Australian National Maritime Museum Shows ~ Clipper Ships: Greyhounds of the Sea

Monday, 23 October 2006 08:13

Darling Harbour, Sydney - A new exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum considers the brief but heady impact that American clipper ships made on trade and immigration to Australia in the mid 19th century.  Built for speed by entrepreneurs keen to capitalize on the gold rush and lucrative trade routes, the clippers established America as the world leader in sailing ship design through the 1840s and 1850s.  On exhibit until 24 June, 2007.

The Yankee clipper was long and lean, with a revolutionary design of narrow hull, sharp bow and acres of canvas sails.  It could reach speeds of 20 knots or more and average more than 400 nautical miles a day.  Larger clipper ships carried 2400 tonnes of cargo and 500 passengers.

The exhibition Clipper Ships: Greyhounds of the Sea takes a close look at the most important figure in the development of the American clipper ships: Boston’s Donald McKay.

Between 1850 and 1853, McKay built eight large clippers including the record-breaking Flying Cloud which in 1854 sailed from New York around Cape Horn to San Francisco in 89 days – a journey that had previously taken more than 200 days.  The time wasn’t bettered until 1989.

Several of McKay’s ships sailed the fiercely competitive England to Australia route, reducing the voyage time to just 64 days and encouraging major migration during the 1860s.

The Museum has purchased two McKay-linked items especially for this exhibition - a rare silhouette of the shipbuilder and a sea chest that traveled to Australia on his clipper Chariot of Fame, launched in 1853.

The wooden sea chest traveled on the Chariot of Fame’s 1867 voyage from Liverpool to Newcastle.  It was sourced from a Melbourne antique dealer.

“What I like about the chest is the personal inscription.  This tells us it was the property of a Mrs. J Anderson en route to Mr. A Mitchell’s property at Uralla in northern New South Wales,” says USA Gallery curator Paul Hundley.

While Mr. Hundley hasn’t been able to discover Mrs. Anderson’s reasons for her voyage he has been able to determine Mr. Alexander Mitchell was a prominent citizen and builder who helped construct Uralla’s first permanent school in 1870.

The chest is also inscribed “Not wanted on the voyage” indicating it could be stowed low in the cargo hold.  The exhibition tells how clipper accommodation would generally be ‘steerage’ class, where two passengers shared a sleeping berth six feet long and three feet wide.  They were allowed two canvas bags to hold their clothes for a month.  Each month they were allowed access to their sea chest to change their worn clothes for a fresh set.

The 150 mm x 300 mm silhouette was a chance find on the website of a Massachusetts antique dealer as Mr. Hundley researched McKay.

Other objects in the exhibition include a wall of ‘Clipper Cards’ – colorful advertising cards used by shipping lines to promote their fast sailing times to Australia and a model of the Cutty Sark, the most famous of the British tea trade clippers.

There are also be portraits of the clipper ships that sailed here, including the best painting in the Museum’s Australian-American Maritime History collection - another McKay ship Lightning in Hobson’s Bay, painted by Captain Thomas Robertson in 1856.

As quickly as it appeared, the clipper vanished again losing the race for speed when the Suez Canal opened in 1869 and gave steamships a huge short cut on the long voyage south.

Australian National Maritime Museum In 1984 the New South Wales and Commonwealth Governments jointly announced that a national maritime museum would be built as part of the redevelopment of Darling Harbour, Sydney, a cradle of Australian maritime commerce close to the site of Australia's first European settlement at Sydney Cove.

The Museum was opened by Prime Minister Bob Hawke on 29 November 1991, with the USA Gallery dedicated on 1 January 1992 by US President George Bush and Prime Minister Paul Keating.

Visit The Australian National Maritime Museum at: www.anmm.gov.au/