The year 1858 began with the medium clipper Dashing Wave departing Boston on January 1st for a 107-day voyage around the Horn to San Francisco arriving on April 18th. The Richard Busteed and Black Prince chased after her from Boston, and the Twilight, Lookout, Chariot of Fame, Ocean Express, Andrew Jackson, Edwin Forrest, Edwin Flye, and Golden Eagle joined the race from New York over the month of January 1858.

Only the Twilight beat the Dashing Wave to the Golden Gate, arriving there in 100 days, 20 hours, on April 16th. Thus proving to the world that a medium clipper was capable of sailing as fast as an extreme clipper.

So was the other medium clipper out of Mystic, the Andrew Jackson. She also made a very fine run of 102 days and sailed again that year on another Cape Horn Voyage to San Francisco on December 23, 1858, and reached the Golden Gate in 103 days on April 5, 1859. Out of the 97 California clipper voyages that took place in 1858, these were the four fastest and the Andrew Jackson had the remarkable distinction of making two of these voyages beating scores of extreme clippers around the Horn.

The John Gilpin departed Honolulu loaded down with 7500 barrels of whale oil carrying 15 passengers bound for a voyage back around Cape Horn to New Bedford. After rounding Cape Horn, she struck a submerged iceberg in the middle of the night.

The next day, Captain John F. Ropes, to the consternation of some of the crew, ordered them to abandon ship. As the crew and passengers made haste to depart, a fallen lamp it is thought set fire to the ship and she went down. The British ship Hertfordshire bound for Cork from Callao rescued all hands.

Back at New York some of the crew brought charges against their captain whom they felt could have reached the Falkland Islands that were 150-miles away if her captain had called for such an action as well as sounded the pumps earlier in the day.

The entire 22 member crew, three mates and captain aboard the John Milton, a medium clipper, were not so lucky when on the morning of February 20, 1858, after enduring a night of terrible winter storms, the John Milton struck a rock off Montauk, Long Island, and came apart. An eye witness first upon the scene captured the tragic moment with this report:

I was one of the first on the spot. The shore looked like a wrecked shipyard. But for the breakers you could have walked for yards on broken masts, spars and timbers. There was the mainmast, four feet through, snapped off like a pipe stem. Every plank was made into kindling wood and every timber torn out of her. Only a part of the bow was left tossing and crunching on the rock where she struck, being held there by the attached anchors. The bodies of the crew, all frozen stiff, were on the beach, some covered with snow or thrusting up a hand or arm above the drift. One negro must have come ashore alive for he had dragged himself some distance up the sand but had soon frozen. The ship's log book came ashore, also some trinkets and furniture, but that was all.

On February 13, 1858 the Webb extreme clipper Flying Dutchman piled up on Brigantine Beach, New Jersey on the last leg of her voyage around the Horn from San Francisco with a $150,000 cargo of wheat and hides in her hold and was a total loss.

On March 5, 1858 the medium clipper Wild Wave was sailing in ballast from San Francisco to Valparaiso under the command of Captain Josiah N. Knowles. A crew of 30 and ten passengers were aboard along with two strong boxes that held $18,000 in gold coin.

The Wild Wave struck a coral reef at 1 a.m. in latitude 24° S., longitude 131°, and swiftly broke up going down in a matter of minutes. The crew and passengers took to the boats and made it ashore at the Oeno atoll two miles away. Captain Knowles then checked his chart that he had salvaged from his sinking ship and tried to deduce just what had happened and why. He soon discovered that the true position of the reef and the island were not correctly located on the chart which had them falsely located 20 miles away, a most serious mistake, in Knowles eyes, made by a government hydrographer. In his diary Knowles wrote: "What a host of troubles that blunder of 'somebody's' had made for me."

The following is a condensed account of this incident from the diary of Captain Knowles that is taken from American Clipper Ships and is presented here for it is a most fascinating tale of survival and the sea.

At one o'clock in the morning of Mar. 5, 1858, the Wild Wave was 24 days out from San Francisco and making 13 knots when the lookout reported breakers under the lee bow. In attempting to go about, she mis-stayed, and wearing, struck the coral reef. In five minutes she had bilged and was full of water, the sea breaking all over her, even stripping off the copper and casting the sheets on deck. Daybreak showed that she had struck on the smoothest part of the reef; otherwise, all hands would have been lost. A landing was made on the low, brush-covered strip of sand about a half mile in circumference which constituted the island, and some provisions and sails, as well as the live stock on board, were gotten ashore. Tents were erected; sea birds and eggs were found in abundance; fish were plentiful and water was obtained by digging. It was determined to rig one of the boats and make the 80 mile trip to Pitcairn Island, which was supposed to be inhabited. A heavy surf prevailed until the 13th, when Captain Knowles, mate Bartlett, and five men, with the treasure, were able to get to sea. The second mate was instructed to also proceed to Pitcairn in case assistance had not reached his party within four weeks. After an exhausting trip of three days and a very narrow escape from being swamped and all hands drowned, the party was able to effect a landing on Pitcairn, although they could not reach Bounty Bay. No inhabitants were seen and a search of the houses resulted in the finding of various notices stating that all the residents had moved to Norfolk Island, distant about 3300 miles, west by south. Plenty of fruit, such as oranges, bananas, coconuts and breadfruit were found, as also sheep, goats bullocks and chickens. The treasure was landed and buried. A day or two after reaching the island, the boat was stove and finally demolished by the heavy surf. With some axes and a few other tools found in the houses, the construction of a small schooner was begun. Trees were felled but as no saw could be found, all planks and timbers had to be hewn. Some of the small houses were burned to obtain metal and nails, but they were forced to make and use many wooden pegs. After an immense amount of labor, the material was assembled and on Apr. 29th the keel of their vessel was laid. They picked oakum from old pieces of rope and with an improvised walk, made some 45 fathoms of cordage. On June 4th, the hull was finished. It was 30 feet long, eight feet beam and four feet deep. A small pump was rigged; an old anvil served for an anchor and a copper kettle was made to do duty as a stove. An ensign was made from the red hangings of the church pulpit, an old white shirt and a blue overalls. On July 23rd the launching took place, the boat being christened John Adams, after one of the original settlers of the island. She was laden with a supply of fruit, chickens and goat meat; and soon after noon, June 4th, she set sail for Tahiti under jib, foresail and mainsail, with the treasure also on board. Three men, preferring to remain on the island, were left behind. The wind was ahead for Tahiti and soon developed into a gale, so a course was made for the Marquesas Islands, via Oeno. Contrary winds prevented their being able to pass close to the later island.

After being at sea for 11 days, during all of which time everybody suffered greatly from seasickness, they made the island of Ohitahoo, one of the Marquesas, but learning that there were no Europeans at Resolution Bay, and the natives appearing very savage and warlike, they refused pressing invitations to anchor and pressed on for Nukahiva. This island was reached Aug. 4th and to their great surprise but intense delight, they found there the United States sloop of war Vandalia, Captain Sinclair. Captain Knowles sold his boat to a missionary for $250 and later on the same day, the Vandalia got under way for Tahiti, arriving there six days later with the castaways on board. The following day she left for Oeno, with mate Bartlett, and in due time the castaways there were rescued. It was found that they had built a boat out of material obtained from the wreck but it proved to be so large that all their efforts to effect its launch were unsuccessful. One of the party had died on the island. From Oeno, the Vandalia proceeded to Pitcairn and picked up the three men who had chosen to remain there.

At Tahiti, Captain Knowles accepted the invitation of the commander of the French sloop of war Eurydice which was about leaving for Honolulu and after a pleasant voyage of 16 days he was duly landed at that port. He reached San Francisco in the bark Yankee on Sept. 27, 1858, 11 days from Honolulu, and was greeted by his friends as one risen from the dead. By the first Panama steamer, which was the Golden Gate, he proceeded to his home in Brewster, Mass.

Captain Knowles arrived at Brewster on October 31, 1858, for his long anticipated reunion with his wife and young daughter who had been born three months before. Knowles noted in his diary:

Found my wife in a feeble state of health, but the baby well and hearty. . . . The meeting with my family was quite affecting. Such a meeting seldom takes place. Everyone had long since given me up as lost. I was indeed glad to be at home and at rest.

Unfortunately, Knowles' young wife died soon after his return. Knowles arranged for his young daughter Nellie to be taken care of by her uncle and aunt, Andrew and Olivia Sears Nickerson, and returned to sea in 1859. Where he sought solace and took command of the Expounder, a 1,176 ton medium clipper built by Joshua Magoun that was launched at Charlestown in April 1856, a few months after Donald McKay's medium clipper Defender was launched.

The Defender was named after Daniel Webster as the "Defender of the Constitution and Expounder of the same." That was the origin of the Expounder's name and the ship became known for her great carrying capacity rather than for speed and was owned by Paul Sears of Boston.

Captain Knowles took the Expounder from Boston around the Horn to San Francisco in 140 days arriving there on March 13, 1860. In the following years, he made a second voyage around the Horn and engaged his ship in the general trades into the early 1860s, while keeping a sharp eye out at all times for Confederate commerce raiders.

Early in 1863, Knowles left the Expounder to take command of the 1,169-ton medium clipper Charger that had been launched on October 25, 1856, from the Portsmouth, N. H. shipyard of E. G. Pearce.

The Charger was said to be a handsome ship with a billet substituting for a figurehead, but a carved mounted charger in full career ornamented her stern. On her maiden voyage on January 4, 1857, the Charger, owned by Henry Hastings of Boston, was towed in company with the Stag Hound down the Bay out of Boston Harbor by the tug Enoch Train.

The Charger made a 124-day passage around the Horn and upon arrival found the Stag Hound there having arrived 16 days earlier. The Charger engaged in general trade around the world and when Captain Knowles took command of her in Boston, he took her for a 125-day voyage around the Horn to San Francisco and made a return voyage to Boston in 107 days.

On January 28, 1864, Captain Knowles sailed from Boston for another run around the Horn, this time with a very fast voyage of 108 days and returned to Boston with a 99-day run on November 8, 1864.

Captain Knowles then wed his first-cousin, Mary Eaton, a young woman from a seafaring family from New Bedford, Massachusetts, after an extensive courtship. She accompanied her husband over the next several California voyages before going ashore at New Bedford for a time.

Captain Knowles went on to command the full-rigged ship Kentuckian which he sailed to Italy. Mary Knowles gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, Harry and Mattie, and another daughter was born two years later and named after Mary, and she and the children remained with family in New Bedford while Captain Knowles was at sea.

In April, 1871, while at Liverpool after just completing a passage in command of the Kentuckian from New Orleans to that city, Captain received a cable from Joseph Henry Sears in Boston instructing him that he had just been offered the command of the Glory of the Seas.

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The first transcontinental stagecoach arrived in San Francisco from St. Louis on October 10, 1858, after an overland journey of 23 days, 23 1/2 hours, and was greeted with as much excitement as a record breaking clipper ship's arrival. This event signaled the changing attitudes of the people as the focus began to shift toward closing the vast expanse of the West and linking it up with the East.

The Era of the Clipper Ships
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