Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-01-19


eyes.
You're Yankee, amt ye?" he asked. "Some
of the finest ships in the world came cot o Yam
kee yards Fact is the first clipper ever built
Baltimore built hull. Course, we didn't really
invent EN-. That done by the French and
English Back before the Revolution and what
we call the War of Eighteen Twelve.
in them days the craftiest smugglers in the
world were the Brittany luggers. Long, low and
fast as sin, they was And when you Yanks started
breakin off from the old country, the French, al
ways lookn DOT for what they could get had sort
o treaty with America Course they sent a lot o :
frgates an luggers over to American waters; and
we can bet that whenever one o them skimmers
were dry locked careened on American soil
there was bright young Yank wi his pencil and
tablet maxim notes and drawns o their lines.
Then too, when the aristos chased DOT o
France there a bunch O. Frog shipwrights in
Martinique who ran for the States to save their
money bags, and they set up business in the
Chesapeake. Twasn't long before they was turnin'
DOT little privateers that sailed the seas, slipping
rings round the heavier enemy ships. They was
SLIM low freeboarded and raked like fightin cats.
1t was from them that the clipper ships built,
the prettiest craft that ever rolled an casting
down
watched the withered little man and his eyes
were glowing as he eyed the ancient hull that
cracked and warped in the boiling heat
AYE l know lot ABBOTT clippers he piped.
Time was when had pictures of all the great
ships; sailed in good many of EN-, too. Butt
wasn't til the great sea races to China and Az
tralia that the big extreme clippers to be built
I'm them days the East Indiamen built of
oak, mighty baulks that had seasoned in salt water
for eight or nine years Boted together Wi mas
sive copper bolts they was heavy as lead and dead
tide rock in a seaway. In fair winds they wal
lowed along as if next year would do and when the
kicked up its heels they rolled like blasted
cradles rockn until the very captains themselves
were givin back their dinners. Their spars were
heavy too wi blocks big as barrels and hemp cam
vas, cut wi belly to hold the winds. that
slack as washerwomans britches They were
slow, slow the comm o Spring, but they buck
eted through the Indian Ocean and arrived in port
when they got there.
'Then you Yankees began to take a look see
in them waters It wasn't long before faster ships
were takin the trade away from us. Your craft
smaller but the runs were much quicker
that We could get freight rates that scared the
pants off the English captains.
"The first of the big clippers ever built in Amer
lea was the Anne McKim, built in Baltimore. She
was beauty. Frames of live oak that had sea-
soned in the sun, copper fastened throughout and
her keel sheeted in special imported sheet
copper that looked like gold Flush decks O.
course, and mahogany combin's. rails and COM
panions. She carried twelve brass guns and was
fitted wi brass capstan-heads like millonaire's
yacht.
"She was named after the owners wife and
some say he loved her better She faster than
anything that had sailed the seas but she couldn't
take much cargo and one took her seriously.
But there was a few far-sghted lads WHO
watched her and thev dreamed of the day " j
they could trim 1000 ton hull wi them sweet
lines Well, it wasn't until 1841 that Rowland and
Aspnwal the great ship owners, built the Rainbow
She was $50 tons and an extreme clipper They
made her waterline concave and heightened the
bow to long point above the water sharpened the
for'rard body to bring the greatest beam farther
aft than ever before. A..
1.-THE clever ones didn't like her at ALL They
said she was turned inside out, that she was ag'n
lnurc Of n0ft NJ fhnNy Ill