page_title: Clipper
section_title: Origin and usage of "clipper"
hierarchical_section_title: Clipper / Origin and usage of "clipper"
caption_attribution_description: English: British opium clipper "Water Witch" built 1831
context_page_description: A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "Clipper" does not refer to a specific sailplan; clippers, by sailplan, may be schooners, brigs, brigantines, etc., or indeed "ships" as restrictively defined in the Age of Sail. Clipper ships were mostly constructed in British and American shipyards, though France, Brazil, the Netherlands and other nations also produced some. Clippers sailed all over the world, primarily on the trade routes between the United Kingdom and China, in transatlantic trade, and on the New York-to-San Francisco route around Cape Horn during the California Gold Rush. Dutch clippers were built beginning in the 1850s for the tea trade and passenger service to Java.
  The boom years of the clipper ship era began in 1843 in response to a growing demand for faster delivery of tea from China. This continued under the stimulating influence of the discovery of gold in California and Australia in 1848 and 1851, and ended with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
context_section_description: The term "clipper" most likely derives from the verb "clip", which in former times meant, among other things, to run or fly swiftly. Dryden, the English poet, used the word "clip" to describe the swift flight of a falcon in the 17th century when he said "And, with her eagerness the quarry missed, Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind." The ships appeared to clip along the ocean water. The term "clip" became synonymous with "speed" and was also applied to fast horses and sailing ships. "To clip it," and "going at a good clip," remained familiar expressions in the early 20th century.
  The first application of the term "clipper", in a nautical sense, is uncertain. The Baltimore Clipper was in use over the last quarter of the 18th century through to the first half of the 19th century, but under a different name for much of that time. At first, these vessels were referred to as "Virginia-built" or "pilot-boat model"—with the name "Baltimore-built" appearing during the War of 1812. It was not until the final days of the slave trade (c. 1835 -1850)—just as the type was dying out—that the name "Baltimore Clipper" became common. The retrospective application of the word "clipper" to this type has been a source of confusion.
  The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest quote (referring to the Baltimore Clipper) is from 1824. British newspaper usage of the term can be found as early as 1832 and in shipping adverts from 1835.
  
  There is discussion of clippers being faster than other vessels by captains called before court in A report of the trial of Pedro Gibert et al before the United States Circuit Court of 1834;
  Edward H. Faucon: I have been to sea twelve years. I am master of a vessel, and...I should think there would be thirty per cent difference in favor of the clipper...
  Samuel Austin Turner: I...know the Mexican. Should think, in a royal breeze, she would run six knots, while a clipper would sail one third faster. In a fresh, fair wind, the difference would be smaller—perhaps none at all. Don’t think the brig would ever have the advantage of the clipper.
   
  There is no single definition of the characteristics of a clipper ship, but mariner and author Alan Villiers describes them as follows:
  To sailors, three things made a ship a clipper.  She must be sharp-lined, built for speed.  She must be tall-sparred and carry the utmost spread of canvas.  And she must use that sail, day and night, fair weather and foul.
    Optimized for speed, clippers were too fine-lined to carry much cargo.  They typically carried extra sails, such as skysails and moonrakers on the masts, and studding sails on booms extending out from the hull or yards, which required extra sailors to handle them.  In high winds where other ships would shorten sail, clippers drove on, heeling so much that their lee rails were in the water.
caption: "Opium clipper" Water Witch, a British barque built in 1831
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