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______________________________ 02/06/06 ~ ECS ~ [ Era of the Clipper Ships editorial voice ] Welcome to the Era of the Clipper Ships Web site, the online magazine for maritime history enthusiasts of the clipper ship era. On December 23, 1846 Robert Waterman took the Sea Witch on her maiden voyage out into the blustery North Atlantic Ocean. Where the Sea Witch was christened for the first time by the fierce northwester that splashed against her Chinese dragon figurehead with the open mouth and partly coiled tail as the Sea Witch roared on down the North Atlantic bound for Rio De Janeiro, the Cape of Good Hope and Canton. The era of the clipper ships had begun. March 25, 2001 was the date chosen to go online and that day was the 152nd anniversary of the arrival of the Sea Witch back from China to New York with a record-setting 74-day, 14-hour passage on March 25, 1849. The South Street waterfront went wild with the exciting news of the Sea Witch's arrival on March 25, 1849, as did the rest of New York City and the maritime world. Go right away to the Sea Witch link to catch this exciting moment just as soon as you finish reading this page. Then go to the Directory and surf around a bit. Then go to The Era of the Clipper Ships link and click on the first of the chapter links and that will take you to the South Street waterfront "Street of Ships" for the beginning of the tale with young Donald McKay arriving from Shelburne, Nova Scotia aboard a lumber schooner in the East River at the South Street waterfront in New York City in 1826. The story goes on right through the clipper ship era to the building of Donald McKay's last clipper, the Glory of the Seas and his later days. The clipper ship era has always been an endless source of fascination. Well over a decade of research went into writing this book. To bring the era of the clipper ships to life again within the imaginations of the readers is a high priority with me. This Web site about our long, lost American clipper ship heritage is now out there in Cyberspace for the rest of the world to see. The main focus is to present the story and the pictures in a lively and intelligent historically accurate way that fleshes out the characters and the sailing ships of those exciting times in such a way that takes advantage of the World Wide Web. We have been up and running for close to five years now and we welcome you aboard. _______________________
You can email us at: donross@eraoftheclipperships.com You can write us at: The Era of the Clipper Ships _______________________ For optimum viewing in Internet Explorer chose a reduced font size of 75% from the View Menu. These pages look fine in Netscape Navigator on a Mac. Chose a reduced font size from the View Munu when viewing in Netscape Navigator on a PC. ____________________ We would like to pay homage to the many fine maritime historians of the clipper ship era that we have turned to in our quest for research material for this book and Web site. This list includes: A.B.C. Whipple, Arthur H. Clark, Carl C. Cutler, Samuel Eliot Morison, Marian Robertson, Hawthorne Daniel, Jane D. Lyon, Michael J. Mjelde, and Peter Stanford to name but a few. As well as to the many people who have gotten in touch with us over the past four years, many of them descendants of people from the clipper ship era, including the Lows of tea clipper fame, and others who played major roles over the most remarkable and exciting period in American history. They have all contributed to the final edit of The Era of the Clipper Ships on our Web site and the book. The McKay family is grateful for their enthusiastic correspondence over the years. Other members of the McKay Clan are involved with this Web site as well. There is more about all of us on the McKay Clan Page. For this is the official Web site of the family of Donald McKay. For we all share similar dreams and aspirations with wanting to see such lofty clipper ships sail the seas once again. This Web site will help us all to focus upon just what we can all do to make this happen. We heartily encourage everyone to make this a more interactive Web site by sending us pictures via Email attachments of clipper ships that we can include on this site. We are especially interested to hear from maritime history enthusiasts in Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Especially Australia in this regard concerning the Black Ball Line and the Australian Gold Rush Period. We also encourage marine artists of the clipper ship era throughout the world to let us feature their paintings on our Web site. On the Internet this story can reach a wide audience at the speed of light. The Era of the Clipper Ships is now a historical archive of the clipper ship era that will stay on the World Wide Web for it has earned the respect of the maritime world. If you go to Google.com and do a search on "Clipper Ships" this Web site comes up at the top of the list. Right from the beginning we tried to set this Web site up with a firm foundation and strong links to the rest of the maritime community around the world that includes museums, bookstores, and maritime book publishers. We have become a vital Internet Cyberspace Web Wharf Hub for the maritime world. Particularly for maritime history enthusiasts of the clipper ship era like ourselves. Just go to our Maritime Links Page and check it out. New links are going up all the time. Also see our Tradewinds pages. This site is simple and easy to navigate. Just go to the Directory. Everything is there under one nutshell. Notice that we are expanding our Maritime Book Reviews and encourage publishers of maritime books to send us copies of new releases to review. _______________________
Maritime News Page _____________________
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Send donations to: The Era of the Clipper Ships P.O. Box 723 Stone Ridge, NY 12484 _____________________________
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___________________________ Tall Ships Photo Gallery
_____________________________ Snow Squall
2/21/04 ~ Ship Model Page Five ___________________________
_____________________________ Tall Ships of the Coos Bay ECS ~ Ahoy Tall Ships picture fans throughout the world. A treasure-trove of 1500 Tall Ships pictures have recently been found by Model shipwright Steve Priske in Coos Bay, Oregon, and are of the 65 Tall Ships that were built there by shipwrights, many of them from the State of Maine, that sailed around the Horn at the time of the California Gold Rush, and resumed their ship-building activities in Coos Bay. See these magnificent Tall Ships pictures here for the first time. We consider this outstanding collection of Tall Ships pictures to be the most historically significant find so far this century and we are delighted to be the first to present these pictures to the maritime world. ____________________________
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______________________________ We Are Changing Tack We continue to support any and all efforts to build an American clipper ship. When you consider our golden age of sail, we just don't understand why the United States of America doesn't have any clipper ships around to honor our national maritime heritage today. By our calculations, it would only cost in the neighborhood of five million dollars a year to fund one when you consider The Ten-Year Plan in figuring out the costs of building a clipper ship today, and sailing her around the world for the next decade. This comes out to 25 million dollars to build a clipper ship, and 25 million dollars to sail her for the next ten years - 50 million dollars total - five million dollars a year! That's it in a nutshell. Put in that perspective, it looks much more doable on the federal, state, or local level. We have more to say about this Ten-Year Plan on our recently edited McKay Clan Page to expand upon this latest tack in our thinking about this subject. In the meantime, we have "launched" our book "on spec." We do hope that you all realize that this publishing venture is a serious effort to reclaim our long-lost clipper ship maritime heritage one book at a time, a "Little Red Hen" approach to shipbuilding. In that, if you really want to get something done, you just have to do it yourself. We are also borrowing the game plan of "The Little Engine that Could." For we McKays are all rather bored just waiting around our whole lives for someone else to come along and build an American clipper ship. So we're going for the brass ring in this lifetime, and with a little bit of help from our friends in the maritime world, we just might be able to pull it off. We certainly have to try. We just want to build and launch a clipper ship, gather up a hearty crew, hoist sails to the highest of places, and run for the open sea. This effort begins with the launching of this book.
Available Now! We really need for all the people who give a damn about this Web site to come through for us now and order a book copy "Special Edition" of The Era of the Clipper Ships. Minnehaha Press / Support Our Site Buy This Book / Book Order Form
Minnehaha Press See bottom of Minnehaha Press page for more info. _________________________________
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All that is left of our clipper ship heritage. ____________________________
______________________________________ We also review maritime movies. Master and Commander The Far Side of the World
______________________________________ Also check out our Ship Model Pages featuring outstanding ship models.
Starting with the first Ship Model Page to learn more about the model of the clipper ship Raven that was inspired by our web site and recently built by master model shipbuilder Steve Priske, who is also writing some of the Maritime Book Reviews on this Web site as well from now on.
Model of the "Oregon Clipper" Western Shore. __________________________
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The Era of the Clipper Ships / Tradewinds Directory / Home / Maritime Links McKay Clan / Ship's Store / Bibliography ___________________________
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_______________________________ Maritime Book Review
Just Released - December 2006 Go to Review of The Last Schoonerman ______________________________
Visit our Tradewinds Pages! __________________________ Tradewinds of the British Isles
Tradewinds of the British Isles __________________________ Clipper Ship Nightingale
Jenny Lind Figurehead ___________________________ New! February 6, 2006 Maritime Book Review By Don Ross
____________________________ Clipper Ship David Crocket
Ship Portraits by maritime artist Adam Koltz _______________________ Pride of Baltimore II Dismasting Story
www.ourprideadventures.blogspot.com ________________________ We support any and all efforts to build an American clipper ship today such as those of Project Sea Witch We welcome letters where anyone can comment on any subject concerning clipper ships. We periodically update our Letterbag Page with some of these letters. You can Email us and let us know what you think about our site. Over these past four and a half years this Web site has become a big hit with educators, teachers, librarians, and historians throughout the world and we do look forward to expanding upon this developing relationship in the future. Especially after the book goes to print. ________________________________
_______________________________ A great effort will be made over the coming years to achieve the lofty goals that we have set for ourselves. The support of patron-benefactors is heartily encouraged at this point in time from everyone who wishes to see future efforts to build American clipper ships get out of the "Horse Latitudes" and reach fruition. After all, a whole century just went by and not one single American clipper ship was launched over that period.
You can give us a show of support by going to our Ship's Store Page and ordering an Era of the Clipper Ships T-shirt for $20. Check out this link for further details. _____________________________ The support of the maritime world will go a long way in helping us establish our presence on the World Wide Web. Just like all clipper ship ventures in earlier times, 150 years ago, this venture is one of Yankee free enterprise. Yes, I do hope to sell a lot of copies of my book someday and go sailing. I have just chosen an interesting and creative way to try and do this on the Internet first and later on with the book that will hopefully somehow bring about another era of the clipper ships in the New Millennium. If that is the case, I will get my greatest wish to sail around the Horn aboard an American clipper ship. Whatever works. As a member of the McKay Clan I certainly have to try. So here "on spec" is The Era of the Clipper Ships. _____________________________
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Go to: Great Republic 150th Anniversary ____________________________ The History of the "Oregon Clipper"
_____________________________ New David Coffin Album
www.davidcoffin.com
for Recordings ___________________________
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