Identifier: someshipsofclipp00stat (find matches)
Title: Some ships of the clipper ship era, their builders, owners, and captains;
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: State Street Trust Company (Boston, Mass.) Walton Advertising and Printing Company
Subjects: Clipper ships
Publisher: Boston, Mass. : Printed for the State Street Trust Company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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. When she was launched, the Stag Houndwas the largest merchant ship yet built, being 215 feet longand having a register of 1,535 tons. No less than 15,000 peoplegathered to see her launched despite the cold, and, as the tallowfroze, boiling whale oil was poured upon the ways. When shebegan to slide, the foreman of the yard broke a bottle of Med-ford rum on her forefoot, shouting in his nervousness, as he didso, Stag Hound, your names Stag Hound, instead of theusual phraseology used at a launching. She was regarded as the ideal type of clipj)er ship, and was builtfor Sampson & Tappan and George B. Upton, of Boston, and wascommanded by Captain Josiah Richardson. At this i)eriodnearly all of the clipper ships were constructed for the Californiatrade, in which freights were high and prices depended upon thespeed with which goods were delivered in California. Manyof the clippers costing from $70,000 to $80,000 paid for them-selves on their first voyage. Cargo capacity was often sacri-
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18 SOME SHIPS OF THE CLIPPER SHIP ERA ficed for speed, and sail was carried as long as possible, so thatmuch canvas was lost, and much rigging, and often topmastscarried away on each voyage. One sea captain, RolxM-t ^Yaterman,was said to padlock his gear so that sailors could not take in sailwithout orders. On the Stag Hounds first trip to San Fran-cisco, during which she beat to Valparaiso the John Bertramand the Sea Serpent, she made the voyage from New Yorkin 107 days, actual sailing time, although a storm, when shewas a few days out of New York, cost her a maintopmast andthree topgallant masts. She sailed from Boston Light to theequator in a record time of 13 days; the best time ever madeby a sailing vessel from New York to Canton being 77 days,by the Sea Witch, in 1848, commanded by Captain R. H.Waterman. The Stag Hound took fire in 1863 near the coastof Brazil, was burned to the waters edge, and sank. All thatwas left of her was the ensign, which Captain Behm broughtback to the

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