The Era of the Clipper Ships is divided into 72 Web page segments, each on the average of from four to seven pages in length, to be read in sequence starting with 'South Street.' I have put together this Web site making the best use with whatever picture material was on hand at the moment. There will be revisions made in the future as new pictures are obtained following my research junkets to maritime museums and bookstores from Newport News to Nova Scotia in the coming years. I would like to make these pages more interactive with maritime history enthusiasts of the clipper ship era everywhere and to encourage everyone to Email us pictures that you feel would go well on our pages. The above center picture is of the McKay clipper Lightning, painted by Cornelis de Vries, from the book: Classic Sailing Ships, by Kenneth Giggal.

This Web site has recently been updated with lots of new pictures added to try and make our site as visually stunning as we possibly can and there is still much to do on these pages.

We are also in the midst of a very careful final editing of the manuscript for we plan to publish "on spec" the first commerative edition of the The Era of the Clipper Ships soon. There will be a special preview of the book going up to this Web site on March 25, 2004, and the book will be released on April 15, 2004. So we therefore urge everyone who wants to send us any more pictures, or make any other story comments to get in touch with us by the end of February. We thank you all for your feedback in the past and the book will be all the better because of this. The book will be edited differently than the Web site and will include some additional material. See the Support Our Site Page for more information and details about how to order this book.

I do hope that people everywhere around the world will now Buy This Book so that I can pull myself up by my bootstraps into the publishing world and then go sailing off into the sunset aboard a clipper ship and live happily ever after. That's the plan. Whatever works. Happy sails, Don Ross.

The Era of the Clipper Ships

By Donald Gunn Ross III

South Street / Sackett's Harbor / Donald McKay's Apprenticeship / Newburyport

East Boston / Ann McKim - Robert Waterman / Nathaniel Brown Palmer / China Tea Trade

Samuel Russell / Sutter's Mill / Gold Fever / Mason's Dispatch

The White-Collar Route to El Dorado / Matthew Fontaine Maury / Ocean Monarch / The Oriental

Pook - Surprise / Sea Serpent - Stag Hound / Game Cock - Witchcraft

Charles Porter Low / Flying Cloud / Ship Panama / Challenge

First Voyage of the Flying Cloud / Sarah H. Bowman / San Francisco-Canton

The Challenge sets sail from New York / Mutiny off Cape Horn / The Challenge arrives through the Golden Gate

Later years of the Challenge / Cordelia crosses the Isthmus / 1851 race between the Typhoon, the Raven and the Sea Witch

Staffordshire / Flying Fish / Sovereign of the Seas / Sailing Directions

Deep Sea Derby / Black Squall - Sovereign / Contest - Brown - Romance of the Seas

Neptune's Car / Mary Ann Patten / Great Republic / New York Fire

Red Jacket / James Baines / Marco Polo / Launch of the Lightning

First Voyage of the Lightning / Red Jacket Runs the Iceberg Gauntlet / The Gent Afloat

The Champion of the Seas / The First Voyage of the Champion of the Seas / The James Baines

The Royal Visit / The Donald McKay

The Commodore Perry / The Schomberg / The Wreck of the Staffordshire

Flying Cloud Voyages Two & Three / Record Voyage of the Flying Cloud / Later Voyages of the Flying Cloud

Panama Railroad / The Wreck of the Sea Witch

The Commercial Depression of 1857 / John Gilpin / Wild Wave

Flying Fish / Defender / Mastiff / Minnehaha

Donald McKay: Peacemaker / The later days of Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury / The Confederate Raider Alabama

The Glory of the Seas

Sea Witch / Directory / Maritime Links / Bibliography
McKay Clan / Ship's Store / Introduction / Home / Tradewinds