Photographed on 28 July 2003
Located on the south side of Highway 103,
about 30m west from the Jordan River bridge
GPS location: 43°48'56"N 65°14'05"W
Google map
Photographed on 28 July 2003
Photographed on 28 July 2003
Photographed on 28 July 2003
Photographed on 19 August 2003
Mr. McKay, perhaps more than the general run of builders, has the rare faculty of producing a beautiful model, and making the ship built by it an exact copy. In other words, he makes the ships he builds look just as he likes. He delights in his noble profession, and considers labor or expense nothing, compared with success. It is his ambition to build the best, most beautiful, and swiftest clippers in the world...
Source:
Boston Daily Atlas 17 November 1852
http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/News/BDA/BDA(1852-11-17).html
McKay Clan Page website by "1st-cousin-4-times-removed to Donald McKay"
http://www.eraoftheclipperships.com/mckay.html
includes a good picture of The Great Republic, launched 4 October 1853
(150th anniversary on 4 October 2003)
Links to Relevant Websites
The Glory of the Seas a brief overview of Donald McKay's life
Donald McKay Wikipedia
Donald McKay's journey to Liverpool Boston Daily Atlas, 18 June 1851
Donald McKay: Peacemaker
Sovereign of the Seas extreme clipper ship built in 1852 by Donald McKay
James Baines extreme clipper ship built in 1854 by Donald McKay
Reproduction of a page from the Diary of Alfred Withers
Flying Cloud extreme clipper launched in 1851, at the shipyard of Donald McKay
The New Clipper Ship Flying Cloud Boston Daily Atlas, 25 April 1851
The Flying Cloud: Voyages Two & Three
Record Voyage of the Flying Cloud
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135 years...clipper ships, big and lean, were the fastest commercialsailing ships ever built. They could make the 14,500-mile [23,300 km] trip between New York and San Francisco around South America in less than 100 days. The famous clipper Flying Cloud made the voyage in 89 days, eight hours, a record that stood for 135 years until broken by the racing yacht Thursday's Child in 1989... “Clipper advertising card exhibit at Bancroft Library” San Francisco Chronicle, 21 September 2013 The Last Great Sailing RecordOvertaking a Clipper Ship After 135 YearsA 60-foot yacht designed in the anything-goes style of ocean racing isexpected to sail through the Golden Gate Bridge finish line late Saturday and break what many sailors consider to be the last great sailing record. If she arrives when expected, Thursday's Child will have made the 15,000-mile voyage from New York to San Francisco round Cape Horn in 80 days. That would be nine days faster than the time it took the 229-foot Flying Cloud to sail the same course in 1854. As of noon Pacific time today, Thursday's Child was 197 miles away from San Francisco, tacking in very light wind. Previous attempts to break the record have ended in disappointment or disaster. Three sailboats in the last six years that tried to better Flying Cloud's effort broke up or sank shortly after rounding Cape Horn, the perilous meeting point of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the tip of South America... “Overtaking a Clipper Ship After 135 Years” The New York Times, 11 February 1989 |
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The Largest Clipper in the World Boston Daily Atlas, 25 May 1852
Launch of the Enoch Train, The Largest Clipper Ship in the World
Staffordshire clipper packet ship built in 1851 by Donald McKay, East Boston
The new clipper packet ship Staffordshire Boston Daily Atlas, 21 July 1851
Clipper ship Staffordshire now receiving freight... Boston Daily Atlas, 23 April 1852
Abstract of the Log of the Staffordshire December 1851
Loss of the Packet Ship Staffordshire, and One Hundred and Eighty Lives
Loss of the ship Staffordshire
The Marco Polo
Flying Fish extreme clipper ship built in 1851 by Donald McKay
Bald Eagle extreme clipper ship built in 1852 by Donald McKay
Bald Eagle extreme clipper built in 1852 by Donald McKay, East Boston
Clipper ship Bald Eagle Boston Daily Atlas, 17 November 1852
Empress of the Seas Boston Daily Atlas, 25 January 1853
Stag Hound extreme clipper ship built in 1850 by Donald McKay
Clipper ship Stag Hound, of Boston The U.S. Nautical Magazine, 1855
Letter from a passenger on board the clipper ship Stag Hound Boston Daily Atlas, 10 June 1851
Donald McKay extreme clipper launched in 1855 at the shipyard of Donald McKay
Champion of the Seas built in 1854 at East Boston by Donald McKay
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Clipper Ship by John H. Lienhard Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering and History, University of Houston Clipper ships were not a specific design, they were a state of mind. And that state of mind lasted only a decade... (1846-1856) They were tall and beautiful. Acres of canvas drove them at 14 knots. For a while those expensive ships paid for themselves on a single voyage... http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi338.htm |
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The Wayback Machine has archived copies of this webpage:
Donald McKay of East Boston designed the first extreme clipper, Stag Hound. The ship was designed for a swift east coast "round the Horn" run to San Francisco, then to speed to China and return around the world. McKay favored Cape Cod masters for his vessels, and he selected Richardson to command Stag Hound, the highest compliment that could be paid to this young captain. Stag Hound was launched before 1,500 people on a cold December day in 1850... ...Staffordshire labored to the westward under a double-reefed main topsail. The watch sighted the distant lights of Cape Sable Island (not Sable Island, as stated in the original article) to the south of the Nova Scotia mainland, but the ship's damaged rudder and fouled gear made her slow to come about. Just four miles off Cape Sable Island on the morning of December 29, 1853, Staffordshire struck Blonde Rock, remained suspended, then slipped off to sink bow first. An icy deck and a snow squall hampered the lowering of boats to save passengers and crew... Captain Richardson perished with 169 others on that tragic December morning... Alden and 43 others were saved...
Archived: 1998 February 06
Archived: 1998 May 03
These links were accessed and found to be valid on 24 May 2010. |
BooksDonald McKay and the Clipper Ships by Mary Ellen Chase,181 pages with photographs and diagrams, published 1959 by Houghton Mifflin Company, Riverside Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts Yankee Clippers: the Story of Donald McKay by Clara Ingram Judson and Yukio Tashiro, a biography of the Nova Scotia farmer's son who dreamed of ships as a lad, worked in the shipyards as a youth, and designed and built more than ninety ships in the great days of clipper sail published 1965 by Follett Publishing Company, Chicago Donald McKay: Designer of Clipper Ships by John O'Hara Cosgrave II and Clara Ingram Judson published 1943 by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York Some famous sailing ships and their builder, Donald McKay: a study of the American sailing packet and clipper eras, with biographical sketches of America's foremost designer and master builder of ships, and a comprehensive history of his many famous ships by Richard C. McKay (grandson of Donald McKay), 396 pages with 25 b/w illustrations, plus 10 plates in colour with tissue guard, and 51 pages with 42 b/w plates and 11 plans models, maps, facsimile letters and telegrams — A comprehensive history of Donald McKay's ships, drawn from original sources and family records, from his first, the trading ship Courier in 1842, to his last marine enterprise, the refitting of the famous schooner yacht America in 1875. published 1928 by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York third printing in June 1931 (of 1928 edition) reprinted 1969 by 7 C's Press, Riverside, Connecticut reprinted 1988 by Easton Press, Norwalk, Connecticut Donald McKay and His Famous Sailing Ships by Richard C. McKay, 512 pages with 58 illustrations, plans, and maps ISBN 048628820X published 1995 (reprint of the 1928 edition) by Dover Publications Inc. "This rare and valuable study, written by McKay's descendent who had access to important family records, reveals McKay's extraordinary accomplishments as it recreates the great era of the American sailing packet and clipper ship. In the end, steamships replaced McKay's masterworks, but never eclipsed the magnificent sailing tradition whose climax they represented." |
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The Wayback Machine has archived copies of this webpage:
Archived: 2002 August 21
Archived: 2003 March 24
Archived: 2004 October 17
These links were accessed and found to be valid on 24 May 2010. |
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