamen. whom Edward Everett
has eulogized a. the sea kings Of the United
states. The McKaya won immortal renOwn
with their wooden clippers, originally at New
burypOrt and later At East Boston. Long
fellow wrote his Building Of the ship In their
honor.
With the discovery Of the New EdorAdo
every shipyard that bad the capital and skill
turned to clipper building for the California
rush. TIL Americans produced the finest
Meet OF white winged racers the world ever
beheld. and they have never been eQualled
since IN speed. power and beauty. Donald
Mckay's Sovereign OF the Seas, commanded
by hts brother Lauchkan. safied from New
York for San Francisco in ugus 1857. on
the coast OF Chile this fine vess Ell was almost
totally dLsmasted. everything was carried
away on the fore and main above the owe
mastheads. In two weeks Capt. LAuchlan
stepped q wonderful jury rig. and reached
San Francisco In IOz days from New York.
which was said 20 be the best passage ever
made for the season; From San Francisco
wich Islands. Loading for New York. she
made the run from Honolulu to Sandy Hook
IN N tSs pnenS@s dsI TIM, e. S Of sts tItyn.s Ssys
S;sol knots. Her record run for one day was
The Mckay built clipper lightning made
. run from Melbourne to Liverpool in sixty
three days. and the James ,Baines ran from
Boston Sst 70 LtSsrpcol in twelve LAYS and six
Flying Cloud. made ga miles one day in .
ninety day run to San Francisco, The Comet
Hook in eishty-three days, averaging 2iO
phss a day for The ENTIRE pdTs {, diTsancs; The
the Cunsrd. steamer that sailed on the same
day. The famous Sovereign Of the Seas In a
10 June. 1852. made in one day $40 miles. while
the Cunard steamer Canada was making
Capt. Bob Waterman, the. Phantom Skip
per. brought the Natchez from the Canton
River, China. to New York in seventy
made three voyages to San francisco in IOi
About 1853 the clipper mo came from sinEa-
Pilot from Manila to Salem in ninety-six
days. the Shooting Star from Canton 10 New
Canton. 10 New York in eighty-four days.
Such ships as the Young America, Sweep
stakes. Sea Serpent. Phantom. Sierra Nevada
49, ~s"H,N nv ~ HN Nhh AiV VI
McKay's masterpiece was the giant four
launched september 4, 1853. at East Boston.
We'll known and cherish ed in New York Is
the name Of the famous Yankee packet Dread
nought, the cham ion OF the broad Atlantic,
and the name Of her gallant and dasbinR
commander stands out clear in the hall Of
shipping fame. Samuels was the Yankee
tar par excellence. ana a popular hero. worthy
Of the, great ship he commanded. At II
Samuels ran away from home and learned
hia AHaf InaaaN IN aalnRin0 "a. IAA. I.I.-I
Sound and the Hudson River, He was shanG-
haied from 9 revenue brig into a Baltimore
ship hound for England. This was his first
Introduction to deep water. He Was chased
by West Indian pirates, served in the Texan
navy; sailed In a haunted ship around the
came second and chief officer in the British
marine, and at 20 was master Of an American
shiDs in the Mediterranean ennlating Capt.
Admiral Nelson OF tbs, British navy. who
There Ls in the handling. OF those trans
atlantic ships q nucleus of trouble for the
ssmueis declined the post of Admiral in
lady, from a Turkish hsre%. and bsttlod' WitR
sailor OF romance the CAPT. Kettle and
GSy yS p D; NOtEsn Francis b. cutting.
and large clipper D~readnought at Newbury-
KDTh III 1000 On HtT mNI nOIleMAT0 nun
from. Liverpool the DreadnouRht reached
Sandy Hook Just as the CunaTder Canada.
which started q day, earlier. reached Boston.
In 1850 the D~readnought ran 500 miles in
thirteen days and eight hours. The quick
est transatlantic passage ever recorded by a
when she ran to Queenstown in Ise0 in nine
days and seventeen hours. Even at this day
this ls going some" for medium steamers
Inc DreadnouGht was never passed In my
thing more than q four knot breeze, and abe
stood driving az long as her sails and spsrs
wild boat Of the Atlantic and the Flying
Dutchman." Twice she carried the latest
news 70 Europe. slipping in bet ween steam
The wonderful record Of the Dreadnought
was due to the strict discipline of her crew,
that could be carried from time of leaving
to making port.
Cracking on sail" and carrying hard"
merchant captains. and n direct opposite of
recklessness, 49, II may have appeared TO our
a french ship'a snuxEe pI down or 70 = re pmsdn to or
sails and holding bare steerage way in the
south Pacific or Indian Ocean, would see a
gloom and vanish like a ghost to leeward, a
Yankee clipper under royals.
on t = run ms fqom New e1pR Rork T 10 JsSs H. ;oSp h toTgs:
SSder Teefsd canvas and close rsefed top
ship with royals and topSalIant studdiHg
sails. The tenth week out the Florence aver
aged 2Sl miles a day Tor seven days, and
passed q ship under t0psails, the Florence
having royals out. On one voyage the Flor
ence. arrived at Penang IN eighty-One days,
and in these eiHhty-one da Us the topsail hal
liards we're started only TO take in a single
reef for a few hours. In a voyage from
Shanghai to England the Florence on Janu-
airy II. 1850, seventeen days out. exchanged
signals with the English ship John Waterman,
that had sailed thirteen days before her.
What might be done in the way Of getting
Ice and beating out the ammonia machines
can be learned from the early exploits OF our
* fer back as 1912 Frederic Tudor of Boston
sent small cargoes OF New England ice 10 the
West Indies. After 1918 MIR. Tudor secured
a monopoly Of the ice trade for the city Of
Havana, and later he extended the shipments
to Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans.
By careful packing he managed to send ice
out 20 Calcutta. The European and Indian
merchants bought the whole supply, and a
regular trade in Massachusetts, ice spranR up
which remained active and lucrative for
thirty years. Indeed, the ice ships gave
Boston a long mastery OF the general Calcutta
ira nc. The originality and audaCity of this
ice export business was wildly American,
No man who was not very sure Of himself
would ever have sent such a Derishable freight
out upon a four OF i've months voyage. which
involved crossing the equator. doubling
Da Gama's stormy cape and steering through
the furnace heat Of the Indian Ocean. Fred
eric Tudor was the Originalicemau
FERDINAND KAROEBEHN
HoBoKEN. September 2s.