Red Jacket

Type

Clipper

Period

19th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: Red Jacket was an American clipper ship, one of the largest and fastest of the golden age of the clipper era and the first vessel chartered by the newly formed White Star Line. She remains celebrated for a New York-to-Liverpool speed record that still stands for a commercial sailing vessel. Specifications: Designed by Samuel Hartt Pook and built by George Thomas at Rockland, Maine, she was launched November 2, 1853, the last vessel launched from that yard. Wikipedia lists her burthen at roughly 2,305 tons, length 251 ft 2 in, beam 44 ft, and depth of hold 31 ft, rigged as a full-rigged ship; other sources cite a shorter registered length near 235 ft and about 2,000 tons cargo capacity, so modelers should treat exact figures as approximate and cross-check against available plans. Service History: Built for Boston owners Seccomb & Taylor, she made her celebrated maiden voyage from New York to Liverpool under Captain Asa Eldredge in January 1854 in 13 days, 1 hour, 25 minutes. Sold to Liverpool's Pilkington & Wilson and chartered to the White Star Line for the England-Australia emigrant and gold trade, she was famously trapped for days in ice off Cape Horn while homeward bound from Melbourne with gold cargo in August 1854. She later passed through several owners and names (Red Clipper, Red Sea, Oceano Vermelho), ending her days as a coastal freighter and then a coal hulk at Madeira, where she was driven ashore and wrecked in a gale in October 1882. Notable Facts: Her dramatic 1854 Cape Horn ice ordeal was memorialized in a widely reproduced Currier & Ives lithograph, "Clipper Ship Red Jacket – In the Ice off Cape Horn," drawn by Joseph B. Smith and lithographed by Charles Parsons, a useful visual reference for hull lines and sail plan under way. Although often popularly called an "extreme clipper," some historians dispute the label since true extreme clippers were built only 1850-1852. The Bluejacket Shipcrafters company offers a well-regarded scale model kit of Red Jacket for advanced modelers, based on researched plans.