Clipper Ships
CLIPPER SHIPS
CLIPPER SHIPS, long, narrow wooden vessels with lofty canvas sails, reigned as the world's fastest oceangoing ships from about 1843 to 1868. The word "clipper" might have originated from "clip," meaning to run swiftly. Tea from China quickly lost its flavor in the hold of a ship, and about 1843 the clippers began quicker delivery of that commodity. The discovery of gold in California provided another incentive for speed. After carrying their cargoes of gold prospectors and merchandise around Cape Horn to California, the ships would either return to Atlantic ports for another such cargo or would cross the Pacific Ocean to China and be loaded with tea, silk, and spices.
Clippers were more dependable than earlier ships. They strained less in a heavy sea and crossed belts of calm better than low-rigged vessels. The swift schooners built at Baltimore during the War of 1812 were known as Baltimore clippers, but the first real clipper was the Ann McKim, built there in 1832. Beginning about 1850 the California clippers increased rapidly in size, ranging from 1,500 to 2,000 tons register. The Stag-Hound, built in 1850, was the pioneer clipper of this type. The Flying Cloud, built in Boston in 1851, sailed to San Francisco in eighty-nine days; the Andrew Jackson and the Flying Fish achieved similar feats. It was more than a quarter of a century before the steamship was able to break the speed records of the fastest clippers. After the Civil War, American shipbuilding for overseas carrying trade declined. Although a few more clipper ships were built, the steam-ships gradually replaced them.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cutler, Carl C. Greyhounds of the Sea: The Story of the American Clipper Ship. 3d ed. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1984. The original edition was published New York: Halcyon House, 1930.
Howe, Octavius T., and Frederick C. Matthews. American Clip-per Ships, 1833–1858. New York: Dover, 1986.
Charles Garrett Vannest / a. r.
See also China Trade ; Coasting Trade ; Shipping, Ocean ; Trade, Foreign .
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