1/4/2024 0 Comments Clipper ship definition![]() ![]() Many of these medium clippers would be considered very sharp and heavily sparred vessels at the present time." Įxtreme clippers remained in vogue only a few years. A 1910 history of the clipper related: ".a fine class of ships, known as medium clippers, was constructed, some of which proved exceedingly fast, and remarkable passages continued to be made. Two early examples of the medium clipper are the Antelope of Boston (1851): "The design of her model was to combine large stowage capacity with good sailing qualities" and the Golden Fleece (1852): "In the form of her ends she is of the medium model." The medium clipper, though still very fast, had comparatively more allowance for cargo.Īfter 1854 extreme clippers were replaced in shipbuilding yards by medium clippers. Ships built in Medford "have more fast California passages to their credit, considering the number they built, than those of any other place." An example would be the Columbiana built in Medford in 1837, or Jotham Stetson’s ship the Rajah, 531 tons, 140 feet long which was constructed in the previous year. They "quietly evolved a new type (of ship) of about 450 tons burden which, handled by eighteen officers and men, would carry half as much freight as a British-Indianman of 1500 tons with a crew of 125, and sail half again as fast." Most owners wanted ships that could do all kinds of work and the "finest type" then being built was the Medford or Merrimac East Indiaman. In the mid-1800s, shipbuilders in Medford, Massachusetts began building what would become the medium clipper ship. Medium and extreme clippers įrom 1851 or earlier another type of clipper ship was also being built, the medium clipper. The Rainbow was designed and built with great care and was not launched until January, 1845. One critical observer declared that her bow had been turned "outside in," and that her whole form was contrary to the laws of nature. Her bow with its concave waterlines and the greatest breadth at a point considerably further aft than had hitherto been regarded as practicable, was a radical departure, differing not merely in degree but in kind from any ship that preceded her. This vessel, the first extreme clipper ship ever built, was therefore, the direct result of Griffeths's efforts for improvement. ![]() ![]() This proposed departure from old methods naturally met with much opposition, but in 1843, the firm of Howland & Aspinwall commissioned Smith & Dimon, of New York, in whose employ Griffeths had spent several years as draughtsman, to embody these experimental ideas in a ship of 750 tons, named the Rainbow. Another improvement which he proposed was to fine out the after body by rounding up the ends of the main transom, thus relieving the quarters and making the stern much lighter and handsomer above the water-line. Griffeths advocated carrying the stem forward, in a curved line, thereby lengthening the bow above water he also introduced long, hollow water-lines and a general drawing out and sharpening of the forward body, bringing the greatest breadth further aft. Later he delivered a series of lectures on the science of ship-building which were the first discourses upon this subject in the United States. Griffeths, of New York proposed several improvements in marine architecture, which were embodied in the model of a clipper ship exhibited at the American Institute, in February of that year. ![]()
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