American-Built Clipper Ship, 1850-1856: Characteristics, Construction, and Details Paperback - 2000

First line

THE LIFE OF A SHIP begins when an individual or organization decides upon the need or desire for such a vehicle to further the pursuit of pleasure or profit-in the case of the American-built clipper ship, the quest for profit in merchant shipping, and the quest for progress and product development on the part of the designer and shipbuilder.

From the rear cover

With the sweep of its bow, its graceful lines, and its clouds of canvas, the clipper ship sparked a romance with the American public that still endures 150 years later.

The public fervor surrounding locally built clippers generated intense intercity rivalries--and a new type of thinking. Ships suddenly were christened with romantic names; interior decor of passenger-carrying vessels reached a new level of embellishment. Pushed by their masters, who drove them as no ships had been driven before, clippers reached and maintained speeds that were previously unheard of, setting records for sailing ship passages that were never to be surpassed. Their heyday was astonishingly brief--by the 1860s giving way to safer, more commodious, iron steamships, which were not at the mercy at the wind.

The product of more than 35 years of exacting research, "The American-Built Clipper Ship" presents in exquisite detail 152 clippers that comprise the culmination of the shipbuilders' art. Every facet of clipper ship design and construction is covered, including wood species, scantlings, fastenings, midship sections, interior living areas, and details of scarphs, keels, stem- and stern-post assemblies, frames, timbers, and bracing--all included in some 160 intricately drawn illustrations by a man whose unequaled work has earned him a national following among modelers and maritime museum directors. This is possibly the most complete reference on clipper ship construction ever published. No other single source covers so many vessels in such detail.

"The American-Built Clipper Ship" will be an invaluable resource for historians, model builders, and maritime artists, as well as for any newcomer who isonly now learning how addictive the subject can become.