Commonly known as U.S.Nautical magazine, the U.S. Nautical magazine and Naval Journal was a monthly nautical newsletter published by Griffiths & Bates (New York City) in the 19th century. [1]
The U.S.nautical Magazine was first published as the Monthly Nautical Magazine and Quarterly review by Griffiths & Bates (a publishing house in New York). Volume 1 of the U.S. Nautical magazine covered the period October 1854 to March 1855. [2]
The U.S.Nautical magazine carried articles on seamanship, naval architecture, lists of ship builders in America, descriptions of ships / clippers constructed (like the Sunny South, and Blue Jacket) and their voyages, [3] and often, discoveries of islands and reefs made by ships. It also contained articles on disasters at sea, collisions and financial articles related to shipping. [2]
A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "Clipper" does not refer to a specific sailplan; clippers may be schooners, brigs, brigantines, etc., as well as full-rigged ships. Clippers were mostly constructed in British and American shipyards, although France, Brazil, the Netherlands and other nations also produced some. Clippers sailed all over the world, primarily on the trade routes between the United Kingdom and China, in transatlantic trade, and on the New York-to-San Francisco route around Cape Horn during the California Gold Rush. Dutch clippers were built beginning in the 1850s for the tea trade and passenger service to Java.
Admiral William Henry Smyth was a Royal Navy officer, hydrographer, astronomer and numismatist. He is noted for his involvement in the early history of a number of learned societies, for his hydrographic charts, for his astronomical work, and for a wide range of publications and translations.
Charles Wilkes was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842).
The Gentleman's Magazine was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term magazine for a periodical. Samuel Johnson's first regular employment as a writer was with The Gentleman's Magazine.
Amanda Theodosia Jones was an American author and inventor, most noted for inventing a vacuum method of canning called the Jones Process.
The Piazza Tales is a collection of six short stories by American writer Herman Melville, published by Dix & Edwards in the United States in May 1856 and in Britain in June. Except for the newly written title story, "The Piazza," all of the stories had appeared in Putnam's Monthly between 1853 and 1855. The collection includes what have long been regarded as three of Melville's most important achievements in the genre of short fiction, "Bartleby, the Scrivener", "Benito Cereno", and "The Encantadas", his sketches of the Galápagos Islands.
John Willis Griffiths was an American naval architect who was influential in his design of clipper ships and his books on ship design and construction. He also designed steamships and war vessels and patented many inventions. Maritime historian William H. Thiesen wrote, "Of all the nineteenth-century American shipbuilders, John W. Griffiths did more than any other builder to champion American shipbuilding methods. An experimenter, an advocate for formal ship-design education, and a working intellectual, Griffiths proved to be most remarkable of America’s nineteenth-century shipbuilders.”
George Steers was a designer of yachts best known for the famous racing yacht America. He founded a shipyard with his brother, George Steers and Co, and died in an accident just as he was landing a major contract to build boats for the Russian Czar.
Herald of the Morning was one of the few clipper ships with a passage to San Francisco in less than 100 days.
The Nautical Magazine was a monthly magazine containing articles of general interest to seafarers. The magazine was first published in 1832 by Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. (London) as The Nautical Magazine: A Journal of Papers on Subjects Connected with Maritime Affairs in General and then as The Nautical Magazine And Naval Chronicle. From 1891 the title was modified to Nautical Magazine and Journal of the Royal Naval Reserve and it was published by Brown, Son and Ferguson, (Glasgow), who continued to produce it until it was acquired and merged into Sea Breezes in 2011.
Lawrence & Foulks was a 19th-century American shipbuilding company based in New York. Established in the early 1850s, the company built 144 vessels of all types over the course of some fifty years, but is best known for its production of high-speed wooden-hulled steamboats and steamships. Notable vessels built by the company include the record-breaking Hudson River steamboat Chauncey Vibbard, the luxury Long Island Sound steamer Commonwealth, and the fast oceangoing steamships—later U.S. Navy gunboats—Bienville and De Soto. In addition to the domestic market, the company also built ships for service as far afield as South America and China.
Commonwealth was a large sidewheel steamboat built in 1854–55 for passenger service on Long Island Sound. The most celebrated Sound steamer of her day, Commonwealth was especially noted for the elegance and comfort of her passenger accommodations, which included gas lighting, steam heating, and an "enchantingly beautiful" domed roof in her upper saloon. Her stability of motion led her captain to describe Commonwealth as the finest rough weather steamboat ever built in the United States.
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.
Nautical fiction, frequently also naval fiction, sea fiction, naval adventure fiction or maritime fiction, is a genre of literature with a setting on or near the sea, that focuses on the human relationship to the sea and sea voyages and highlights nautical culture in these environments. The settings of nautical fiction vary greatly, including merchant ships, liners, naval ships, fishing vessels, life boats, etc., along with sea ports and fishing villages. When describing nautical fiction, scholars most frequently refer to novels, novellas, and short stories, sometimes under the name of sea novels or sea stories. These works are sometimes adapted for the theatre, film and television.
Hebe, built in Hull in 1810, made two notable voyages, one voyage as an extra ship for the British East India Company (EIC), and one voyage transporting convicts to New South Wales. In between, an American privateer captured Hebe, but the British Royal Navy recaptured her. Hebe was wrecked in 1833.
Roger Charles Anderson was an independently-wealthy English maritime historian, collector, and a leading figure in the early years of the Society for Nautical Research and of the Navy Records Society. Four times editor of the Mariner's Mirror, Anderson was also a founder trustee, and later chairman of the board of trustees, of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. He was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and held the higher Doctor of Letters degree. In 2005, the Swedish naval historian Jan Glete characterised Anderson as "one of the most important naval historians of the twentieth century. He mainly wrote about early modern warship technology and used his linguistic skills to write books and essays based on the literature from several countries."
The Widgeon was a 19th-century yacht and Sandy Hook pilot boat, built in 1855 by James R. & George Steers for Daniel Edgar of the New York Yacht Club and designed by George Steers. She came in 17th in an unsuccessful America’s Cup defense in 1870. Widgeon was sold in 1871 to a group of New York pilots to replace the John D. Jones, which sank in a collision with the steamer City of Washington. New York pilots condemned the Widgeon as unseaworthy in 1879, which sparked a fight for steam pilot-boat service. In 1883 a decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court and the Board of Commissioners of Pilots that pilot boats could be "propelled" by steam.
The Edwin Forrest was a 19th-century pilot boat built in 1855 by Jacob A. Westervelt's Sons & Co., for a group of New York pilots. She was designed by Dennison J. Lawlor, for Pilot Captain John Low. The Edwin Forrest was named in honor of the American actor Edwin Forrest. A second Edwin Forrest was built for Boston pilots in 1865 to replace the New York Edwin Forrest, No. 14, that was lost in 1862. She attained celebrity for her speed and stability. The Edwin Forrest was sold to Pensacola, Florida parties in 1882 and replaced by the George H. Warren.
The Anthony B. Neilson was a 19th-century Sandy Hook pilot boat, built in 1854 by George Steers for a company of New York Sandy Hook pilots. She was considered to be the fastest boat in the piloting business. She helped transport New York City maritime pilots between inbound or outbound ships coming into the New York Harbor. She survived the Great Blizzard of 1888. In 1859, the Neilson was sold to a group of New Orleans pilots. The New York pilots then replaced the Neilson, with a new pilot boat, the John D. Jones.