Arthur Hamilton Clark

“ Donald McKay was a man of untiring energy and industry. He was a rapid and skilful draughtsman and designed and superintended the construction of every vessel that he built. This may also be said of almost every ship-builder of that period, but Mr. McKay's skill, the result of an intuitive perception ripened by experience, gave him a peculiar insight not only into how to create, but into what to create, and it was this genius that made him pre-eminent as a builder of clipper ships. He was a born artist and his ships were the finest expression of mechanical art. ”

“ When Nathaniel Hawthorne served in the Custom House at Salem, the friends in whom he most delighted were sea-captains, for it was through their eyes that he looked out upon the great world, and gathered the knowledge of human nature that enabled him to portray in such grim reality the hidden springs of human thought and action. These captains were the sons of gentlemen, and were as a class the best educated men of their time in the United States, for they could do more important and difficult things, and do them well, than the men of any other profession. ”

“ One of the New York papers [1] in the course of an editorial remarked: "Such a passage as this is more than a local triumph, and inures to the reputation not alone of the builder of the ship and her enterprising owners, but of the United States. It is truly a national triumph, and points clearly and unmistakably to the preeminence upon the ocean which awaits the United States of America. The log of the Flying Cloud is now before us. It is the most wonderful record that pen ever indited, for rapid as was the passage, it was performed under circumstances by no means the most favorable." ”

“ One can scarcely conceive anything more grimly grotesque than the spectacle of these inexperienced reformers, in their red flannel shirts and black slouched hats with pistols and bowie-knives stuck in their leather belts, and trousers tucked into the tops of their cowhide boots, the odor of the gin palace and dance-hall clinging to their unwashed skins and clothing, as they wended their way to Pacific Wharf, where the Challenge lay moored, and demanded that Captain Waterman and his officers be delivered over to them for purposes of justice. ”

“ He was not only a great man, but a good man. In every relation of life, he was a model for imitation. Ever be his memory green in the hearts of his countrymen. When the ship which bears his name shall have been worn out by the storms and the vicissitudes of the sea, may another, and another, and so on, till the end of time, perpetuate it upon the ocean, for he was the patron and friend of commerce as well as of the other great interests of the state. ”

“ McKay was of a generous nature, and liberally rewarded the men who assisted him, and he was ever ready to lend a helping hand to those less fortunate than himself. So soon as he began to prosper he sent for his parents and made a new home for them at East Boston, and their comfort and happiness were always his care and greatest pleasure. In his later years he endured misfortune and ingratitude with the same sturdy sweetness and equanimity that he had shown in the days when fortune smiled. ”

“ Many of the merchants had been sea-captains in their youth, and it was the captains who really made Salem famous. These men, from the training of the New England schoolroom and meetinghouse, went out into the world and gathered there the fruits of centuries of civilization, which they brought home to soften the narrow self-righteousness of their fellow-citizens. In later years these captains carried missionaries to India, China, and Africa, unconscious that they were themselves the real missionaries, whose influence had wrought so desirable a change in New England thought and character. ”

“ It had been the policy of Great Britain to keep her American colonies as much as possible in ignorance concerning naval affairs, doubtless from fear of their growing ambition. They were therefore led to copy the models of French vessels, not only from choice, on account of their excellence, but from necessity as well. Thus it came about that the frigates of Great Britain and the United States were developed from the same source.
A sailing ship is an exceedingly complex, sensitive, and capricious creation—quite as much so as most human beings. ”

“ At that time the commercial greatness of the United States rested upon the splendid qualities shown by her sailing ships and their captains upon the ocean. And after all the only really rational sovereignty of the seas that exists, or has ever existed, is maintained by the merchant marine, whose ships and seamen contribute not only to the welfare and happiness of mankind, but also to the wealth of the nations under whose flags they sail. ”

“ San Francisco, from a drowsy Mexican trading station, composed of a cluster of some fifty mud huts, adobe dwellings, and hide houses, situated upon a magnificent bay with lofty mountains in the distance, occasionally enlivened by the visit of a New Bedford or Nantucket whale ship in need of wood and water, or a Boston hide droger which took away tallow, hides, and horns, suddenly became one of the great seaports of the world. ”

“ Meanwhile, the ensign of the United States no longer contributes in any marked degree to the gayety of foreign seaports; whereas, Great Britain, with inferior coal and iron ore, compelled to import the food and clothing material for her shipwrights from distant lands, and with certainly no keener intelligence nor greater energy among her ship-owners and builders, but guided by the enlightened policy of Free Trade, sends her endless procession of merchant ships, both sail and steam, to every seaport upon the globe. ”

“ Nevertheless, it must be frankly admitted that yacht racing, even across the Atlantic, in comparison with the old clipper ship racing, resembles snipe shooting as compared with hunting big game in the wilds of Africa, while the gold and silver yacht racing cups appear as mere baubles beside the momentous stake of commercial supremacy for which the clippers stretched their wings. ”

“ And so I have endeavored to record the leading events of an era in maritime history long ago departed; and however much the remarkable development of steam navigation may have contributed to the welfare of mankind, I think that the memory of the clipper ships and the men who built and commanded them, will always find a welcome in the hearts of those who know and love the sea. ”

“ They fully recognized the importance of the home ship-building industry, and did everything possible to encourage it, but they also perceived that ship-owning is of vastly more importance to a nation than shipbuilding, and that fleets of ships are not commerce but only the instruments with which commerce performs its work; likewise, that the nation owning the best and cheapest ships, no matter where or by whom built, must and will, other things being equal, do not only most of its own carrying trade, but also a considerable portion of that of other nations. ”

“ The primary reason for the existence of a merchant ship is, of course, her ability to pay her way and earn money for her owners. When a ship ceases to be able to do this, the sooner she is converted into a hulk or broken up, the better. So the true measure of a nation's merchant marine is its earning capacity, not merely the number or tonnage of its ships; and judged by this standard, the merchant marine of the United States was at this time far in advance of the merchant shipping of the whole British Empire. ”

“ All these promise to develop the resources of the United States to such an extent as to compel us to a competition as difficult as it is unavoidable. We must run a race with our gigantic and unshackled rival. We must set our long-practised skill, our steady industry, and our dogged determination, against his youth, ingenuity, and ardor. It is a father who runs a race with his son. A fell necessity constrains us and we must not be beat. Let our ship-builders and employers take warning in time. There will always be an abundant supply of vessels, good enough and fast enough for short voyages. ”

“ The gigantic task of driving the American flag from the ocean has been accomplished by far more insidious and potent means than these. It has been the inevitable consequence of irrational and unjust laws, and until these are repealed, as those of Great Britain were in 1849, we may hope in vain that the ensign of the United States will be restored to its place upon the sea. ”

“ She had long, concave water-lines, and at her load-displacement line a chord from her cut-water to just abaft the fore rigging showed a concavity of 16 inches. Her stem raked boldly forward, the lines of the bow gradually becoming convex and blending with sheer line and cutwater, while the only ornament was a beautiful full-length figure of a young woman holding a golden thunderbolt in her outstretched hand, the flowing white drapery of her graceful form and her streaming hair completing the fair and noble outline of the bow. ”

“ In a certain sense the captains were good sailors, but their knowledge and ambition were limited to dead reckoning, the tar bucket and marlinspike, a wife in every port, and plenty of rum and tobacco with no desire or ability to master the higher branches of navigation and seamanship. Mariners that a landsman delights to refer to as "real old salts," of the Captain Cuttle and Jack Bunsby species, are amusing enough, perhaps, in the hands of a skilful novelist, but not at all the class of men that one would willingly select to assist in carrying forward the commerce of a great maritime nation. ”

“ Indeed, the maritime records of the East India Company read more like a naval history than the annals of ships engaged in commercial pursuits. In some respects these Indiamen were remarkable ships, and they should, like men, be judged by the standards of the times in which they existed. They were owned by a company which for more than two centuries held a monopoly of the British China and East India trade without the spur of competition urging them to perfect their vessels and to exact vigorous service from the officers and crews who sailed them. ”

“ One does not like to dwell upon these depressing phases of human nature in connection with the graceful, yacht-like clipper, perhaps the most beautiful and life-like thing ever fashioned by the hand of man. It is therefore pleasant to record that there were many American clipper ships with crews that were for the most part decent, self-respecting men, who kept themselves, their clothes, and their forecastles clean and sweet. ”

“ Of all the American plantations, His Majesty has none so apt for building of shipping as New England, nor any comparably so qualified for the breeding of seamen, not only by reason of the natural industry of that people, but principally by reason of their cod and mackerel fisheries, and, in my poor opinion, there is nothing more prejudicial, and in prospect more dangerous, to any mother kingdom, than the increase in shipping in her colonies, plantations, and provinces. ”

“ At about four o'clock there was a faint southerly air with a few cat's-paws, and soon the breeze came up from the south in a dark-blue line across the horizon. Both ships felt it at the same moment, and braced their yards on the starboard tack sharp by the wind, which soon freshened to a fine whole-sail breeze. The Flying Cloud now began to draw away. ”

“ It is indicative of the broad and far-reaching sympathies of Captain Palmer's life, that not only a part of the Antarctic Continent bears his name—an enduring monument to his memory—but that A. A. Low & Brother named one of their finest clipper ships, the N. B. Palmer, and the famous schooner-yacht Palmer, owned for many years by Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, was also named for him. Few men in private life have had part of a continent, a clipper ship, and yacht named for them. ”

“ Wagons laden with hampers, bags, and boxes of good things, with plenty of ice to keep them cool, were unloaded alongside the ship, and presently the R. B. Forbes appeared steaming up the river with a big bone in her teeth, the embodiment of energy and strength. The morning train came in, bringing a large number of men and women, from Boston, Salem, and Newburyport, who, with the Portsmouth guests, made a distinguished company of more than two hundred persons. ”

“ Ship-builders certainly had every incentive to exercise their best skill upon these vessels; they received pretty much their own prices for building them, and each ship, as she sailed out upon the ocean, held in her keeping the reputation of her builder, to whom a quick passage meant fame and fortune. Six of the clipper ships launched in 1851, the Flying Cloud, Comet, Sword-Fish, Witch of the Wave, Ino, and Northern Light, established speed records that have not yet been broken, and as time rolls on, the probability that they ever will be, becomes less and less. ”

“ These were the qualities which made so many of these master mariners delightful companions and welcome guests at the firesides of refined and luxurious homes, whose doors could not be opened by golden keys. It may well be doubted whether braver, truer-hearted gentlemen or finer seamen than many of the American clipper ship captains of half a century ago have ever sailed the seas. ”

“ This was a great victory for the Raven, the only ship of her tonnage that ever outsailed the Sea Witch, to say nothing of vanquishing the large and famous Typhoon, a ship more than double her size. It should, however, be remembered with regard to the Sea Witch, that she was at that time over five years old, and had led a pretty wild life under Waterman, while she had known no peace with Prazer in command, and had been strained and weakened by hard driving. Moreover, a wooden ship, after five or six years, begins to lose her speed through absorbing water, and becomes sluggish in light airs. ”

“ The time when these men really had to work, was on the sailing day of a California clipper. A busy scene it was, as they put the crew and their dunnage on board, one or two lots at a time, accompanied by a boarding-house runner, the sailormen being in various stages of exalted inebriation. The helpless in body and mind are hauled over the side in bowlines and stowed away in their berths to regain the use of their limbs and senses. ”

“ But the American neglects these precautions and braves these dangers. He weighs anchor in the midst of tempestuous gales; by night and day he spreads his sheets to the winds; he repairs as he goes along such damage as his vessel may have sustained from the storm; and when he at last approaches the term of his voyage, he darts onward to the shore as if he already descried a port. The Americans are often shipwrecked, but no trader crosses the seas so rapidly. ”

“ While it cannot be said that the naval power of England upon the ocean was seriously impaired, yet the speed of the American vessels and the skill and gallantry with which they were fought and handled, made it apparent that the young giant of the West might some day claim the sceptre of the sea as his own.
During the latter half of the eighteenth century, however, the leading nation in the modelling and construction of ships was France, and during this period the finest frigates owned in the British Navy were those captured from the French. ”

“ In the first place, the merchant ships of the British Empire were of such massive construction that they could not carry at the very most more than ninety per cent, of the cargo carried by ships of similar tonnage owned in the United States; then in the matter of speed, an American merchantman would make five voyages while a British ship was making four of equal length; and as to freights, the American ships had the splendid rates to San Francisco all to themselves, while from China to England the rates of freight were quite double in their favor, as compared with British ships. ”

“ He is sizing up each man in his crew and getting his gauge; when he strikes a chord of sympathy, he strikes hard, and when his keen instinct detects a note of discord, he strikes still harder, lifting his men along with a curse here, a joke there, and ever tightening his firm but not unkindly grasp of authority. The mate is not hunting for trouble—all that he wants is for his men to do their work and show him enough respect so that it will not become his unpleasant duty to hammer them into shape. ”