The Glory of the Seas

As Richard C. McKay mentioned, Donald Mckay built four Naval vessels over the course of the hostilities during the Civil War. The first was the U.S. Steamer Trefoil. Richard C. McKay states that "Her dimensions were-length 145 feet, 7 inches; beam 23 feet, 9 inches; depth 11 feet, 2 inches. Tonnage, 370." The government purchased the Trefoil on February 4, 1865 for $118,070.

The next vessel constructed was the U.S. Steamer Yucca that was of similar dimensions to the Trefoil and sold to the government for around the same amount of money. Both vessels served on Gulf Station for the duration of the Civil War.

The Nausett was an ironclad monitor built by contract in 1864, completed and delivered on July 18, 1865, too late to participate in the Civil War.

Early in 1865, Donald McKay built the iron side wheel steamer Ashuelot and on November 30, 1865, delivered this vessel of 1030 tons to the Boston Navy Yard. On April 4th the following year, the Ashuelot was placed in commission under Commander John C. Febiger. This vessel saw many years of active service from 1866 to 1883 in the Asiatic Squadron.

Throughout the construction of all four vessels, the navy insisted on numerous alterations that slowed down the progress on all four vessels quite a bit and these delays greatly added to their expense. Coal and iron prices shot up 300 percent in the Boston area over the war years. The fine print in the contract hurriedly drawn up in a time of war left much to be desired from the point of the Boston area shipbuilders who had considered it to be their patriotic duty to help the Union cause it any way they could. Because of the delays, none of the vessels saw extended duty in the Civil War.

While tallying up the final expenses incurred over those years, Donald McKay concluded that because of all the alterations insisted upon by the government and delays that had occurred over that troubled period, that he had been drastically underpaid as had other Boston area shipbuilders around that time.

Donald McKay unfortunately never saw reimbursement for these cost overruns in his lifetime and this added to his economic woes. It took many years of determination and legal wrangling to settle the "McKay Claims," which was mostly carried on by Nathaniel McKay for the next 32 years. The essence of the case was summed up in the Boston Advertiser in the February 10, 1888 edition that follows.

Washington, Feb. 10, 1888.-The Donald McKay Claim Bill was passed by the very last stage by the House this afternoon, after a long and rather exciting debate, the great feature of which was Sunset Cox’s punishment of Springer for his mulishness and silliness. The McKay bill involves several hundred thousand dollars, claimed by Boston contractors on warships built during the war. The contracts were made after the first encounter of the Monitor and the Merrimac, and the contract was a curious one, so strange as to make one smile. It provided that any changes made necessary by the altered methods of fighting should be made, and if at any time the contractor did not wish to finish the work, the government could go on and do it.

There were numerous delays and changes amounting in the five cases, of which the McKay contracts were two, to some millions. Coal and iron went up, in some cases, 300 percent. The price of cruisers was settled, including the extra marerial, but not for the appreciation of material caused by delay. The Supreme Court on appeal later said it was not legal to allow for the raise, intimated very plainly that the McKays and had a very good claim and the case was good in equity. Senator Hoar has had charge of the case from the first. He has written several reports on it and has urged it strongly, having passed it through the Senate before and on this occasion.

President Cleveland called the bill "a raid on the treasury." Apparently, he had listened to Representative Springer of Illinois who thought that if the President signed the bill that it would offend the "loyal South." Even though the Secretary of the Navy Whitney urged the signing of the legislation, President Cleveland vetoed the Donald McKay bill. The raid on the treasury claim was unfounded for the bill only referred the claim of the Mckays and other claimants to the Court of Claims.

Nathaniel McKay would go on for years to press his claim and after many years of "walking the marble halls of Congress" the McKay claims were adjudicated. Unfortunately, the lawyers and politicians took the lion’s share of the settlement monies that amounted to around 300,000 dollars.

Nathaniel McKay’s experience of walking the marble halls of Congress, however, laid the foundation for a very successful career as a prominent lobbyist in Washington for the banking and railroad interests. During this latter career, he played an important part in the effort to prevent Grover Cleveland from succeeding himself as President.

The Glory of the Seas

The half dozen Confederate Raiders wrecked havoc on the decimated Union Merchant Marine right up to the end of the Civil War. When the smoke had cleared, it was determined by final tally that the Raiders had torched and sunk 150 Yankee vessels, including 14 clipper ships and forced most of the rest of the clipper fleet to seek refuge in the safe harbors of the world. Insurance rates had shot up and forced desperate ship owners to sell off their clippers at distress prices to foreign owners. Other clippers were sunk or rotted away.

Little remained of the American Merchant Marine in the war’s aftermath and foreigners by then pretty much owned the steadily dwindling clipper fleet. In 1865, the British reclaimed their position as Mistress of the Seas by exceeding America tonnage by 1 1/2 million tons.

Steamships would continue to dominate the North Atlantic trade as well as the trade to Panama. The new twin screw propeller made the steamers much faster and now they were capable of crossing from New York to Liverpool in 10 days.

The age of sail, however, did go on and adjusted swiftly to the new conditions with Maine now picking up the lion’s share of the shipbuilding trade. Lumber was cheaper in Maine. So was copper and iron. Everything else was cheaper too, including labor prices.

The California market now called for lofty down-easters, large sturdy ships with great carrying capacity. California was by that time a major breadbasket of the world and after a down-easter delivered a mixed cargo to the Golden Gate she could take a grain cargo back around Cape Horn to American or European ports.

Bath, Maine took the forefront as the center of wooden shipbuilding activities and the ship repair trade stayed at Boston and New York.

*****

In 1866, Donald McKay was fortunate in that he was able to secure a contract to build two 170-foot wooden steamers; the George P. Upton and the Theodore D. Wagner for the Boston and Charlestown Line. For the first time in seven years, he made a profit from his yard.

The 120-foot brig North Star was built there in 1867 and work then began on the Helen Morris, a medium clipper built on spec that was actually more along the lines of a full-model ship

By that same year, Donald McKay was already diversifying his business activities that now included the manufacture of locomotive engines, tenders, marine engines, and other machinery. As well as wooden and iron steam ships. The McKay and Aldus Iron Works now took up a quarter of his 406 Border Street yard and they also leased a property down the street for their purposes. The McKay shipyard and the McKay and Aldus Iron Works were, however, completely separate firms.

Nathaniel McKay and George Aldus were quite involved with this venture. There, they built locomotive engines for the Eastern and Fitchburg railroads, and for the Central Pacific Railroad in California they built special heavy mountain locomotive engines with such glorious names as Peoquop, Favorite, and Gold Run; one of which was the first to cross the Rocky Mountains. But alas, as mighty as these magnificent engines were, their builders could not escape the fiscal ravishes of the times.

Donald McKay's world was rapidly changing. Steamers now carried the lion's share of the Atlantic passenger and cargo trades and the Suez Canal would be completed soon in 1870. The race between the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific was on and soon a railroad would run from the East all the way to California.

Donald McKay saw that there was a demand for a large grain carrying medium clipper capable of transporting the bountiful grain shipments from San Francisco around Cape Horn to European and American ports. Donald McKay was the only Boston shipbuilder by that time who could compete with the Maine shipyards because of the time saving advantages that his saws and other machinery provided him at his yard.

In the late night hours Donald McKay still dreamed of lofty clippers forever searching for his ideal, but now carrying capacity had to enter the equation in a practical way.

Donald McKay was fortunate to find a New York buyer for the Helen Morris and sold her for $97,000 in March 1868 while still on the stocks. Later on that summer, McKay had taken up the building of the new Sovereign of the Seas, a 1,503-ton full-bodied ship built for the Cape Horn run and completed the sale on January 11,1869 to Lawrence Giles and Company of New York. But the bills by that time ate up the lion's share of his profits.

The McKay and Aldus Iron Works around that time went under because of past due bills and Nathaniel McKay and George Aldus were left to fend for themselves.

For Donald McKay much now depended upon the maiden passages of the Helen Morris and second Sovereign of the Seas as far as promoting future clipper efforts was concerned.

The new Sovereign of the Seas sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco and the Helen Morris sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to Rangoon.

Donald McKay had designed these two ships as large grain carriers, but perhaps this time around he had misjudged the sailing capacities of these fuller-bodied clippers that he had designed specifically for the Cape Horn run.

Unfortunately, both clippers turned out to be slow with the Sovereign of the Seas taking all of 147-days to reach the Golden Gate and this would have a negative effect upon his financial endeavors with the raising of capital to build the Glory of the Seas. For no one was willing to buy such an expensive ship unless they knew for sure that it was also a fast sailing ship.

McKay was in a quandary but determined to see the venture through as a way to recoup his losses. The only thing that he had left was his reputation, but he could still purchase wood, fastenings, and other equipment for the Glory of the Seas on credit. He put up all the machinery of the now defunct McKay and Aldus Iron Works as collateral for a loan that would finance the laying of the keel. It was the beginning of a costly project for Donald McKay and the work on the Glory of the Seas began at his East Boston shipyard before the word of the Sovereign of the Seas' slow 147-day passage arrived.

The Helen Morris took 205 days to sail from Rangoon, Burma to Liverpool and word of this slow passage arrived around the same time. The building of two slow ships in a row took a toll on his reputation and soon Donald McKay realized that finding a buyer for the Glory of the Seas while on the stocks would be a hard sell indeed.

Still, he was determined that the Glory of the Seas would live up to his high expectations and he took a special interest to design and build her as well as he could to prove to the world that he had not lost his touch as a shipbuilder. This was the largest square-rigged ship to be built in the Boston area over the past ten years and second only to the Maine down-easter Norway in the way of tonnage.

Donald McKay was fortunate indeed to have such a loyal band of tradesmen willing to put in 54-hour weeks, as well as the money to pay their wages, and the Glory of the Seas rose steadily in the stocks with Donald McKay supervising every aspect of her construction.

That summer, Donald McKay also built the 88-foot two-masted schooner Frank Atwood. Upon this schooner's launching, Donald McKay turned his full attention to every detail with the building of the Glory.

For the figurehead, he hired the shipcarver Herbert Gleason whose father had carved the figureheads of many a McKay clipper in the early days of the era of the clipper ships.

The figurehead theme of a classical Greek goddess was chosen, adorned in flowing Grecian draperies, whose eyes scanned the vast seas ahead. Ornate carvings ran throughout the ship, and were meant to entice the public and make for good newspaper copy. Just like such copy had excited readers in the past after earlier clipper launchings, and Donald McKay played his role to the hilt like in the old days, with elaborate descriptions of how outstanding the Glory of the Seas was to a marine reporter from the Boston Traveler. Donald McKay had high hopes that publicity would lead to her sale so that he could make his profit and get out of debt.

A few days prior to her launching, the following article appeared in the Boston Traveler.

This is a magnificent vessel of 2,102 tons register, with capacity to carry double that amount of California freight. She has three decks, with all her accommodations on the upper deck, and is of a splendid model to carry and sail. Her bow has a bold, dashy rake, with lightly concave lines below, but convex above, and terminates in a full female classical figure, with flowing drapery. The stern is curvilinear, finely formed, and the run is long and clean, and sets gracefully into the fullness of the hull. The stern is tastefully ornamented with gilded carved work on a black ground. . . . She is 250 feet long, on the line of the wales, between perpendiculars, and 265 feet from the knightheads to the taffrail; has 44 feet breadth of beam, 28 feet, six inches depth of hold, with three full decks, including eight feet, two inches height between each deck; has eight and one-half inches dead rise at half floor, and seven feet sheer, which is graduated her whole length. . . . In all the details of her construction and equipment she is as nearly perfect as a ship need be.

A large crowd gathered for the Thursday, October 21, 1869 launching of the Glory of the Seas and at noon upon Donald McKay's command the last shores and spurs were knocked away and the Glory began her slow short journey to the sea. His daughter Francis shouted out "I christen thee Glory of the Seas" and smashed the traditional bottle against her bow as the giant clipper glided on down the ways, with flags and streamers flying, into Boston Harbor.

The launch was a success with all going well so far in the grand scheme of things in Donald McKay's eye and for the moment he breathed a sigh of relief. Surrounded by his wife, Mary, and their children, he relished the moment amongst the gathered dignitaries, friends, and the general public that was by then heading for the gates.

The Glory of the Seas was now in the water for all the world to see and he was proud of his latest creation in his never ending quest for a ship that would live up to his dream of the ideal clipper. Indeed, she was a beautiful ship, her figurehead bestowing upon her a certain majestic dignity and grace with her flags and streamers blowing in the wind.

Donald McKay watched her bobbing in the afternoon swells; soon to be towed to a fitting-out dock. He was placing high hopes that the Glory of the Seas would be instrumental in reversing his fortunes as of late, but his struggle to these ends had taken a precarious turn. For impatient creditors now clamored for full payment and no buyers appeared on his immediate horizon that would pay his asking price of $190,000 for the ship.

For still fresh in people's minds were the recent slow passages of the Helen Morris and the Sovereign of the Seas; and the recent lively accounts in the Boston Traveler had not worked like they had in earlier days to his advantage. Bankruptcy loomed on the horizon now and it was likely that he would have to prove the sailing qualities of the Glory of the Seas in a passage around Cape Horn to San Francisco in order to make the sale.

There was still, of course, the possibility of selling her in New York if he could get his price. And to get the chance to do that he would have to mortgage his ship in order to satisfy his creditors in the meantime. On November 25, 1869, Donald McKay mortgaged the Glory of the Seas to Daniel R. Sortwell, a prominent Cambridge distiller, for $100,000.

By that time, the Glory of the Seas had been fully rigged over at the old Grand Junction Wharf by the chief ship rigger Albert Low and his gang of methodical workers. Over a three week period, the masts, yards, and miles of running rigging went aloft with all the other miscellaneous gear and made ready too support the vast canopy of sail that was to come in due time.

Her main mast was 20 feet higher than the average full-rigged ship. Her lower masts were heavy and able to staunchly support studding sails as high as t'gallants on her fore and mainmasts. The Glory of the Seas was finely tuned to meet the fierce westerly winds that she would encounter in the stormy seas off Cape Horn.

As soon as the Glory of the Seas was granted her A-1 rating, Donald McKay had her towed over to his shipyard. He then chartered her to New York merchants Sutton and Company to ship a general cargo to San Francisco. Donald McKay decided to accompany the Glory of the Seas to New York with the hopes of finding a buyer for her there like he had for so many of his ships in the past.

On the morning of November 26th, the steamer George B. Upton arrived to tow the Glory of the Seas to New York. The George B. Upton had been built in that same shipyard three years before and now towed the Glory of the Seas out past Boston Light.

Donald McKay's house flag of a blue bald eagle with outstretched wings within a circle on a white background flew from the mainmast head and fluttered in the northerly wind.

The Steamer and clipper in tow rounded Cape Cod and continued down the Massachusetts coast and then the fog rolled in as they were passing through Nantucket Sound to the north of Martha's Vineyard. Lost in the fog, the mighty clipper ran up on the Squash Meadow Shoals in the low tide and had to wait for high water to get free.

Unscathed, the towing continued to New York, where the George B. Upton and the Glory of the Seas arrived on Monday, November 28th, at Pier 19 in the East River.

The Glory's arrival caught the interest of everyone along the South Street wharves. For her Greek goddess figurehead at the prow of the ship drew attention to her, and the ornate gilded scrollwork along her bow and stern now and then caught the glitter of the November sun.

The first thing Donald McKay did upon arrival was to get ship cards printed up that told of the Glory's upcoming voyage and that she was loading cargo for Sutton's Dispatch Line of California Clippers. McKay hoped that perhaps the cards would attract a buyer and ship cards were the most expedient way to get the word out and was the common practice of the day.

Donald McKay's financial problems had accompanied him to New York and he was keen on finding a buyer in this city where he had begun his shipbuilding career so many years ago. Unfortunately, the winds of fate did not blow favorably for him now.

Captain Baxter soon quit the ship and Donald McKay had to find another captain to take his place as sailing master of the ship. For Donald McKay had chosen the position of captain on this voyage for himself.

Captain John Giet was chosen for this position, a wise choice, for Giet was the former hard-driving captain of the Whirlwind, a 960-ton extreme clipper that had been built at the James O. Curtis shipyard in Medford, Massachusetts, and launched on September 13, 1852.

Giet had taken command of the Whirlwind for her second voyage and for over five years the "Goddess of the Winds" figurehead of the goddess extending a lighted torch with her left hand, guided her hard-driving captain on many swift voyages. Primarily to San Francisco, Australia, and all over the Orient, East Indies, and India. Giet was credited with the second fastest passage from Melbourne to New York of 72 days, one day longer that the celebrated passage of the Mandarin.

Donald McKay needed a captain from the old school, a sailing master capable of helping him get a fast passage around the Horn and was sure that Captain Giet could fill the bill. For it was now apparent that nothing less than a spectacular passage of the Glory around the Horn could save him from bankruptcy as his creditors now forced him to mortgage the Glory still further as well as put up his shipyard, lumber, and tools, and all his other real estate holdings as collateral.

The strains and anguish of the past few years had taken a toll on Donald McKay. He was by then a weary man and perhaps a voyage before the mast just might return him to health, another reason why he had decided to accompany the Glory on her maiden voyage to San Francisco and seek a buyer there.

Better yet, he would publicize the fact that he would be officially in command of the Glory, for this would indeed make for good newspaper copy. Always the wheels were turning in his mind with fine-tuning the evolving plans as he sought the sale of his ship. Donald McKay was named master in certain documents filed at that time with the New York Customhouse in regards to her inter-coastal voyage to San Francisco.

On February 13, 1870, a steamer came alongside with the turning of the tide and towed the Glory of the Seas down the East River. Donald McKay and Sailing Master Giet would soon call upon the goddess of the winds as well as Aeolus' lucky bag to help them just as soon as the steamer dropped them off out past Sandy Hook.

The Glory was free at last and Sailing Master Giet commanded his crew to "make all sail," for he had let them all know what was expected of his crew right from the beginning. That, upon Donald McKay's instructions, the Glory of the Seas was to be sailed like a gold rush clipper.

Soon, studding sails were set along with other sails in high places and filled the sky with canvas in the light weather they were experiencing early on the voyage in order to catch every puff of wind, as the lofty clipper took a general course to the east-southeast. She was bound for the mid-Atlantic where the Glory of the Seas picked up the northeast trade winds that would carry the giant clipper to the line. She crossed in 24 days, good time considering the light winds they encountered, averaging 161 miles a day.

Southeast trade winds blew for the next 30 days as the Glory sailed on down the South Atlantic and she crossed latitude 50° S on April 9, 1870, having left Sandy Hook 54-days, 12-hours earlier.

Two days later, the Glory was close to the Le Maire Straits, less than ten miles off to the north-north-east, when strong westerly winds picked up making the passage through the narrow straits too dangerous and the Glory was forced to seek an alternate passage around Staten Island, where the giant clipper encountered a series of fierce westerly gales that blew off Cape Horn for the next few days as the Glory fought her way against the savage onslaught of raging seas with waves running up to 50 feet high.

The fury of the winds stirred up the wave crests to a seething cauldron. Still, the Glory ran against the wind under shortened sail and held her course straight into the screaming westerly gale force winds with giant seas crashing down on them; one of them with such force that it twisted the rudder head and broke the arms of her patent steering screw. The crew quickly rigged the preventer tiller to save the day.

The Glory continued to fight her way around Cape Horn and crossed latitude 50° S, longitude 78° 30'W in the Pacific on April 24th. 15-days, 12-hours from latitude 50° S in the Atlantic, unfortunately less than stellar time.

The Glory charted a northerly course and the southeast trades eventually caught up with her and filled her sails all the way to the equator and she crossed the line on May 17, 1870, 93 days out from New York. Luckily, she caught some moderate southerly winds to get her out of the doldrums and up to higher latitudes, where the northeast trade winds tapered off and light winds prevailed over the remainder of the maiden voyage of the Glory of the Seas and she arrived through the Golden Gate on June 13, 1870, 120 days from Sandy Hook.

This was the fastest passage of any clipper over that month and the Glory had beaten the Sea Serpent that had sailed from New York around that same time, by 15 days.

Along the waterfront, the Glory of the Seas drew crowds who came to marvel at the latest McKay clipper to arrive, just like they had in the old days. The Greek goddess figurehead made a favorable impression among the crowds of San Francisco just like she had in New York. The California sun certainly caught the glitter of her scrollwork along her bow and stern. The San Francisco Bulletin soon ran the following account:

THE GLORY OF THE SEAS

A SPLENDID SHIP IN PORT

On Monday last the clipper ship the Glory of the Seas - one of the finest specimens of naval architecture afloat - entered this port under command of Donald McKay, the well-known shipbuilder of East Boston, Mass. The name of this gentleman is familiar as a household word in nearly every American and English port of commerce - the vessels launched from his shipyard plow the seas wherever the white flag of commerce is known, and have earned a brilliant reputation among nautical men. . . . She is lying at Cowell's Wharf where her cargo will be discharged.

What followed was the descriptive account that had run in the Boston newspapers that Donald McKay had helped to write and he had passed it on to the San Francisco newspaper to run. All this was done swiftly in an effort to publicize the Glory of the Seas and find a buyer for her.

But only a record-setting voyage could have saved the Glory this time around. For a day after her arrival, Donald McKay was informed that the Glory of the Seas had been sold out from under him 25 days before and that a bankruptcy suit had been filed against him for the previous three weeks.

All hopes of making a profit with the sale of the Glory were now gone for he was informed that he no longer legally owned her and that he was by then a quarter of a million dollars in debt. The sail maker, spar maker, rigger, chandler, grocer, and figurehead carver had yet to be paid. Donald McKay was now financially ruined and his creditors would try and force him to liquidate all his remaining assets back in Boston. It was a staggering personnel blow. His lawyers would have to sort it all out.

Fortunately, many of Donald McKay's former shipyard employees at that time lived in the San Francisco area and decided to honor him with a special banquet and try to lift his sagging spirits. This they accomplished as Donald McKay was genuinely touched by the warm tributes bestowed upon him that evening and he would remember that occasion for the rest of his days.

The Boston shipping firm of Howes and Crowell took over control of the ship and named Captain William Chatfield, former master of the Mayflower, as the new captain of the Glory of the Seas. Serious work soon began on getting the Glory shipshape to protect her precious grain cargo with the laying of dunnage boards in the cargo hold. This was to meet the stringent insurance requirements. 64,070 centals of grain were loaded aboard the Glory that her insurance underwriters valued at $125,780 and they made sure that the Glory was not overladen.

The Glory of the Seas sailed on Saturday, July 30th for Queenstown, Ireland with a 38-man crew, including the captain's own eighteen-year-old son William. Queenstown today is known as Cobh, Ireland.

The goddess of the winds this time around found the Glory and blew her along for a swift voyage of 112 days to Queenstown and she beat every clipper and down-easter that had sailed to Queenstown from San Francisco over the month of July; including the medium clippers Black hawk and Charger by one and two days respectively.

Captain Charfield sailed the Glory on to London and discharged her cargo of grain. Then the Glory sailed in ballast to Boston, arriving there on March 9, 1871 following a 37-day passage.

Donald McKay had returned to Boston that previous August following the departure of the Glory and held high hopes that his attorney could find a way to get her back by the time she returned to Boston following her maiden voyage. For the Glory could not be resold until he came to terms with Daniel Sortwell.

Donald McKay's lawyer convinced him that Sortwell had exceeded his power of attorney, but this proved to be a moot point and minor technicality. When all the lawyer wrangling and dust settled, Donald and Mary McKay quitclaimed any interest in the Glory of the Seas and disclaimed any interest in his shipyard on Border Street as the following legal passage will attest:

All the engines laths and other machinery and tools upon said wharf and land. . . . Also all the lumber, timber, steel standards, blocking, sliding ways, setways, iron, coal, tools, implements, grindstones, office furniture, pictures, and other personal property belonging to said McKay situated on the said land and wharf or in and about the buildings theron. . . .

All the debts were paid and Donald McKay was left with his family house on White's Hill. His shipyard was partially dismantled following the bankruptcy action and a shipyard in Maine ended up getting his steam bevel saw.

These proceedings took a heavy toll on Donald McKay, but as with earlier trials, he recovered and was soon busy with shipbuilding activities once again. In 1873 Donald McKay put in a successful bid and was awarded the contract to build the Sloop of War Adams at the Kittery Navy Yard, and the contract to have the Sloop of War Essex fitted out at the Boston Navy Yard. The particulars of which are summed up very well as the following passage from Some Famous Sailing Ships and Their Builder Donald McKay, by Richard C. McKay.

Representations to Congress of the decaying condition of the navy eventually resulted in a special act, approved February 10, 1873, authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to construct eight vessels of war, the aggregate tonnage of the whole not to exceed eight thousand tons, and the aggregate cost to be not more than $3,200,000. The act specified that four of the vessels, in whole or in part, should be built by the lowest responsible bidders in public competition. Another noteworthy provision of the act was that the ships were to be "steam vessels of war with auxiliary power." The cost limit was repeated in the naval appropriation passed the following month and placed in the appropriations for the bureau of construction, so it did not have to be used to pay for machinery, other appropriations providing for that.

Donald McKay successfully bid for the construction of two vessels under this act-and contracts for the Sloops of War Adams and Essex were awarded to him.

This time around, Donald McKay did not have to worry about the cost overruns that had plagued him and other Boston shipbuilders during the Civil War that unfortunately had been so instrumental in the downward spiral of his fortunes culminating with his sorry loss of the Glory of the Seas.

The winds of fate that time around had dealt him a blow from which he never really financially recovered and the building of the Glory with the idea of selling her for a profit had failed in the long run. The Glory of the Seas, would, however, bring him much honor in his lifetime.

The Glory of the Seas remained idle over the spring of 1871 while the legal wrangling was sorted out. The syndicate of creditors who had taken possession of the Glory then chose Joseph Henry Sears, of J. Henry Sears Company of Boston, to look after their interests. Sears did so along with other partners, Andrew Nickerson and George Briggs, and the Glory became the Sears company flagship.

Elisha Freeman Sears, Henry's younger brother, was placed in temporary command of the Glory and she sailed from Boston on April 18, 1871 for St. Johns, New Brunswick, and she arrived there in two days time. For the next three weeks, she loaded cargo and sailed on May 13th for Liverpool. Unfortunately, she ran aground on a sandbar before she could get out of the harbor and had to be pulled off by a tug whose owners claimed $5,000 in salvage money. Unscathed, she continued on her way to Liverpool, but the mishap ended all hopes of making a profit from the voyage. At Liverpool, Captain Josiah Nickerson Knowles came aboard and took command of the Glory and he would go on to sail her for many remarkable voyages until 1876.

In early 1874, the Glory made a 95-day passage from New York to San Francisco, the ninth fastest passage ever. For the next decade, she sailed between New York, San Francisco, Liverpool, and Australia, including a record 35-day passage from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia in 1875. The Glory of the Seas, under the command of Captain Josiah N. Knowles, lived up to all of Donald McKay's expectations as a fast sailing clipper and saved his reputation, but unfortunately not his fortune.

The Glory of the Seas would sail on for many years and there are many tales to tell, but they are best told in another truly wonderful book: Glory of the Seas, written by the noted maritime historian Michael Jay Mjelde. For this is his story to tell. I yield to Mjelde's expertise in this matter as Michael has been a good friend to me and to various members of the McKay family for many years. Mjelde eloquently captures the essence of the life of this remarkable clipper right up to her sad ending on a Puget Sound beach on May 13, 1923, where she was burned for her copper and iron. The Glory of the Seas ended her days as a funeral pyre on Endolyne Beach, five miles from Seattle.

The final resting place of the Glory of the Seas

Much has been made of the assumption that Donald McKay was not a good businessman, but this really isn't true and it is now time to dispel this myth that has somehow been brought forth by other historians, for nothing could be further from the truth.

He was a farsighted businessman who took chances with his hunches over his never ending quest to build a clipper ship that would live up to his high expectations. In designing and building other vessels he was a master as well. To him and his workers, it was all important to try and stay busy all the time. Donald McKay was honest and fair in all his business dealing and generous with his workers. He was a visionary often willing to risk his own capital with the high hopes that things would work out for him in the end just once people saw his latest creation of perfection upon the high seas and more often than not he was right.

He had survived the loss of his Great Republic, and gone on to build other lofty clippers long after other shipyards had closed their gates. Little did he know that it would be the fine print in a hurriedly drawn up government contract in a time of war that would bring about his downfall.

Yet for years historians have looked to other "faults" to explain his misfortunes.

One such "fault," if you can call it that, was that Donald McKay was devoted to his workers and their families and considered them all to be as one large family. Donald McKay was true to his roots, for he had begun his career as an apprentice shipyard worker in the shipyard of Isaac Webb and was loyal to his shipyard workers and his community for all of his days. He tried as hard as he could to keep his shipyard busy long after many of the other shipyards closed after the clipper ship boom years has turned to bust. Donald McKay even paid some worker's salaries during the lean years when there was no work for them to do just so their families would not fall on hard times. The responsibilities that he shouldered were tremendous and he had brought economic prosperity to East Boston for many years.

Still, there are some historian revisionists who belittle Donald McKay's compassion for his large family of shipyard workers and find fault with this generosity. Certainly, it was a steady drain upon his resources, but then Donald McKay always meant for his large extended family to share his prosperity in the good times as well as the bad and tried to keep his shipyard busy for as long as he could. He had always held high hopes of another gold discovery somewhere in the world and that would spur on another gold rush and the need for lofty clippers once again.

But now those days were behind him and Donald McKay chose to move on with his life. His work on the Sloops of War Adams and Essex would keep him busy for the next few years.

The Adams was built at the Boston Navy Yard and the Essex was built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine, and both vessels saw service for many years to come.

Donald McKay was fortunate in that he had a friend in Congress, General Butler, and the general had been instrumental in getting Donald McKay the contracts for building the Adams and Essex. While this work was still going on in other shipyards, General Butler had another project for Donald McKay; the repairing and refitting of the yacht America over the spring of 1875.

General Butler was a lawyer-soldier-politician who had bought the America at a government auction sale in 1873. The America had won the Queen's Cup in 1851 and was sold in England for $25,000 by Mr. John C. Stevens. The Confederate Government bought her a decade later and brought her back to the South, where she was sunk in a river to prevent Union troops from capturing her.

Instead, they raised and repaired the America and sailed her north to Boston Harbor, where she served as a tender to a government school ship. Her raisers claimed prize-money and the Secretary of the Navy ordered the America sold at a Government auction sale to General Butler, described as a picturesque character in American yachting, ". . . who was known to enjoy cruising up and down the Atlantic coast, usually with a host of friends, from Maine to Florida." As noted by Richard C. McKay.

For two years, General Butler had sailed the America and soon realized that if he was ever to compete successfully in yacht races, a major repairing and refitting of the America was called for, and Donald McKay was the man called upon to do it. This was a task much to Donald Mckay's liking for he admired the America and was genuinely interested in her, for the America had won the laurels and maritime glory just as his famous clipper ships had done.

Donald McKay readily agreed to "Modernize" her, and do the work at his shipyard on Border Street, or what was left of it. Over the spring, he retopped the America's deck and righted her masts. Many other changes were made, including the replacement of the tiller with a wheel. Besides the interior alterations, the cabins were rearranged and elaborately fitted in a grand manner to reflect the tastes of her owner, General Butler, who was well pleased with the America when the work was completed on June 15, 1875. General Butler went on to successfully compete with racing yachts for many years with the improvements made to the old schooner thanks to Donald McKay.

The final chapter of his shipbuilding career had drawn to a close. Donald McKay was said to be suffering from incipient consumption. He then closed his yard for good, sold his house, and moved his family to a farm in Hamilton, Massachusetts in 1877

There, he spent his final years trying to scratch out a living from the stubborn soil. There was nothing Donald McKay disliked more than the hoeing of potatoes, for that boring task had been instrumental in his early days in his desire to pursue a shipbuilding career and escape the drudgery of farm life, as it was with other members of his family.

The lure of family after his retirement drew him back to Nova Scotia for a visit around that time. The visit was noted by Marion Robertson of the Nova Scotia Historical Society:

About the time of his retirement Donald McKay returned to Nova Scotia to visit friends and relatives. Tales of his coming are still remembered. Dressed in his best, topped by a tall hat, he walked into the shop of a Shelburne merchant and asked, "Do you know who I am?" "Indeed I do. You're Donald McKay." He wanted to see the old town he remembered bristling with tall spars along the water front and a way to Jordan. One little girl was to remember all the days of her long life that she saw the great Donald McKay as he turned the corner of Dock Street into George and passed the doorstep where she sat with her playmate. In Jordan he went into the homes of his old friends and relatives. Into the laps of his long-remembered friends he tossed gold coins he drew from an old sock. Here the story varies. The old sock is stoutly refuted. Donald McKay carried his gold in a big leather bag!

The legend of Donald McKay lives on in Shelburne and Jordan Falls where he is honored by a pavilion in the middle of town, near the bridge that crosses the Jordan River below the dam as it enters the bay where Donald and Lauchlan McKay had sailed as youths so many years ago.

Donald McKay returned to Massachusetts and was resolved not to remain idle; determined to make a go of it as a farmer. Unfortunately, the exercise proved to be futile, as the sterile soil of the barren hills of eastern Massachusetts yielded little to show for the effort. Often, Donald McKay dropped down in his fields worn out and exhausted. Although it seems to have been more of a pride thing with him that he continued to work so hard when he should have slowed down to conserve his energies in his later years. He died of a paralytic stroke on September 20, 1880. Donald McKay was buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

The End

Support Our Site / Buy This Book

The Era of the Clipper Ships / Bibliography / Maritime Links / Home / McKay Clan / Ship's Store / Introduction / Tradewinds

Editorial Page / Maritime Book Review / Massachusetts Tradewinds Page / Maine Tradewinds Page / Tradewinds Around the World

Sovereign of the Seas 150th Anniversary / Hudson River Valley Tradewinds Page / Directory / Ship Model Page / Tradewinds of the West