 Lookout | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name: | Lookout |
| Owner: | E. Buckley & Sons, New York City |
| Builder: | Chase & Davis, Warren, RI |
| Launched: | 10 October 1853 |
| Fate: | Wrecked in the Japan Sea, 1878 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Clipper |
| Tons burthen: | 1291 tons NM [1] |
| Length: | 198 ft. |
| Beam: | 38 ft. 4 in. |
| Draft: | 21 ft. 9 in. [2] |
Lookout was an 1853 clipper known for her passages from New York to San Francisco, and as an offshore and coastal trader in the lumber and coal trades.
Lookout was launched in 1853, just as the construction of clippers reached its peak. The day that Lookout loaded for her first trip to sea, 10 November 1853, there were ten other new clippers loading at the piers in New York for their maiden voyages: Chief of Clippers, Edwin Forrest, Electric, David Brown, David Crockett , Dreadnought, Golden Fleece, Lightfoot, Pride of America, and Quickstep. [2]
Lookout made 16 passages to San Francisco between 1854 and 1871. Her fastest was 108 days. On three voyages she met with unfavorable weather, her slowest trip being 157 days; however, her remaining 13 passages averaged 121 days, a very respectable showing.
She also called at the ports of Boston, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Liverpool, Callao, Chamala, Mexico, Honolulu, New Bedford, and Port Stanley, as well as making a voyage to Australia, before she was sold into the Pacific Coast lumber and coal trade in 1871.
In 1855, on a voyage from San Francisco to Hong Kong, Lookout was two days shy of Hong Kong when she encountered a British clipper, Invincible, in distress and about to be abandoned. Invincible had collided with the ship A. Chesebrough and sunk it, but managed to save members of Chesebrough's crew. Lookout received $25,000 in salvage money for its efforts in assisting Invincible to reach Hong Kong. [3]
In September 1867, the three clipper ships Lookout, Franklin, and Haze delivered a total of four locomotives between them to San Francisco for the California Pacific Railroad Company . Lookout left New York on 26 April 1867, and arrived in San Francisco on 11 September 1867. [4]
In 1878, Lookout was wrecked in the Japan Sea. [2] She was en route to Puget Sound from Shanghai, and was partially dismasted in a typhoon on September 12. She went up on a reef near the island of Kutsonoshima. Three crewmen drowned attempting to land the ship’s boats; the rest managed to land with the help of local fishermen. [3]
Flying Cloud was a clipper ship that set the world's sailing record for the fastest passage between New York and San Francisco, 89 days 8 hours. The ship held this record for over 130 years, from 1854 to 1989.
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett, Henry Chauncey, Mr. Alsop, G.G. Howland and S.S. Howland.
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.
Sweepstakes was an 1853 clipper ship in the California trade. She was known for a record passage from New York to Bombay, and for a race around the Horn with three other clippers.
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.
Carrier Dove was an 1855 medium clipper. She was one of two well-known clippers launched in Baltimore that year, the other being Mary Whitridge.
Herald of the Morning was one of the few clipper ships with a passage to San Francisco in less than 100 days.
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.
Mary Robinson was an 1854 medium clipper in the San Francisco, India, and the guano trades. She was known for having spent an entire month attempting to round Cape Horn in bad weather.
Antelope was a medium clipper built in 1851 in Medford, near Boston, Massachusetts. She sailed in the San Francisco, China, and Far East trades, and was known for her fine finish work and for her crew's escape from pirates. She is often called Antelope of Boston to distinguish her from an extreme clipper launched in 1852, Antelope of New York.
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.
Golden Fleece was an 1855 medium clipper in the California trade, built by Paul Curtis. She was known for arriving with cargoes in good condition, for making passages in consistently good time, and for catching fire with a load of ice.
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.
Lord of the Isles was the first iron-hulled tea clipper, built in Greenock in 1853. She served in the tea trade until 1862, and also made voyages to Australia. She is known for a record passage between Greenock and Shanghai, and for her close finish in the 1856 Tea Race from China to England, docking in London just ten minutes before Maury. This race was the basis for the plot of a 1927 movie by Cecil B. DeMille The Yankee Clipper.
Shooting Star was an extreme clipper built in 1851 near Boston, in Medford, Massachusetts. She was the first "real clipper" to be built in Medford, and sailed in the San Francisco, China, and Far East trades. According to Howe and Matthews, she was known as "one of the fastest of the small clippers".
The Golden State was an extreme clipper ship built by Jacob Aaron Westervelt in 1852 in New York City and launched on January 10, 1853. For her last few years of service, she was renamed the Anne C. Maguire.
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.
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.