8/27/2023 0 Comments Clipper ship wharf![]() When the proper moment came, one of the party proposed the health of Captain Hamilton, and this is the way he did it: Captain Hamilton was not only an accomplished mariner, but a most delightful companion, and he had many friends in San Francisco, some of whom gave a dinner at the Niantic Hotel in honor of his arrival on this occasion. The Eclipse, Captain Hamilton, also went into Valparaiso with the loss of some of her spars and sails, and allowing for her loss of time in port, made the passage from New York to San Francisco in 112 days, arriving May 20th, with the remarkable run of 63 days from New York to Valparaiso to her credit. It became quite evident that these ships could stand stouter spars and rigging, and indeed required them. This was the first of a series of disasters which befell the clippers that year, and which proved pretty clearly that their power of carrying canvas had been underestimated. She had made the passage in 115 days, deducting her delay at Valparaiso. The Sea Serpent arrived on May 17th, after putting into Valparaiso for repairs, as she had lost spars and sails off Cape Horn. A list of her cargo on this voyage filled a manifest twenty-five feet long, and her freight amounted to the sum of $78,000. It should not, however, be supposed that she had not had plenty of wind, for it was usually blowing hard when Captain Dumaresq began to think of taking in his topgallantsails, to say nothing of reefing topsails. The Surprise had sailed 16,308 miles since leaving Sandy Hook, and had reefed topsails but twice. And by noon, Captain Dumaresq was with his friends on shore, 96 days from New York. He found the weather thick outside and so returned, but he had not reached his counting-room before the Surprise had passed the Golden Gate. On the morning of her ninety-sixth day out, March 19th, he thought if the Surprise was going to win his money for him it was about time for her to do it, so he mounted his horse and rode over to the North Beach to get a glimpse of her if she was in sight. A merchant of San Francisco wagered heavily on her beating the passage of the Sea Witch-97 days-of the year before, and as the time limit grew near he began to feel rather nervous. She made a fine passage of 107 days, arriving on March 11th. The first clipper to arrive at San Francisco from New York in 1851 in less than 110 days was the Seaman, a smart little Baltimore ship of 546 tons. The interest in clippers was not confined to seamen and capitalists, for when the mail steamer from Aspinwall was reported toiling up the bay, there would be a large number of persons patiently waiting on the wharf, who were not expecting friends among the passengers or crew, but who had come to hear the latest news, then five or six weeks old, of arrivals of clipper ships at San Francisco. Palmer." These were pleasant evenings, gay with the clink of mugs and glasses and the murmur of small talk and laughter rippling among wreaths of smoke from fragrant Havanas, until, at a little before ten, Michael, the venerable barkeeper would announce, "Gentlemen, I will take the last orders of the evening we close in ten minutes." Occasionally an argument would reach a point of animation where something had to be done, and one might hear a remark very much like this: "No, no, Henry, I can't do that, but I will lay five dollars at one to three on the Challenge against the fleet, bar one, or the same even on the Flying Cloud against the N. These men knew whereof they spoke, for almost any evening there was sufficient capital represented by ship-owners to pay for half a dozen clippers, and the men were there also who could build and navigate them. In New York the Astor House was the meeting place of merchants, ship-builders, and sea-captains, who carried on endless arguments concerning the merits of the clipper ships, their builders, owners, and captains, and discussed the latest shipping news with untiring earnestness. At that period the merchants and shipowners of Boston used to meet "on 'change" in front of the old Merchants' Exchange in State Street, and before going home to their comfortable two o'clock dinners, these old-time gentlemen would lay many a quiet wager upon the Northern Light, Flying Fish, Witch of the Wave, Raven, John Bertram, Shooting Star, or Game Cock as to their relative speed and the length of their passages from Boston to San Francisco. ![]() EACH of the clippers had her devoted admirers, who gave tangible proof of loyalty by investing money liberally in support of their belief in her speed.
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