Champion of the Seas was the second largest clipper ship destined for the Liverpool, England - Melbourne, Australia passenger service. Champion was ordered by James Baines of the Black Ball Line from Donald McKay. She was launched 19 April 1854 and was abandoned 3 January 1877, off Cape Horn.
Lightning was a clipper ship, one of the last really large clippers to be built in the United States. She was built by Donald McKay for James Baines of the Black Ball Line, Liverpool, for the Australia trade.
Northern Light was an American clipper ship. In 1853 it sailed from San Francisco, California to Boston, Massachusetts via Cape Horn with Captain Freeman Hatch at the helm in a record-setting 76 days, 6 hours. The record still stands for a single hull vessel. In 1993 the record was soundly broken by a multi-hull sailing vessel Great American II with no cargo. Sailing around Cape Horn is widely regarded as one of the most challenging routes in yachting, due to extreme weather, strong currents, and a historical reputation for mountainous seas and frequent severe storms.
Robert H. Waterman, known as Bully Waterman or Bully Bob Waterman, was an American merchant sea captain. He set three sailing speed records; his time of 74 days from Hong Kong to New York City has never been bettered in a sail-powered vessel. He was reputed as a martinet, and was once convicted of assault against a crewman in a controversial California criminal case.
Rainbow, launched in New York in 1845 to sail in the China trade for the firm Howland & Aspinwall, was a clipper, a type of sailing vessel designed to sacrifice cargo capacity for speed.
Surprise was a California clipper built in East Boston in 1850. It initially rounded Cape Horn to California, but the vessel's owners, A. A. Low & Brother, soon found that the vessel performed well in Far Eastern waters. From that point onward the vessel spent much of her working life in the China trade, although the vessel also made three trips from the East Coast of the United States to California.
The Young America was built by William H. Webb of New York. She was launched in 1853, at the height of the clipper construction boom. She sailed in the California trade, on transatlantic routes, and made voyages to Australia and the Far East.
Witchcraft was a clipper built in 1850 for the California and China trade. She made record passages from Rio de Janeiro to San Francisco, and from San Francisco to Callao, Peru.
Sea Serpent was an 1850 extreme clipper that sailed in the San Francisco trade, the China trade, and the transatlantic lumber trade. She was one of the longest lived clippers, with a service life of 36 years and 5 months.
The Memnon was the first clipper ship to arrive in San Francisco after the Gold Rush, and the only clipper to arrive in San Francisco before 1850. Built in 1848, she made record passages to San Francisco and to China, and sailed in the first clipper race around Cape Horn.
Race Horse was an 1850 clipper barque. She set a record of 109 days from New York to San Francisco during the first Clipper Race around the Horn.
Golden West was an 1852 extreme clipper built by Paul Curtis. The ship had a very active career in the California trade, the guano trade, the coolie trade, the Far East, and Australia. She made a record passage between Japan and San Francisco in 1856.
Comet was an 1851 California clipper built by William H. Webb which sailed in the Australia trade and the tea trade. This extreme clipper was very fast. She had record passages on two different routes: New York City to San Francisco, and Liverpool to Hong Kong, and beat the famous clipper Flying Dutchman in an 1853 race around the Horn to San Francisco.
Sunny South, an extreme clipper, was the only full-sized sailing ship built by George Steers, and resembled his famous sailing yacht America, with long sharp entrance lines and a slightly concave bow. Initially, she sailed in the California and Brazil trades. Sold in 1859 and renamed Emanuela, she was considered to be the fastest slaver sailing out of Havana. The British Royal Navy captured Emanuela off the coast of Africa in 1860 with over 800 slaves aboard. The Royal Navy purchased her as a prize and converted her into a Royal Navy store ship, Enchantress. She was wrecked in the Mozambique Channel in 1861.
The schooner Anglona was the first American opium clipper. She sailed in the Chinese coastal trade in the 1840s, and had a famous race with the schooner Ariel around Lintin Island.
Stornoway was a British tea clipper built by Alexander Hall and Sons in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1850. She was a further development by Hall on the clippers built in Aberdeen in 1848, being larger and more obviously suited to deep sea service. She was ordered by Jardine Matheson specifically for the tea trade. In the late 1840s, tea was available earlier in the season in China, so the first ships to load had to beat to windward against the north-east monsoon to get across the China Sea. The details of the hull shape designed by Hall had this requirement in mind.
Bald Eagle was a clipper ship launched in 1852 which made four round-trip passages from eastern U.S. ports before being lost on her fifth voyage in the Pacific Ocean in 1861. She set the record, 78 days 22 hours, for the fastest passage of a fully loaded ship between San Francisco and New York.
Ann McKim was one of the early true clipper ships, designed to meet the increasing demand for faster cargo transportation between the United States and China in the early 1840s. The opening of new Treaty ports in the East allowed American merchants greater access to trade with China, leading to the need for ships that could move cargo more quickly than traditional merchant ships. Ann McKim was one of the ships that had answered the demand in the early years and sailed between New York and China in 1840–1842, until newer and faster cargo-carriers, such as the nearly 600-ton clipper Houqua, the 598-ton China packet Helena, Witch of theWave, and Rainbow started dominating the shipping world of the US-China trade and Ann McKim was shifted back to the South American trade routes.
Hurricane was a large extreme clipper of 1608 tons burthen built in Hoboken, New Jersey, United States in 1851. Reputedly the most extreme clipper ever built, Hurricane proved a very fast vessel, reportedly capable of speeds of up to 18 knots (33 km/h) in ideal conditions, and establishing a number of record passages in the early years of her career.
United States
