South Street 1855

On the Atlantic coast in 1856, foreign shipping firms began buying up American clipper ships at a fraction of the price paid by their original owners. Once sold, many of these once lofty clippers had their masts and spars cut down, were re-rigged and from that point on flew less canvas and sailed with smaller crews.

Fewer than 100 clippers that year cleared eastern seaports for Cape Horn and California. The New York Herald summed up the gloomy outlook: "Experienced shipbuilders pronounce the depression gloom of the past year to be unparalleled."

But the situation only got worse in 1857 with a world wide depression following the Central America disaster that swept into seaports everywhere sending freight rates spiraling down to $10 a ton, one sixth of what they were in 1851. Hundreds of counting houses in New York and Boston went bankrupt, as they could no longer afford to insure their vessels or pay wages to their crews. The once bustling piers along the South Street waterfront became ghost yards.

Shipyards all along the Atlantic coast were forced to close, many of them forever. In East Boston, Donald McKay was forced to close his yard for a time to wait out the depression.

Despite the discouraging conditions, clipper ship captains still maintained the utmost faith in their ships and their abilities to get the most out of them and as the freight rates plummeted that was all the more reason to make a swift passage in the shortest time possible. The 92-day passage from Sandy Hook to San Francisco in 1857 by the Great Republic is a good case in point as her abstract log quoted from Arthur Clark's The Clipper Ship Era notes:

From Sandy Hook to the equator...........16 days.

From the equator to 50° S. ......................25 "

From 50° S. in the Atlantic

to 50° in the Pacific.......................................9 "

From 50° S. to the equator......................23 "

From the equator to San Francisco.....19 "

Total...............................................92 days

The Great Republic

Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Navy concerning the voyage of this McKay clipper as follows:

This vessel did not have the luck of the wind that could keep her up to mettle for twenty-four hours consequently. Here and there she got into favorable streaks of wind, but she appears to have run out of them faster than they could follow. She made the run to San Francisco in 92 days.

The shortest passage that in the present state of sip-building will probably ever be made from New York to San Francisco, is 85 days; and the very clever first officer of this ship, writing from California, expresses the opinion that 'should she continue to run between New York and San Francisco, from the experience of this voyage, she will one day make the trip within your possible 85 days.

The friends of this noble specimen of naval architecture, however, can scarcely hope for a fair trial and proper display of her prowess until she shall be sent on a voyage to Australia. The brave west winds of the Southern Hemisphere, which she will then encounter, will enable her to show herself; elsewhere, she can scarcely find a sea wide enough, with belts of wind broad enough for the full display of her qualities and capabilities.

The Great Republic never did get the chance to make the voyage from England to Australia across the Great Southern Ocean that she had been specially designed and adapted for even in her rebuilt state.

Following her 92-day run to San Francisco in 1857, the Great Republic made a 54-day voyage to Callao for a load of guano at the Chincha Islands and proceeded on around Cape Horn bound for London. The mighty clipper shipped a tremendous sea off the Falkland Islands which strove in her deck between the main and fore masts and broke a number of her deck beams. Sea water washed into the hold and mixed with the 4500 tons of guano and washed over the ship's provisions destroying the food supply and Captain Limeburner was forced to put into the Falkland Islands on September 78, 1857 for provisions and repairs.

Limeburner had the schooner Nancy dispatched to Montevideo for provisions and lumber to make the necessary repairs which took six months to complete and the Great Republic did not reach London until January 1858.

The Great Republic then sailed for New York and loaded up cargo at the Low's East River pier for another run around the Horn to San Francisco and sailed on August 30, 1858.

The Adelaide, a fast, strongly built expensive medium clipper built by A. C. Bell at New York in 1854, sailed on that same day on her fourth voyage. She was under the command of Captain Wakeman accompanied by his wife and children, also bound for the Golden Gate. The two clippers sailed in company for eight days before going off on different tacks.

The two clippers met again off Pernambuco and sailed in company for two days before parting again off Cape St. Roque as the Great Republic flew on ahead around the Horn and reached San Francisco on December 28, 1858, with a passage of 120 days. The Adelaide arrived 13 days later.

The Adelaide sailed to the Chincha Islands for a load of guano and returned around the Horn to Hampton Roads, arriving there on November 14, 1859, 65 days from Callao, a very fast run. Captain Wakeman then sold his interest in his ship and retired.

The Adelaide was then entered into the packet trade for which she was ideally suited between Liverpool and New York for the next 18 years and she made many fast passages until she was reported lost in 1875.

The Great Republic left the Golden Gate in company with the Talisman, a beautiful medium clipper built at Damariscotta, Maine. On February 10, 1859, both ships sailed in ballast bound for New York. This following account of the beginning of this race appeared in the Alta California:

On Thursday afternoon the clipper ships Great Republic and Talisman both started to sea bound for New York. A friend who went down to the Heads in one of the vessels, described the appearance of the ships as magnificent, covered as every mast and spar was by a cloud of canvas, and dashing away to the southward under a fine sailing breeze. As both are fast vessels and commanded by able and experienced captains we may look for some 'tall going' and short time between this port and New York.

The Talisman won the race around the Horn to New York arriving there on May 18th with a run of 96 days. The Great Republic arrived four days later with a 100-day run.

On her next voyage, the Great Republic was towed out from pier 36 on the East River and sailed again from Sandy Hook for San Francisco on November 23, 1859.

The Ocean Telegraph, an extreme clipper launched out of the Medford shipyard of J. O. Curtis on March 29, 1854, sailed the following day under the command of Captain Little on her sixth voyage around the Horn.

The Ocean Telegraph was a very sharp clipper said to be one of the most perfect ships ever built as no expense was spared to make her so. She was 227 x 40 x 23 feet, 1495 tons, American, old measurement, and had much of the appearance of a pilot boat. The bow of this clipper raked boldly forward with a graceful flare and her figurehead was a carved figure of a beautiful woman surrounded by forks of lightning. A figure of Neptune surrounded by ornamental carved work graced her stern.

Both clippers piled on sail for the race around the Horn. The Great Republic ran into a series of calms and light winds from the Platte which slowed her down for several days and she did not reach Cape Horn until the 51st day. The Ocean Telegraph arrived at Cape Horn 55 days out and caught up with the Great Republic on the way into the Pacific. The Ocean Telegraph overtook her rival in the race up the Pacific to the Golden Gate in 109 days and entered the harbor on the same day as the Great Republic with a 110-day voyage, beating the Great Republic by a day.

The Great Republic returned to New York in ballast in 98 days. The Ocean Telegraph returned to New York in ballast as well.

The Great Republic sailed on October 24, 1860, on her next voyage around the Horn to the Golden Gate, arriving there in 104 days on February 6, 1861. This time, she loaded up with one of the first cargoes of California grain and made the run around the Horn to Liverpool in 96 days.

From Liverpool, the Great Republic sailed to New York and was there at an East River pier at the outbreak of the Civil War. The surveyor of the port soon seized the Great Republic as rebel property for it was discovered that Southerners owned a majority share of her. A. A. Low & Brother, who owned the minority shares, immediately purchased the rest of her shares.

The United States Government then chartered the Great Republic to be used as a transport and she made a round voyage to Port Royal.

She then joined the Butler expedition transporting troops to Ship Island in February 1862 arriving there during a gale. Where she swung foul of the Idaho, another transport, and both ships ran ashore. The Great Republic was hauled off undamaged.

Two weeks later, the Great Republic was at the mouth of the Mississippi River with coal in her hold and in service to the Southern Squadron, when she broke adrift in a gale and went ashore again and was again hauled off undamaged. After the second beaching it was deemed that the Great Republic was too large to be of useful service to the Union cause. The Great Republic returned to New York in June at the end of her charter and resumed her trade on the California run on what was to be Captain Limeburner's last voyage.

The Great Republic sailed from New York on November 24, 1862, and crossed the line in 23 days and was 50 days to 50° South, and 12 days later crossed 50° South on the Pacific side of the Horn. She crossed the line at 117° on February 16, 1863.

The Great Republic was 96 days out on March 1, 1863 and 577 miles from the Golden Gate when she ran into unfavorable weather and arrived at San Francisco with a very fine passage of 102 days.

The Great Republic then made a 43-day voyage to Callao and loaded guano at the Chincha Islands and proceeded on to London, unloaded her detestable cargo and sailed for New York.

The Great Republic sailed from New York, now under the command of Captain Josiah Paul, on her last voyage around the Horn to San Francisco on October 24, 1864, and made the run in 114 days with an inefficient and insubordinate crew.

She returned around the Horn to New York in 120 days. Upon her arrival at the East River docks in 1865, the Great Republic was laid up for over a year, where she attracted much attention from foreign visitors.

The Great Republic made a 14-day run from St. John to Liverpool in 1868.

In January 1869, A. A. Low & Brothers sold the Great Republic for £3500 to the Merchants Trading Company of Liverpool, who renamed her Denmark, and she entered into the East India Trade and hauled diversified cargoes in that trade for several years.

In 1872 the Denmark sailed in ballast from Rio for St. John, New Brunswick. There, she took on a load of lumber to haul to Liverpool.

She ran into a hurricane on March 2, 1872, in 32° North, and sprang a leak at a place in her hull that had been repaired before because of a leaky condition. Water filled the hold so fast that the two double-action pumps were unable to handle the situation and the captain gave the order to lower the boats and abandon ship. The Denmark went down and all hands safely reached Bermuda.

The Great Republic, the largest clipper ship that the world had ever seen, sank beneath the waves to the bottom of the sea.

The Era of the Clipper Ships
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