The “Red Jacket.”
The Red Jacket, Lightning’s great rival, was designed by Samuel A. Pook, of Boston, the well-known designer of Game-cock, Surprise, Northern Light, Ocean Telegraph, Herald of the Morning, and other famous clipper ships. She was built by George Thomas at Rockland, Maine, for Messrs. Seacomb & Taylor, and only took the water a few days before the Lightning.
Her measurements were:—
| Tonnage | (registered) | 2460 tons. |
| (burthen) | 5000 „ | |
| Length | 260 feet. | |
| Beam | 44 „ | |
| Depth | 26 „ |
Though her bow and stern were very sharp and beautifully modelled and she had concave bow lines, she was not so extreme a ship as the Lightning.
“RED JACKET.”
From an old lithograph.
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Donald Mackay’s ships were chiefly distinguished for their powerful workmanlike appearance rather than for delicate beauty—they showed strength rugged and unmistakable, but the Red Jacket’s strength was more disguised under graceful curves; for instance, she had the graceful arched stem and clipper bow of a China ship, whereas Lightning’s stem was almost straight, with only a very slight curve in it.
Red Jacket was not named after Tommy Atkins, but after a great Indian chief, and her figure-head was a beautiful representation of this warrior in all the magnificence of feather head-dress and beaded buckskins.