The clipper ship era: an epitome of famous American and British clipper ships, their owners, builders, commanders, and crews, 1843-1869Clark, Arthur H.
History
The clipper ship era: an epitome of famous American and British clipper ships, their owners, builders, commanders, and crews, 1843-1869
Clark, Arthur H.
Clipper ships -- Great Britain; Clipper ships -- United States
It was in the year 1857 that the _Great Republic_ made her remarkable
passage of 92 days from New York to San Francisco, and established a new
record of 16 days from Sandy Hook to the equator. She was still
commanded by Captain Limeburner, who had as his first officer,
Montgomery Parker, an accomplished seaman and navigator, afterward
commander of the ships _Judge Shaw_ and _Lord Lyndhurst_. The crew of 50
men before the mast were the usual assortment, 15 or 20 good seamen, the
rest adventurers and mongrels of various brands, of whom little could be
expected. Captain Limeburner and his officers always went armed, and it
was perhaps fortunate, with such a crew, that the topgallantsails were
never clewed up during the passage, and that Cape Horn was rounded with
skysails set.
The abstract log of the _Great Republic_ is as follows:
From Sandy Hook to the equator 16 days.
From the equator to 50° S. 25 “
From 50° S. in the Atlantic to 50° S.
in the Pacific 9 “
From 50° S. to the equator 23 “
From the equator to San Francisco 19 “
--
Total 92 “
Lieutenant Maury, in a letter on the subject to the Secretary of the
Navy, remarks: “This vessel did not have the luck to get a wind that
could keep her up to her mettle for twenty-four hours consecutively.
Here and there she got into favorable streaks of wind, but she appears
to have run out of them faster than they could follow. She made the run
to San Francisco in 92 days.
“The shortest passage that in the present state of ship-building will
probably ever be made from New York to San Francisco, is 85 days; and
the very clever first officer of this ship, writing from California,
expresses the opinion that ‘should she continue to run between New York
and San Francisco, from the experience of this voyage, she will one day
make the trip within your possible 85 days.’
“The friends of this noble specimen of naval architecture, however, can
scarcely hope for a fair trial and proper display of her prowess until
she shall be sent on a voyage to Australia. The brave west winds of the
Southern hemisphere, which she will then encounter, will enable her to
show herself; elsewhere, she can scarcely find a sea wide enough, with
belts of wind broad enough for the full display of her qualities and
capabilities.”
There can be little doubt that with her original spars and sail plan,
the _Great Republic_ would have made this passage in 85 days or less,
and it is to be regretted that, even with her reduced rig, she never
made a voyage between England and Australia, the service for which she
was built and especially adapted. Her best twenty-four hours’ run, made
upon a subsequent voyage while under the command of Captain Josiah Paul,
was 413 miles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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