1854 - Maiden Voyage of Clipper Lightning

It has been said that enthusiasm for clippers was waning lately. No doubt that experts question the future of clipper against steamer on the long run. Yet the clipper is in full boom today, thanks to China tea trade, to California gold rush and to Australia gold rush, which have urged fast transport as well as mass migration. China, California and Australia are still too far destinations to expect serving them through steam navigation, There are meant to clipper runs as fastness gives an advantage to tea merchants and gold migrants who are rushing. Magnificent specimens have been launched lately, reaching out unheard-of speeds. The oceans have shrunk suddenly.

¤ This is perhaps 760-ton Rainbow, launched in 1845, which made clipper enthusiasm arise to a pinnacle. She made a sensation before her launch by her hull shape, especially for her hollow bow and, for the experts, by the position of her main frame at the aft midship. Meant to China trade, she run to Canton in 92 days and came back in 88 days. She was lost with all hands in 1848. That same year, Sea Witch did even better than Rainbow with 77 days on her way back from Canton to New York. This is a 15,000-mile voyage run at an average speed of 8 knots.

Lightning was designed by famous Donald McKay, 44 years old, for James Baines, 32, founder of the James Baines & Co. established in 1851 in Liverpool for the purpose of transporting cargo and passengers to Australia. She cost £32,000.

¤ A gold rush has begun in 1851 in Australia. It generated an immediate influx of tens of thousands migrants. Baines decided to create the line to leverage this opportunity. He started service in 1852 with a first clipper, 1,620-ton Marco Polo, then he purchased four clippers to McKay : Lightning, Champion of the Seas, James Baines and Donald McKay. Marco Polo did her first voyage in 68 days and returned in 76 days - incredible performances. She transported 888 passengers, among whom 52 children on 327 were to decease from measles.

¤ McKay is famous for the extreme clippers he has designed and built for the last ten years. He lately built two masterpieces, 1,780-ton Flying Cloud, three years ago and 2,420-ton Sovereign of the Seas the following year. The first one has just set an astonishing record by sailing from New York to San Francisco in 89 days and 8 hours. This is a voyage of 14,000 nautical miles. A good merchant sailer takes 150 days at best to do it, six months commonly. The second had taken 103 days 2 hours the previous year on the same route, which is already outstanding, but she did better as for peak speed, achieving an unbelievable speed of 22 knots and an amazing course of 400 miles in a single day.. She has also crossed the Atlantic ocean from New York to Liverpool in 13 days 13 hours at an average speed of 9.6 knots.

¤ As for transtlantic crossing, this is Red Jacket which owns the record with 13 days one hour between New york and Liverpool - it was established last year. It could have been eleven and something but she was prevented from entering the Mersey by adverse conditions. Afterwards, she has entered the service to Australia. Her first run was very fast, reaching Melbourne in 69 days.

Lightning is a 2,080-ton ship, 277-foot long overall, 237-foot at the waterline, 44-foot broad. She can transport 800 passengers. She is rigged as a -three-masted ship carrying 13,000 square yards of canvas. She can sail at 20 knots, likely even more. She has achieved a new record in running 436 nautical miles in a single day, which means that she sustained an average speed over 18 knots that day. it happened in her maiden round trip, on her way back to Liverppol from Melbourne in 63 days for 14,000 nautical miles - 9¼ knots on average. Her run to Melbourne took 77 days - 7½ knots on average - which does equal neither the 68 days achieved by Marco Polo - 8½ knots on average - nor the 69 days by Red Jacket.

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IN RETROSPECT FROM TODAY

Note A - on the clipper era

One may consider that the clipper reaches a mature form with Rainbow (1845) and Sea Witch (1846), designed by John Willis Griffiths, 36 years old then. Their performances are extraordinary in their days but the best is still to come. Their golden age is quite short, lasting from the discovery of gold in California (1848) to the end of the rush there around 1858-59. The peak of clipper building is reached in 1853 with 120 ships built in the USA that year, for a total of 400 during the decade. The tea race extends the clipper era until the 1870s with late specimens as Ariel, (1865) and Cutty Sark (1869), which will be preserved.

The largest one is 4,500-ton Great Republic, launched in 1853, designed by Donald McKay. She displaces 6,600 tons and she is 400-foot long over all, 334-foot at the waterline, 53-foot broad. By the way, she is the largest ship in the world then.

The most celebrated event of the era happens in 1866, when the tea race becomes an incredible regatta in which the leaders race neck and neck from China to the thames. Taeping wins by docking 20 minutes in advance on Ariel, and one hour before Serica, after some 14,000 miles sailed in 99 days.

Note B - about Lightning

She transports troops to India during the Great Mutiny of 1857-58. Afterwards she resumes her service until 1869, when she catches fire and sinks close to Melbourne.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carl C Cutler - Greyhounds of the Seas - Annapolis, 1930 - available on the Internet