In assessing the hull of a clipper, different maritime historians use different criteria to measure "sharpness", "fine lines" or "fineness", a concept which is explained by comparing a rectangular cuboid with the underwater shape of a vessel's hull. The last defining feature of a clipper, in the view of maritime historian David MacGregor, was a captain who had the courage, skill, and determination to get the fastest speed possible out of her. A clipper carried a large sail area and a fast hull by the standards of any other type of sailing ship, a clipper was greatly over-canvassed. The third was more experimental, with deadrise and sharpness being balanced against the need to carry a profitable quantity of cargo. The second was a hull with a full midsection and modest deadrise, but sharp ends – this was a development of the hull form of transatlantic packets. The first was characterised by the sharp deadrise and ends found in the Baltimore clipper. Howard Chapelle lists three basic hull types for clippers. It is not restricted to any one rig (while many were fully rigged ships, others were barques, brigs, or schooners), nor was the term restricted to any one hull type. Definitions Ī clipper is a sailing vessel designed for speed, a priority that takes precedence over cargo-carrying capacity or building or operating costs. A US court case of 1834 has evidence that discusses a clipper being faster than a brig. British newspaper usage of the term can be found as early as 1832 and in shipping advertisements from 1835. The dictionary cites Royal Navy officer and novelist Frederick Marryat as using the term in 1830. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest quote (referring to the Baltimore clipper) is from 1824. The retrospective application of the word "clipper" to these vessels has caused confusion. In the final days of the slave trade ( circa 1835–1850) – just as the type was dying out – the term, Baltimore clipper, became common and remained current in the last quarter of the 18th century through to the first half of the 19th century. At first, fast sailing vessels were referred to as "Virginia-built" or "pilot-boat model", with the name "Baltimore-built" appearing during the War of 1812. The first application of the term "clipper", in a nautical sense, is uncertain. "Opium clipper" Water Witch, a British barque built in 1831 "To clip it", and "going at a good clip", are remaining expressions. The term "clip" became synonymous with "speed" and was also applied to fast horses and sailing ships. Dryden, the English poet, used the word "clip" to describe the swift flight of a falcon in the 17th century when he said, "And, with her eagerness the quarry missed, Straight flies at check, and clips it down the wind." The ships appeared to clip along the ocean water. The term "clipper" most likely derives from the verb "clip", which in former times meant, among other things, to run or fly swiftly. The era ended with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The boom years of the clipper era began in 1843 in response to a growing demand for faster delivery of tea from China and continued with the demand for swift passage to gold fields in California and Australia beginning in 18, respectively. Dutch clippers were built beginning in the 1850s for the tea trade and passenger service to Java. Clippers sailed all over the world, primarily on the trade routes between the United Kingdom and China, in transatlantic trade, and on the New York-to-San Francisco route around Cape Horn during the California Gold Rush. Clippers were mostly constructed in British and American shipyards, although France, Brazil, the Netherlands, and other nations also produced some. "Clipper" does not refer to a specific sailplan clippers may be schooners, brigs, brigantines, etc., as well as full-rigged ships. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th-century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed.
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