Flying Cloud

An extreme clipper launched in 1851, at the shipyard of Donald McKay, East Boston, for Enoch Train, Boston.

If great length, sharpness of ends, with proportionate breadth and depth, conduce to speed, the Flying Cloud must be uncommonly swift, for in all these she is great. Her length on the keel is 208 feet, on deck 225, and over all, from the knight heads to the taffrail, 235 - extreme breadth of beam 41 feet, depth of hold 21½, including 7 feet 8 inches height of between-decks, dead-rise at half floor 20 inches, rounding of sides 6 inches, and sheer about 3 feet.
Duncan McLean in The Boston Daily Atlas, April 25, 1851.

1851 April 15: Launched at the shipyard of Donald McKay, East Boston, for Enoch Train, Boston.
1851 April: Purchased by Grinell, Minturn & Co, New York, for $ 90.000.
1851 April 15: Launched at East Boston.
1851 June 2 - August 31: Sailed from New York to San Francisco in 89 days 21 hours under command of Captain Josiah Perkins Cressey. On July 31 she made 374 miles in 24 hours.
1852 January 6 - April 9: Sailed from Whampoa to New York in 94 days.
1852 December 1 - March 8: Sailed from Whampoa to New York in 96 days.
1853 April 28 - August 12: Sailed from New York to San Francisco in 105 days. Passed the Equator on May 15 in the record time of 17 days from Sandy Hook. The abstract log of this run was published by the Boston Daily Atlas
1854 January 21 - April 20: Sailed from New York to San Francisco in 89 days 8 hours. This is the record for the passage.
1854 July 20 - November 24: Sailed from Whampoa to New York in 115 days.
1855 September 5 - December 14: Sailed from Whampoa to New York in 99 days.
1856 March 13 - September 14: Sailed from New York to San Francisco in 185 days under command of Captain Reynard. She is reputed to have sailed 402 miles in 24 hours during that trip.
1856 May 10 - June 23: Partially dismasted en route San Francisco and put into Rio de Janeiro for repairs where her spars were cut down before she proceeded.
1856 September 14 - 1857 January 4: Laid up in San Francisco.
1857 April - 1859 December 8: Laid up in New York. The spars were cut down once more in 1858.
1861 February 28 - May 24: Sailed from London (Deal) to Melbourne in 85 days.
1862: Bought by Mackay & Co, Liverpool, for their Queensland service, but instead mortaged to the Forwood family, Liverpool. Sailed for James Baines' "Black Ball Line".
1867 October 24 - 1868 February 7: Sailed from Gravesend to Brisbane in 106 days.
1868 June 5 - 1868 September 25: Sailed from Sydney to Gravesend in 112 days.
1870 June 4 - August 30: Sailed from London to Hervey's Bay in 87 days under command of Captain Owen.
1871 April 19: After James Baines & Co. had suspended payment, Arthur Forwood took possession of the ship and sold her to Harry Smith Edwards of South Shields.
1874 June 19: Went ashore on the Beacon Island bar, St Johns and was condemned and sold.
1875 June: Was burned for her copper and metal fastenings.

References:

Clipper ships, general references.
Clipper Voyages.
Boston Daily Atlas, June 29, 1853.
The Passage of the Flying Cloud.
Nautical Research Journal Vol. 22, Silver Spring, 1976. pp 67. From the Boston Morning Journal, Wednesday, October 18, 1851.
Howes & Matthews: American Clipper Ships 1833-1858, 1926.
Cutler, Carl C.: Flying Cloud versus Andrew Jackson.
The American Neptune Vol. 8 (1948), pp 325-326.
Cutler, Carl C.: Old Light on the New Light.
The American Neptune Vol. 8 (1948), pp 328-330.
Lyman, John: Flying Cloud versus Andrew Jackson.
The American Neptune Vol. 7 (1947), p 318.
Lyman, John: New Light on the Flying Cloud versus Andrew Jackson.
The American Neptune Vol. 8 (1948), pp 326-328.
Lyman, John: Bright Light on Flying Cloud vs. Andrew Jackson.
The American Neptune Vol. 9 (1949), pp 148-150, ill.
Lyon, Margaret & Reynolds, Flora Elizabeth: The Flying Cloud and Her First Passengers.
Center for the Book, Oakland, CA, 1992. Tv8vo, fp, xiv, 160 pp, ill.
McKay, Richard: Some Famous Sailing Ships and Their Builder Donald McKay. 1928.
McLean, Duncan: The New Clipper Ship Flying Cloud, of New York.
The Boston Daily Atlas, April 25, 1851
Stammers, Michael K.: The Passage Makers. Teredo Books, Brighton, 1978.

Updated 2003-12-14 by Lars Bruzelius

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