clipper

 

type of sailing ship, designed for speed. Long and narrow, the clipper had the greatest beam aft of the center; the bow cleaved the waves; and the ship carried, besides topgallant and royal sails, skysails and moonrakers—a veritable cloud of sails. The type originated in the United States. Baltimore clippers and Atlantic packet ships were the forerunners of the true Yankee clipper, which may be said to have emerged with the Ann McKim, completed in Baltimore in 1833. The Yankee clipper was brought to perfection by Donald McKay of Boston, who built such vessels as the Flying Cloud, the Glory of the Seas, and the Lightning. U.S. and British clippers came to be known as China clippers because they utilized their speed to carry on a flourishing China trade in tea and opium. Clippers sailed from the U.S. Atlantic coast around Cape Horn to California in the days of the gold rush. They steadily reduced the time for their long voyages and held famous races. The clipper came into being only after its finally successful rival, the steamship, was engaging in transoceanic voyages. In the early days the clipper easily outran the plodding steam vessel, but, ironically, the improved steamship began to forge ahead even as some of the fastest and most beautiful clippers were being built. When the Cutty Sark, one of the swiftest and most celebrated British clippers, was completed at Dunbarton, Scotland, in 1869, the era of the commercial sailing ship had nearly come to an end.

A clipper was a very fast multiple-masted sailing ship of the 19th century. Generally narrow for their length, limited in their bulk freight carrying capacities, and small by later 19th century standards, the clippers had a large relative sail area. "Clipper ships" were mostly products of British and American shipyards, though France, the Netherlands (the Dutch-built Telanak, built in 1859 for the tea and passenger trade to Java) and other nations also produced a number of them. Clippers sailed all over the world, primarily on the trade routes between the United Kingdom and her colonies in the east, in the trans-Atlantic trade, and in the New York-to-San Francisco route round Cape Horn during the California Gold Rush.

Origins

The often quoted derivation of the word, they "clipped" time off a voyage, is probably incorrect. However, the example of the other class of vessel built for speed, the cutter, suggests the cutting notion may have been seen as relevant. Clipper bows were distinctively narrow and heavily raked forward which allowed them to rapidly cut or clip through the waves. One of the meanings of clip, from the 17th Century onward, possibly from the sound of wings, is to fly or move quickly. The term clipper originally applied to a fast horse and most likely derives from the term clip, meaning speed, as in "going at a good clip". The Oxford English Dictionary gives its earliest English quotation as from 1830. Cutler reports the first newspaper appearance was in 1835, and by then the term was apparently familiar.

In the United States, "clipper" referred to the Baltimore clipper, a topsail schooner developed in Chesapeake Bay before the American Revolution and was lightly armed in the War of 1812, sailing under Letters of Marque and Reprisal, when the type—exemplified by Chasseur, launched at Fells Point, Baltimore in 1814— became known for her incredible speed; a deep draft enabled the Baltimore clipper to sail close to the wind.^[1]. It was also at Baltimore Annie McKim, the first "true" (archetypal) clipper, with sharply raked stem, counter stern, and square rig, was built, in 1833.^[2] Clippers, running the British blockade of Baltimore, came to be recognized for speed rather than cargo space; while traditional merchant ships were accustomed to average speeds of under 5 knots (9 km/h), clippers aimed at 9 knots (17 km/h) or better. Some could reach 20 knots (37 km/h).

Clippers were built for seasonal trades such as tea, where an early cargo was more valuable, or for passenger routes. The small, fast ships were ideally suited to low-volume, high-profit goods, such as spices, tea, people, and mail. The values could be spectacular. The Challenger returned from Shanghai with "the most valuable cargo of tea and silk ever to be laden in one bottom." Competition among the clippers was public and fierce, with their times recorded in the newspapers. The ships had low expected lifetimes and rarely outlasted two decades of use before they were broken up for salvage. Given their speed and maneuverability, clippers frequently mounted cannon or carronade and were often employed in piracy, privateering, smuggling, or interdiction service.

Departures of clipper ships, mostly from New York City and Boston, Massachusetts to San Francisco, California, were advertised by clipper ship sailing cards, and represented the first pronounced use of color in American advertising art.

The China Clippers and the Epitome of Sail

The most significant clippers were the China Clippers, sometimes also known as Tea Clippers, designed to ply the trade routes between Europe and the East Indies. The last example of these still in reasonable condition is Cutty Sark; preserved in dry dock at Greenwich, United Kingdom, although she suffered extensive damage in a fire on 21 May 2007.

The last of the China Clippers were the epitome of sail. These clippers, when fully rigged and riding before a tradewind, were acknowledged to be the fastest of all sail vessels, with peak average speeds even exceeding 16 knots. The Great Tea Race of 1866 was a showcase of their speed and competition. When the last China Clippers were retired, they ended the age of the fastest commercial sailing vessels made by man. Their speeds have been improved upon many times by modern ocean yachts, but never by any commercial sail vessel.

There are many ways of judging the speed of a ship: by knots per hour (sic), by day's runs, by port-to-port records. Judged by any test, the American clippers were supreme.

Donald McKay's Sovereign of the Seas reported the highest rate of speed ever achieved by a sailing ship - 22 knots, made while running her easting down to Australia in 1854. (John Griffiths' first clipper, the Rainbow, had a top speed of 14 knots... ) There are eleven other instances of a ship's logging 18 knots or over. Ten of these were recorded by American clippers...

Besides the breath-taking 465-mile day's run of the Champion of the Seas, there are thirteen other cases of a ship's sailing over 400 nautical miles in 24 hours...

And with few exceptions all the port-to-port sailing records are held by the American clippers.

– Lyon, Jane D , P.138 Clipper Ships and Captains(1962)New York: American Heritage Publishing

Decline

Decline in the use of clippers started with the economic slump following the Panic of 1857 and continued with the gradual introduction of the steamship. Although clippers could be much faster than the early steamships, clippers were ultimately dependent on the vagaries of the wind, while steamers could reliably keep to a schedule. The steam clipper was developed around this time, and had auxiliary steam engines which could be used in the absence of wind. An example of this type was Royal Charter, built in 1857 and wrecked on the coast of Anglesey in 1859. The final blow was the Suez Canal, opened in 1869, which provided a huge shortcut for steamships between Europe and Asia, but was difficult for sailing ships to use. With the absence of the tea trade, some clippers had no chance of survival but to go into the wool trade, operating between Britain and Australia.

Although many clipper ships were built during the middle of the 19th century, Cutty Sark was, perhaps until recently, the only survivor. Falls of Clyde is a well-preserved example of a more conservatively designed, slower contemporary of the clippers, which was built for general freight in 1878. Other surviving examples of clipper ships of the era are not as well preserved, for example City of Adelaide (a.k.a. S.V. Carrick)[1].

In 2000, a new clipper, Stad Amsterdam, was built; she is not a replica of any one ship, but an attempt to combine what its builders consider the "best" qualities of the clipper ships.

Notable clipper ships

Main article: List of clipper ships

See also

• William Jardine
• Donald McKay
• Packet ship
• Sail-plan
• Clipper route
• Cutty Sark

External links

• Oil paintings of clipper ships by Bruce Von Stetina
• The "Telanak"
• Clipper Ship cards
• Clipper Ship Cards (from The Trade Card Place)
• The Shipslist: Baltimore Clipper
• "Baltimore Clippers - Pirates of the Chesapeake": career of Chasseur

References

• Carl C. Cutler, Greyhounds of the Sea (1930, 3rd ed. Naval Institute Press 1984)
• Alexander Laing, Clipper Ship Men (1944)
• David R. MacGregor, Fast Sailing Ships: Their Design and Construction, 1775-1875 Naval Institute Press, 1988 ISBN 0-87021-895-6 index
• Oxford English Dictionary (1987) ISBN 0-19-861212-5.
• Bruce D. Roberts, Clipper Ship Cards: The High-Water Mark in Early Trade Cards, The Advertising Trade Card Quarterly 1, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 20-22.
• Bruce D. Roberts, Clipper Ship Cards: Graphic Themes and Images, The Advertising Trade Card Quarterly 1, no. 2 (Summer 1994): 22-24.
• Bruce D. Roberts, Museum Collections of Clipper Ship Cards, The Advertising Trade Card Quarterly 2, no. 1 (Spring 1995): 22-24.
• Bruce D. Roberts, Selling Sail with Clipper Ship Cards, Ephemera News 19, no. 2 (Winter 2001): 1, 11-14.
• Villiers, Capt. Alan, 1973. Men, Ships and the Sea (National Geographic Society)

Clipper ships, designers & builders
British-built clippers	Ariel · Blackadder · Challenger · City of Adelaide · Cutty Sark · Hallowe'en · Lammermuir (1856) · Lammermuir (1864) · Leander · Lothair · Norman Court · Sir Lancelot · Taeping · Tayleur · Thermopylae · Taitsing
American-built clippers	Champion of the Seas · Flying Cloud · Great Republic · James Baines · Lightning · Sovereign of the Seas · Ticonderoga
Dutch-built clippers	California · Kosmopoliet · Stad Amsterdam
British designers and builders	Hercules Linton · William Lithgow · John Scott Russell · Scott & Linton
American designers and builders	Donald McKay · Nathaniel Palmer · William Henry Webb

Types of sailing vessels and rigs

Barca-longa · Barque · Barquentine · Bermuda rig · Bilander · Brig · Brigantine · Caravel · Carrack · Catamaran · Catboat · Clipper · Dutch Clipper · Cog · Corvette · Cutter · Dhow · Fifie · Fluyt · Fore & Aft Rig · Frigate · Full Rigged Ship · Gaff Rig · Galeas · Galiot · Galleon · Gunter Rig · Hermaphrodite Brig · Jackass-barque · Junk · Ketch · Longship · Lugger · Mersey Flat · Multihull · Nao · Norfolk Wherry · Pink · Pocket Cruiser · Polacca · Pram · Proa · Sailing hydrofoil · Schooner · Ship of the Line · Sloop · Smack · Snow · Square Rig · Tall Ship · Thames Sailing Barge · Trimaran · Vinta · Wherry · Windjammer · Windsurfer · Xebec · Yacht · Yawl

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