The Clipper Red Jacket
The Red Jacket was an extreme clipper ship launched at Rockland, Maine on the 2nd November 1853. She was one of the seven fastest ships in the world at the time, sailing 413 nauticak miles from New York to Liverpool in 13 days. She was 2460 tons registered, 251 feet long, and was captained by Martin Massey Milward on her voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne, commencing on 20th September 1855. In the hot weather the passengers had an awning over the poop and quarterdeck and played games such as quoits and gymnastics. They danced at night to a german band. On Sundays, prayers were read on the poop deck by either the doctor or the captain. The Red Jacket could sail seventeen knots per hour and glid effortlessly through the water without spilling a drop from a glass of water on the capstan head.
On the 1st November, at 35degrees South, they saw their first albatross. The next day the Bosun's mate, A. Guillim fell overboard from the main yard while he was bending the main topsail. The lifebuoy was thrown to him but he could not swim and even though the boat was lowered and they searched for hours, they could not find him. The passengers passed the hat around for the lost sailor's widow and made more than eighty pounds. In 47d South, they saw an iceberg, and the next few days, saw many more. The run from the Cape of Good Hope to Melbourne took only twenty-five days, the red jacket flying over the waves with every sail set. Upon sighting land they had a grand concert and on the 3rd of December 1855, the Red Jacket ran through the heads of Port Phillip Bay, took the pilot on board and anchored in Hobson's Bay.
The Red Jacket did many more voyages between Liverpool and Melbourne. In the 1880s she was Reduced to a coalbarge at the Cape Verde Islands and during her last active years was put in the trans-Atlantic Quebec timber trade.
Clipper Resources
The Four-Masted Barque Lawhill  -
by Kenneth Edwards, Richard Cookson, Roderick Anderson
The American-Built Clipper Ship, 1850-1856: Characteristics, Construction, and Details -
THE LIFE OF A SHIP begins when an individual or organization decides upon the need or desire for such a vehicle to further the pursuit of pleasure or profit-in the case of the American-built clipper ship, the quest for profit in merchant shipping, and the quest for progress and product development on the part of the designer and shipbuilder.
.
|
Home
Australia Index
James Craig
The Duyfken
Sloop Norfolk
Baudin & Flinders
Newcastle Maritime
Lady Julian
HMS Guardian
Sir Robert Seppings
Tasmanian Coasters
Chicora
Red Jacket
The Endeavour
Aubrey/Maturin Books
|
