page_title: Clara Clarita
section_title: Jerome ownership, 1864–65
hierarchical_section_title: Clara Clarita / Service history / Jerome ownership, 1864–65
caption_attribution_description: English: Leonard Jerome's steam yacht Clara Clarita, as originally built in 1864.
context_page_description: Clara Clarita was a fast screw steamer originally built as a luxury steam yacht for New York City financier Leonard Jerome. On her trial trip, Clara Clarita's original engine proved so ineffective it was removed before the vessel entered service and replaced by machinery from a different supplier. Jerome sold the yacht after only a short time and she was converted into a towboat, becoming the fastest such vessel in New York Harbor, before being converted into a fireboat in the same locality.
  In the 1870s, Clara Clarita underwent a third conversion, into a passenger steamer, in which role she set an all-time speed record for a steamer on Penobscot Bay. Her final conversion was into an oceangoing tug, some time after which her crew and captain were presented with a heroism award for a rescue at sea. The vessel was abandoned in 1908 after a long and varied 44-year career.
context_section_description: In July 1865, about a year after Jerome took possession of Clara Clarita, a public clamour arose for the repair of the Gulf of St. Lawrence submarine telegraph cable, linking Newfoundland with the North American mainland, in time for the arrival of a new telegraph cable then being laid between Great Britain and Newfoundland by the steamship Great Eastern. Jerome decided to make Clara Clarita available for the task.
  Accordingly, Clara Clarita departed New York with two cable experts and their assistants on 23 July, arriving at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 28th, having shown herself on the voyage to be "an excellent sea-boat". At Halifax, some brief preparations were made before the vessel continued on to Aspy Bay on Cape Breton Island, where the cable retrieval operation began. Clara Clarita's return was awaited with great anticipation, but when she finally arrived in the port of North Sydney, Nova Scotia on 11 August, it was with the disappointing news that the cable was damaged beyond repair. Clara Clarita returned to New York a few days later via Newport, Rhode Island.
  Jerome's enthusiasm for yachting is said to have been considerably dampened by his experiences with Clara Clarita. In early November, after owning the vessel for only some 20 months, he sold her to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for use as a towboat.
caption: Steam yacht Clara Clarita in 1864, as originally designed
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