CHAPTER IV
OPIUM CLIPPERS AND EARLY CLIPPER SHIPS, 1832-1848
THE origin of the word clipper is not quite clear, though it seems to be derived from the verb clip, which in former times meant, among other things, to run or fly swiftly. Dryden uses it to describe the flight of a falcon[4]:
“Some falcon stoops at what her eye designed,
And, with her eagerness the quarry missed,
Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind.�
The word survived in the New England slang expression “to clip it,� and “going at a good clip,� or “a fast clip,� are familiar expressions there to this day. It therefore seems reasonable to suppose that when vessels of a new model were built, which were intended, in the language of the times, to clip over the waves rather than plough through them, the improved type of craft became known as clippers because of their speed. It is probable that the swift privateers built at Baltimore during the War of 1812 became known as “Baltimore clippers,� and while the first application of the term in a nautical sense is by no means certain, it seems to have had an American origin.
The first clipper constructed in Great Britain was the schooner Scottish Maid, one hundred and fifty tons, built in 1839 by Alexander Hall & Co., of Aberdeen, to compete with the paddle steamers between Aberdeen and London. She proved a very fast vessel, and saw half a century of service before she was wrecked on the coast of England. Three schooners of the same model and tonnage, the Fairy, Rapid, and Monarch, were built by this firm in 1842. These four were the first Aberdeen clippers. The earliest competition between American and British clippers was in the China seas. As early as 1831 three small English schooners, the Jamesina, Lord Amherst, and Sylph, were engaged in the opium trade, which proved exceedingly lucrative. In 1833 the Jamesina sold opium from India to the value of £330,000 at Foo Chow, Amoy, Ningpo, and other ports in China. This business increased and attracted the attention of the American merchants in China. In 1841, the Angola, a schooner of 90 tons, built by Brown & Bell, of New York, for Russell & Co., China, was despatched to Hong-kong. She was followed in 1842 by the schooners Zephyr, 150 tons, built by Samuel Hall at East Boston; Mazeppa, 175 tons, built by Brown & Bell, and Ariel, 100 tons, built by Sprague & James, Medford, and in 1843 by the brig Antelope, 370 tons, built by Samuel Hall at East Boston. These vessels, owned by John M. Forbes and Russell & Co., soon controlled the opium-trade and became known as opium clippers. It was necessary that they should be swift in order to contend with the strong tides and currents on the China coast, and to beat against the monsoons in the China Sea. The Antelope, under the command of Captain Philip Dumaresq, still has the reputation of having been the only square-rigged vessel which could beat through the Formosa Channel against the northeast monsoon. Moreover, these vessels required speed to escape from the heavily manned piratical craft which infested the China seas, and which were formidable vessels, especially in light winds and calms, when they were propelled by long sweeps.
In 1846, Alexander Hall & Co. built the clipper schooner Torrington for Jardine, Matheson & Co., to compete with the American opium clippers in China. This schooner, the first British clipper in the China seas, was followed by the Wanderer, Gazelle, Rose, the brig Lanark, and others, until almost every British and American firm in China owned one or more of these smart vessels. The competition among them was keen, and the American clippers had decidedly the best of it. The last of these famous little vessels were the sister schooners Minna and Brenda, of 300 tons each, built in 1851 by George Raynes at Portsmouth, for John M. Forbes, of Boston, and others, and the schooner Wild Dayrell, 253 tons, built in 1855 by the well-known yacht builders J. White, of Cowes, Isle of Wight, for Dent & Co., China. These opium clippers, all beautifully modelled and equipped with long raking masts and plenty of canvas, like yachts rather than merchant vessels, were heavily armed and carried large crews. They all made a great deal of money for their owners until they were superseded by steamers.
From the earliest times in maritime history it had been the custom to build large vessels of a model suitable for carrying heavy cargoes—“ships of burdenâ€� they were called,—while the vessels designed for speed,—the galley of the Mediterranean, caravel of Portugal and Spain, lugger of France, cutter of England, yacht of Holland, schooner and sloop of America, had been comparatively small. To the latter class belonged the earlier British and American clippers of the nineteenth century. The Baltimore clippers, as we have said, were modelled after the French luggers which visited American ports during the Revolutionary War. They gained a world-wide reputation for speed as privateers during the War of 1812, and later also as African slavers, many of them sailing under the flags of Portugal and Spain. These vessels were brigs, brigantines, fore-and-aft or topsail schooners, and rarely exceeded two hundred tons register.
So far as history records, no one had ever attempted to reproduce the lines of a small, swift vessel in a large one, until in 1832 Isaac McKim, a wealthy merchant of Baltimore, commissioned Kennard and Williamson, of Fell’s Point, Baltimore, to build a ship embodying as far as possible the lines of the famous Baltimore clipper brigs and schooners. This ship was the Ann McKim, named in honor of the owner’s wife, of 493 tons register, a large vessel for those days. She measured: Length 143 feet, breadth 31 feet, depth 14 feet, and drew 17 feet aft and 11 feet forward. She possessed many of the striking features of the Baltimore clippers of that period; namely, great dead-rise at her midship section, long, easy convex water-lines, low freeboard, and raking stem, stern-post and masts, and was really an enlarged clipper schooner rigged as a ship.
The Ann McKim was a remarkably handsome vessel, built as the pet ship of her owner without much regard to cost. Her frames were of live oak, she was copper-fastened throughout and her bottom was sheathed with red copper imported for this purpose. The flush deck was fitted with Spanish mahogany hatch combings, rails, companions, and skylights. She mounted twelve brass guns, and was equipped with brass capstan heads, bells, etc., and carried three skysail yards and royal studding-sails. She proved to be very fast, though of small carrying capacity, and the latter quality together with her elaborate and expensive fittings caused the older merchants to regard her unfavorably; so that for some years they still adhered to their full-bodied ships. The Ann McKim sailed in the China trade for a number of years, and upon the death of Mr. McKim in 1837, she was purchased by Howland & Aspinwall, of New York, and was commanded by Captain Perry. Eventually she was sold at Valparaiso in 1847, and ended her days under the Chilian flag.
Although the Ann McKim was the first clipper ship ever constructed, it cannot be said that she founded the clipper ship era, or even that she directly influenced ship builders, since no other ship was built like her; but she may have suggested the clipper design in vessels of ship rig, and owing to the fact that she fell into the hands of Howland & Aspinwall, she without doubt hastened the opening of that era, as the first really extreme clipper ship, the Rainbow, was owned by that firm.