Hi Guys,
Can you tell me whether there are any clippers sailing the seas today? Or steaming along or with a diesel engine?
Reason I ask is that on the 14th of February this year (2006) (foggy day) I was on Milnerton Beach just to the north of Cape Town, harbour and saw a sailing ship exiting the harbour in the thick fog and following the normal channel that other ships follow on their way out the harbour, but with it's sails still rolled up (so I was thinking motorized or ghost ship). When I looked up the only ghost ship I know of around here, "The Flying Dutchman" I saw that it was a clipper, and looking at the pix I found of clippers, the ship I saw, and took pix of, looked very much like a clippper. Anyway, yeah, it's prolly a bit far-fetched, but I'll attach you some of the pix. One as it was taken, and 2 as cleaned up by me. I keep originals of all my pix. They were taken at 5 megapixels, but I'll resized them to 800x600. Sure looks like a clipper to me, but it was probably a motorized replica. Anyway, FWIW.
Do take care.
Smitty PS: They do say that if you've seen the Flying Dutchman, you're gonna die a violent death. Well I'm still alive (tongue in cheek) but I am a biker so there's still a chance to go that way. Anyway, you gotta die of something.
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Maans Smit Cape Town, South Africa
mailto: smitty@polka.co.za
Photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/saxsbiker/
Bikes: 1980 XS1100 Yamaha & 1979 XS1179 Yamaha

Ahoy Smitty,

The "Ghost Ship" in your pictures certainly looks very much like a clipper and a joy to behold there in the ocean mists. If anyone out there recognizes this tall ship by all means let us know and we will post this information here on the Web site. -ECS

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1/19/07 - Regarding the ‘Ghost Ships’ seen off Cape Town, that looks to me like a four-masted bark like the Moshulu or Kruzensthern and not a ‘Clipper’ ship.
 
Craig Merkel

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