page_title: Houqua (clipper)
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Houqua (clipper) / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Clipper ship builder Jacob Bell. Bell and David Brown formed Brown &amp; Bell, a shipyard located at the base of Stanton St. in New York.
context_page_description: Houqua was an early clipper ship with an innovative hull design, built for A.A. Low & Brother in 1844. She sailed in the China trade.
context_section_description: The Houqua design combined the practical experience of an experienced sea captain with the mathematical insights of a leading naval architect of the time, John W. Griffiths.
  In 1843, the A. A. Low & Bros. representative in Canton, William Low, and his pregnant wife Ann had been passengers on a very slow and frustrating trip home from Canton with Captain Nathaniel Palmer on Paul Jones. "To vent his frustration [Captain Nat] began carving a block of wood into the shape of what he thought the ideal hull of a Canton trader should look like, one that .. 'would outsail anything afloat' ... "He incorporated John W. Griffiths' ideas concerning a sharp concave bow with his own ideas of a fuller flat-bottomed hull."
  Upon arrival in New York, they approached A. A. Low & Bros. with the new design, which was further developed and built by David Brown of Brown & Bell shipyard. Captain Nathaniel Palmer "became an advisor to the Lows as a marine superintendent."
caption: Jacob Bell, of Brown & Bell
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