Flying Cloud (clipper, 1851)

Type

Clipper

Period

19th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: Flying Cloud was an extreme clipper built in 1851 by Donald McKay of East Boston, Massachusetts, regarded as the most famous of McKay's designs and one of the fastest sailing ships ever built. She is renowned for setting the world record for the fastest New York-to-San Francisco passage, a mark that stood for over 135 years. Specifications: The ship measured 225 feet on deck (235 ft overall, 208 ft at the keel) with a 41-foot beam and about 21.5 feet depth of hold, registering around 1,782 tons under US measurement (1,098 NRT under later British measurement after her 1862 sale). She was a full-rigged, three-masted wooden clipper carrying an enormous spread of canvas, reportedly around 21 sails totaling roughly 30,000 square feet, built for Enoch Train before being purchased by Grinnell, Minturn & Co. of New York for $90,000. Service History: On her maiden voyage in 1851, commanded by Captain Josiah Perkins Creesy with his wife Eleanor Creesy serving as navigator, Flying Cloud sailed from New York to San Francisco in 89 days 21 hours, briefly making her the fastest merchant ship afloat; during that trip she once logged 992 nautical miles over three consecutive days. In 1854 she bettered her own record by 13 hours to 89 days 8 hours, a time that stood until 1989, and she also sailed in the Australia and timber trades. In 1862 she was sold to Britain's Black Ball Line of Liverpool and later, in 1871, to an owner in South Shields, continuing to sail under her original name until she went ashore in 1874 and was burned for salvage the following year. Notable Facts: Flying Cloud was known for an extremely close ocean race against the clipper Hornet in 1853, and for Eleanor Creesy's unusual role as a woman navigator plotting the ship's course by chart, sextant, and calculation. Ship portraitists Antonio Jacobsen and James E. Buttersworth both painted her — the Jacobsen painting used here as reference was itself based on an 1851 lithograph of the ship. A period ship model commissioned by Wells Fargo Bank is held by the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, and another period-style model is displayed at the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy Andover, both useful reference points for modelers.