The term "clipper" is used loosely to describe types of very fast sailing ships that "clip" along. The term was first applied to speedy schooners called Baltimore clippers (built in Virginia and Maryland) which became famous for escaping the British blockade and acting as privateers during the War of 1812. These early clippers, which actually had come from previous French designs, had a long and low hull design with weight distributed more toward the rear than other ships. They also had a stern that sloped sharply back toward the bow, thus making for more deck space but less hull. Of course, this design limited cargo space, but it increased speed. The lack of carrying capacity was to eventually bring an end, at least commercially, to these beautiful ships. The first true clipper was built by John Griffiths (1809-1882), an American naval architect. By the age of nineteen, he had already designed a major vessel and had proposed numerous innovations in ship design. In 1842, Griffiths delivered the first formal lectures on naval architecture in the United States and opened a free school in shipbuilding. In 1845, he built the Rainbow, a clipper designed for the tea trade with China and, unfortunately, for the slave trade between Africa and the United States. Griffiths revolutionized ship design with his clippers. Until his time, all large American ships were built with their greatest width near the front, which made the bows fairly blunt. He advocated a sharply pointed bow and stern with an overhanging deck space. The Rainbow, which resulted from Griffiths' studies, was extremely fast: she sailed to China in 92 days and raced home in 88 days, much faster than other large ships of the day. Another American shipbuilder, Donald McKay (1810-1880), has been associated with clippers for his successful designs. The California gold rush of 1848 and the discovery of gold in Australia in 1850 spurred the rise of these clippers.
McKay launched his first clipper, a vessel of 1,500 tons named the Stag Hound in 1850. His most famous ship was probably the Flying Cloud, It was 229 feet long, 40 feet wide, 21 feet deep, weighed 1,700 tons, and was able to reach San Francisco from New York in 89 days. McKay faced great skepticism in 1852 when he built Sovereign of the Seas, a clipper weighing 2,400 tons, but it proved to be successful when it set the all-time record for a sailing ship for the voyage from New York to Liverpool in 13 days. At times it reached speeds of 22 knots per hour; this is little less than the cruising speeds of the great Atlantic liners built just before the first world war. McKay went on to build the Great Republic, a mammoth clipper of 3,300 tons, and the James Baines, which sailed the 14,000 nautical miles from London to Melbourne, Australia, in 1854 in 63.5 days while carrying 700 passengers and 1,400 tons of cargo. The clippers were unusual in their material as well as their shape. Unlike other ships built of oak or other hard woods, clippers were usually built of the soft woods abundant on the American coast. These soon became soggy and warped, and the hull might only last five years. Because they were so much cheaper to build, they still were able to earn a big profit for their owners. Several events helped to lessen the need for clippers during the 1860s and the 1870s. Steam engines improved, and railroads crossed the vast American West. When the Suez Canal opened in 1869, the need to circle the southern cape of Africa at record speeds had diminished. Cargo ship s with a greater holding capacity began to dominate the seas. However, the clipper and its lore were firmly established in American culture. The beauty and grace of these vessels continues to inspire and delight many today.
Although clippers had virtually disappeared as working vessels during the 20th century, they reappeared by the 1990s to serve another purpose -- specialized luxury cruises. By the late 1990s, two much larger but authentic copies of Yankee clippers were built in Belgium by a Swedish-owned company which sailed them to the Caribbean from New York. Although 100-ft longer than the original clipper ships, and equipped with the latest in seafaring technology as well as an engine, these new clippers are outfitted with 36,000 sq ft of barkentine rig sails which give the 160 passengers the true experience of a tall sailing ship with all the amenities of a yacht.
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