It must be admitted that some remarkably fast passages were made by the old full-built American vessels. We have seen Captain Waterman’s record with the Natchez, and other cases of this kind might be cited; but they prove nothing beyond the fact that with a fair wind and enough of it, other things being equal, a well-handled, full-modelled ship is about as fast as a clipper; also that single passages except as between vessels sailing together, are not the most reliable tests of speed. A number of passages by the same vessel, or a record of best days’ runs, afford a more accurate means of arriving at a just estimate of speed.
The first California clippers, thirteen in number, were launched during the year 1850, the Celestial, 860 tons, built by William H. Webb and owned by Bucklin & Crane, of New York, being the first to leave the ways. She was soon followed by the Mandarin, 776 tons, built by Smith & Dimon for Goodhue & Co., of New York, and the Surprise, 1361 tons, owned by A. A. Low & Brother; Game-Cock, 1392 tons, owned by Daniel C. Bacon, Boston, and the barque Race Horse, 512 tons, owned by Goddard & Co., Boston, all built by Samuel Hall at East Boston. The Witchcraft, 1310 tons, was built at Chelsea by Paul Curtis, for S. Rogers & W. D. Pickman, of Salem; the John Bertram, 1080 tons, by R. E. Jackson at East Boston, for Glidden & Williams, of Boston; the Governor Morton, 1318 tons, by James M. Hood at Somerset, for Handy & Everett, of New York; the Sea Serpent, 1337 tons, by George Raynes at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for Grinnell, Minturn & Co., of New York; the Eclipse, 1223 tons, by J. Williams & Son at Williamsburg, for T. Wardle & Co., of New York; the Seaman, 546 tons, by Bell & Co., at Baltimore, for Funck & Meincke, of New York; the White Squall, 1118 tons, by Jacob Bell, for W. Platt & Son, of Philadelphia, and the Stag-Hound, 1535 tons, by Donald McKay at East Boston, for Sampson & Tappan and George B. Upton, of Boston.
The Celestial was a remarkably good-looking ship and much sharper than any vessel built by Mr. Webb up to that time. She carried long, slender spars, with plenty of canvas, and proved a very fast and able ship.
The Mandarin, also a fine-looking ship, was intended by her builders to be an improved Sea Witch, and although she made some excellent passages, she never came up to the older vessel in point of speed; the Sea Witch was her builders’ masterpiece, and they, like many others, found her a difficult ship to improve upon.
The Surprise was one of the most successful clipper ships ever constructed, and proved a mine of wealth for her owners. She was fully rigged on the stocks, with all her gear rove off, and was
The “Surprise�
launched with her three skysail yards across and colors flying, which attracted a multitude of people. They rather expected to see her capsize, and were no doubt highly delighted to find that nothing unusual happened as she glided swiftly down the ways, or at that critical instant when her hull was still partly supported on the land and partly on the waves, or when she swung to her anchors on even keel, with the beautiful skyline of Boston of half a century ago outlined in the distance.
Mr. Hall was a master ship-builder and had figured the weights, displacement, and stability of his ship with the same exactness with which an astronomer foretells the transit of a planet; yet with all the anxiety incident to experiments of this kind, he had found time for plans of a less serious nature. He had a pavilion erected in order that the mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of the men who had built this beautiful ship might look with comfort upon the crowning scene of their kinsmen’s labors, and after the ship was safely afloat, all were invited to a luxurious lunch served upon long tables in the mould loft, which was gaily decorated with flags. There the master foreman of the yard presided, while Mr. Hall entertained personal friends, whom he had asked to see the launch, at his own hospitable home.
The Surprise measured: length 190 feet, breadth 39 feet, depth 22 feet with 30 inches dead-rise at half floor. Her main-yard was 78 feet long from boom-iron to boom-iron, and her mainmast was 84 feet from heel to cap, with other spars in proportion. She was beautifully fitted throughout, was painted black from the water-line up, and carried a finely carved and gilded flying eagle for a figurehead, while her stern was ornamented with the arms of New York. She was manned by a crew of 30 able seamen, 6 ordinary seamen, 4 boys, 2 boatswains, a carpenter, a sailmaker, 2 cooks, a steward, and 4 mates, and was commanded by Captain Philip Dumaresq, who had gained a high reputation while in command of the Antelope, Akbar, and Great Britain.