CLIPPER SHIP DAYS
THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN SAILING SHIPS
LANDMARK BOOK SERIES #22
JOHN JENNINGS, AUTHOR
EDW. A. WILSON, ILLUSTRATOR
181pp
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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 may be schooners, brigs, brigantines, etc., as well as full-rigged ships. Clippers were mostly constructed in British and American shipyards, although 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 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.
A clipper is a sailing vessel designed for speed, a priority which takes precedence over cargo carrying capacity, or building or operating costs. It is not restricted to any one rig, and while many were fully rigged ships, others were barques, brigs or schooners. Nor was the term restricted to any one hull type. Howard Chapelle lists three basic hull types for clippers. The first was characterized by the sharp deadrise and ends found in the Baltimore Clipper. The second was a hull with a full mid-section and modest deadrise, but sharp ends – this was a development of the hull-form of transatlantic packets. The third was more experimental, with deadrise and sharpness being balanced against the need to carry a profitable quantity of cargo. As well as a fast hull, a clipper carried a large sail area – by the standards of any other type of sailing ship, a clipper was greatly over-canvassed. The last defining feature of a clipper was a captain who had the courage, skill and determination to get the fastest speed possible out of her.
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