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www.sname.org/sname/mt April 2013 sails on the aft mast made it a barque. Some smaller clippers were barquentine rigs in which only the fore- mast was rigged with square sails. Earliest models Clipper ships were princi pally an American and a British innovation, althou gh famous clippers were also built in France and the Netherlands. Americas Baltimore clippers were the earliest models. These were ? ne-lined, deep-draft vessels that could sail relatively close to the wind with a topsail schoo- ner sail plan. Built between roughly 1795 and 1815, Baltimore clipper s were relativ ely small?less than 200 gross tons by the old measurement system (OM) and used in short-distance coastal trade. By the War of 1812, the Baltimore clipper model became impor- tant as a blockade runner in which speed and course ? exibility was more import ant than cargo-carrying capacity. One of the most notable Baltimore clippers is often credited as the Ann McKim , 494 gross tons OM, built in 1833 in Baltimore, Maryland. Scottish Maid , 150 gross tons, launched in 1839 by Alexander Hall & Sons in Aberdeen, Scotland, is commonly regarded as the ? rst European clipper ship. The fastest ocean-going commercial ships before the clipper ships were pack et ships, carrying mail and passengers on regularly scheduled routes. The Black Ball Line, established in 1818, o ered twice- monthly departures between Liverpool and New York. For example, Black Ball Lines 996 gross ton packet Yorkshire , designed and built by William H. Webb, was both a fast and a good cargo carrier. In 1846, she made the run from Liverpool to the Sandy Hook entrance to New York harbor in 15 days 12 hours (speed made good = 8.0 knots) when the west- bound average for packets on this route was more than 30 days. The ? rst extreme clipper generally is regarded as Rainbow , 757 gross tons OM, designed by John W. Gri ths of New York City and launched by Smith & Dimon in 1844. Another of the early extreme clip- pers was Houqua, 582 gross tons OM, launched by Brown & Bell in New York City a few months before Rainbow , which had started construction ? rst. The competition to build clippers began, with Smith & Dimon launching Gri ths extreme clipper Sea Witch in 1846 and Brown and Bell launching Samuel Russell in 1847. Other competitors joined in: Donald McKay of East Boston, Massachusetts launched his ? rst extreme clipper, the 800 gross ton OM Reindeer, sailing from Boston to San Francisco in 130 days in 1849; and William Webb completed his ? rst true clipper, the 860 gross tons OM Celestial in 1850, sailing from New York to San Francisco in just 105 days. Speed for clipper ships was assessed in sev- eral ways, including in knots, the peak recorded speed; in miles per day; and in days port-to-port for a speci? c route. A number of speed records were set during the period. The peak speed of approxi- mately 22.0 knots was recorded by Donald McKays Sovereign of the Seas in 1854, running down east to Australia. The James Baines ac hieved 21 knots in 1856 on a trans-Atlantic voyage. The greatest number of miles recorded in 24 hours was McKays Champion of the Seas , making 465 miles in one day in 1854. This was followed closely by his clipper Lightning , which attained 436 miles in one day on a Boston to Liverpool voyage in 1854. Ever larger The advancement in size of clipper ships also was rapid and impressive. Only one year after he launched his first clipper ship, William Webb launched Challenge , his largest clipper ship at 2,006 gross tons OM, more than 2.3 times as large as Celestial . Donald McKay built the worlds largest clipper ship, Great Republic in 1853 in East Boston, Massachu setts, just four years after launching his ? rst clipper, which was about 12% of the size of Great Republic . Great Republic was a 4-masted barque, carrying almost 69,000 sq. ft. of sail. She measured 247 ft. from keel to masthead truck, on a 6,600 gross tons OM hull, and was 334 ft. in length with a beam of 53 ft. and a draft of 25 ft. A crew of 60 sailors was required to sail this enormous vessel, in contrast with some clippers that required just 25 crew. Although clippers are famou s for their operation in the China tea and silk trades, they had important roles throughout the world. Clipper ships took miners from New York to San Francisco in the 1849 Gold Rush and from Europe to Australia in 1851. Opium trades between England, India, and China relied on clip- per ships. Clippers also mo ved immigrants across the Atlantic to America and from England to Australia, and some historians have ascribed the Irish pot ato famine in 1844 to infection from America carried by clipper ships. Clippers also brought guano as a fertilizer and base material for gunpowder from the South Paci? c to the United States, coal from England, and wool from Australia as a back-haul cargo. A worldwide drop in tr ade following the great economic panic of 1857, coupled with increasing competition from steamships, brought the clipper ship era to an end before the American Civil War. By 1859, only four clipper ships were constructed in U.S. shipyards. The opening of the Suez Canal transformed European clipper ship trades, making steamships compet itive against sailing ships transit- ing the Cape of Good Hope to India and Australia. Some clippers continued to be built, including the famous British Cutty Sark of 1869, now a museum ship in Greenwich, England. But the clipper ship era was a brief period of technological innovation lasting some 15 years, overtaken by mechanically pow- ered ships and man-made changes in geography. Jay Carson is a Fellow and member of SNAME. Learn more about clipper ships with the book, The Search for Speed Under Sail, 1700 ? 1855 , by Howard Irving Chapelle (George Allen & Union, Ltd, 1967). William Webbs extreme clipper, Comet , was launched in 1851 and made several record passages. Image courtesy Webb Institute. www.sname.org/sname/mt April 2013