China Jewel

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by Thomas Hollyday


  I would be amiss not to thank the Boston Athenaeum for their energetic research services. I am especially indebted to insights gained from the original log in my possession of the famous Baltimore clipper brig John Gilpin on its voyages to China in the 1830s. Thanks to the excellent blue water data from Cruising Routes by Cornwell, including handling storms at sea, from Hiscock’s Around the World in Wanderer III, from Greyhounds of the Sea by Cutler, 1930, and from the memoirs in Flying Cloud by Shaw, 2000. I consulted two other classics for excellent first hand data on sailing and handling square-rigged ships: Two Years before the Mast by Dana, 1840, and On Board the Rocket by Adams, 1879. Certainly much gratitude is due to the wonderful Icebergs, Port and Starboard, by John Jourdane, 1992, and his notes on the modern day Whitebread-Volvo Round the World Race. Thanks to Mark Weber of the US Brig Niagara of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for providing a copy of the crew handbook for sailing that historic replica brig. The China Trade by Crossman and The Tea Clippers by McGregor aided my research. Thanks for research by Claudia Jew, museum photographer, and permission of the Mariner’s Museum in Virginia to use the portrait of the Chesapeake built Baltimore clipper brig Golden Age of 1840 for the cover of China Jewel.

  Pan American’s Ocean Clippers by Tahow and other sources on the early history of Pan American Airways aided my study of the great ocean flying boats. Turner Classic Movies kindly provided a special research copy of the movie, “China Clipper.” Thanks to Dan Berg’s notes on the “Inshore Schooner Shipwreck” at aquaexplorers.com. Quoted songs are “Tommy” from On Board the Rocket, Adams, 1879, “Flying Down to Rio” from RKO Studios, 1933, by Gus Kahn, “Valparaiso” 1996, by Sting, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” 1941, by Don Raye and Hughie Prince, “The Yankee Doodle Boy,” 1904, by George M. Cohan,” and “Candyman” 2007, by Christina Aquilera, which includes cadence attributed to the United States Marine Corps.

  I’m especially grateful also to C. Michael Curtis of the Atlantic Monthly and the former Elliott Coleman of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars for their kind encouragement. I extend special appreciation for their time to all those who read and commented on draft copies of the manuscript. Thanks again to hard working editors, and last, but not least, much gratitude to my family for its patience.

  Thomas Hollyday, Boston, July 5, 2013

  Acknowledgements

  The book, China Jewel, as books do, began many years ago in Maryland with my learning of the old clipper ship races of the Nineteenth Century. I read from A.B.C. Whipple, The Clipper Ships: “Every clipper carried with her on every voyage the hopes and often the wagers of builder and merchant, captain and crew, and countless fans among the public that she would outpace all her rivals.” Then, I enjoyed the description in Dana, Chapter 25 of Two Years Before the Mast: “This affair led a dispute as the sailing of our ship and the Ayacucho. Bets were made between the captains, and the crews took it up in their own way; but as she was bound to leeward and we to windward, and merchant captains cannot deviate, a trial never took place; and perhaps it was well for us that it did not, for the Ayacucho had been eight years in the Pacific, in every part of it-Valparaiso, Sandwich Islands, Canton, California, and all-and was called the fastest merchantman that traded in the Pacific, unless it was the brig John Gilpin, and perhaps the ship Ann McKim of Baltimore.” I found in Wikipedia 2010 that a formal race was held in 1866 called the Great Tea Race. The following account was in the London Daily Telegraph of 12 September: “…leaving China at the same time, (the two clipper ships) sailed almost neck and neck the whole way and finally arrived in the London docks within two minutes of each other.”

  I would be amiss not to thank the Boston Athenaeum for their energetic research services. I am especially indebted to insights gained from the original log in my possession of the famous Baltimore clipper brig John Gilpin on its voyages to China in the 1830s. Thanks to the excellent blue water data from Cruising Routes by Cornwell, including handling storms at sea, from Hiscock’s Around the World in Wanderer III, from Greyhounds of the Sea by Cutler, 1930, and from the memoirs in Flying Cloud by Shaw, 2000. I consulted two other classics for excellent first hand data on sailing and handling square-rigged ships: Two Years before the Mast by Dana, 1840, and On Board the Rocket by Adams, 1879. Certainly much gratitude is due to the wonderful Icebergs, Port and Starboard, by John Jourdane, 1992, and his notes on the modern day Whitebread-Volvo Round the World Race. Thanks to Mark Weber of the US Brig Niagara of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for providing a copy of the crew handbook for sailing that historic replica brig. The China Trade by Crossman and The Tea Clippers by McGregor aided my research. Thanks for research by Claudia Jew, museum photographer, and permission of the Mariner’s Museum in Virginia to use the portrait of the Chesapeake built Baltimore clipper brig Golden Age of 1840 for the cover of China Jewel.

  Pan American’s Ocean Clippers by Tahow and other sources on the early history of Pan American Airways aided my study of the great ocean flying boats. Turner Classic Movies kindly provided a special research copy of the movie, “China Clipper.” Thanks to Dan Berg’s notes on the “Inshore Schooner Shipwreck” at aquaexplorers.com. Quoted songs are “Tommy” from On Board the Rocket, Adams, 1879, “Flying Down to Rio” from RKO Studios, 1933, by Gus Kahn, “Valparaiso” 1996, by Sting, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” 1941, by Don Raye and Hughie Prince, “The Yankee Doodle Boy,” 1904, by George M. Cohan,” and “Candyman” 2007, by Christina Aquilera, which includes cadence attributed to the United States Marine Corps.

  I’m especially grateful also to C. Michael Curtis of the Atlantic Monthly and the former Elliott Coleman of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars for their kind encouragement. I extend special appreciation for their time to all those who read and commented on draft copies of the manuscript. Thanks again to hard working editors, and last, but not least, much gratitude to my family for its patience.

  Thomas Hollyday, Boston, July 5, 2013

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Acknowledgements

 

 

 


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