The New Clipper Ship Flying Childers, of Boston.

This beautiful vessel is 175 feet long on the keel, 183 feet between perpendiculars on deck, and 195 feet over all, from the knight-heads to the taffrail; her extreme breadth of beams is 73½ feet, rounding of sides 6 inches, depth of hold 22½ feet, including 7 feet 9 inches height of between decks; dead rise at half floor 18 inches, sheer 2½ feet, and register about 1100 tons. Her ends are sharp, with convex lines, and her floor is long and buoyant. The bow rises boldly, is plain in its outline, without head-boards or trails, and is finely formed. As emblematical of her name, she has the representations of a race-horse for a head, and gilded ornaments on the ends of her catheads. She has a narrow waist of three strakes, defined between the mouldings of the upper wale and the planksheer, and her stern is boldly convex between the quarter pieces, and arched, the quarter pieces having been curved to form its outline. The monkey rail is rounded horizontally aft, in contradistinction to the outline of the stern below, which is rounded vertically. The stern is tastefully ornamented with gilded carved work, &c. The run is long and clean, with fine water lines. Either end or broadside on, her model, to the eye, appears faultless in form. She is sheathed with copper up to 18 feet forward and 19 aft, and is painted black above; inside she is painted pearl color.

Her bulwarks, including the monkey-rail, are only 5 feet 3 inches high from the deck, and the only house on deck is the galley, which also contains a state-room for the cook -- and this house is movable, not being built into the deck. The long-boat is stowed bottom up on bitts amidships, clear of the deck, and she has a small half-poop, on which she is steered; otherwise she is flush fore and aft, and as all her accommodations for men and officers are below, her deck-room is very spacious.

The crew's quarters are in the forecastle; they are well lighted and ventilated, and fitted with every convenience that could be desired. She has two cabins, the after one under the poop, with the entrance in front, and at the foot of the stairs a small ante room, with the mate's stateroom on the starboard side, and the pantry on the other side. The after cabin is plain white, relived with a few gilded lines, contains three state-rooms and other useful apartments, and is neatly finished and furnished. The forward cabin is on the line of the between-decks, and is entered from the ante-room by a door on each side of the staircase. This cabin contains four large state-rooms, and is admirably arranged for the accommodation of passengers.

A few details of her construction will show that she is of the best materials, well built and finished. Her keel is of rock maple, sided 15 inches and moulded 3 feet, the floor timbers are moulded 16 inches and sided from 11 to 12, and the top timbers at the heads are 7 by 10 inches, all of white oak. She has two depths of midship keelsons, each 16 inches square, and sister keelsons of 10 by 14 inches. The floor timbers are bolted alternately through the first keelson and the keel with 1¼ inch copper, so that there is a copper bolt through every floor timber and the keel, riveted on the outside. The sister keelsons are bolted diagonally through every navel timber into the keel, and horizontally through each other and the lower depth of the midship keelson. On the floor the ceiling is 4 inches thick, and commencing below the floor heads and extending upwards there are four strakes of 10 inches thickness, then five of 9, then four of 8, graduated without projection to 6 inches thickness, and all this work is scarphed and square fastened. The lower deck beams are 14 by 16 inches, and those under the upper deck 10 by 15, amidships, but tapered towards the ends, and all are of hard pine. All the knees, hooks and stanchions in the hold are of oak. The hanging knees in the body of the vessel are sided 12 inches, moulded from 20 to 22 inches in the throats, have 3½ feet arms, 4½ feet bodies and 16 bolts in each. The lodging knees are sided 9 inches, and are scarphed in every berth. The stanchions are of oak 10 inches square, kneed above and below. She has 8 hooks forward and 5 aft, and two of these in each end, cross all the cants diagonally, and fay to the knees under the beams. The hooks above are horizontally and span the angles of the ends, and are all closely bolted.

Her stem, cutwater, and apron, as well as the stern and false post, are all very stout, and are bolted with copper up to the load displacement line. The main transom is 17 inches, and the others in proportion.

The between decks waterways are 15 inches square, with two strakes of 10 by 14 inches over them, and one of the same size inside of them, let into the beams, and all the thick work is bolted vertically and horizontally. The ceiling above is 6 inches thick, square fastened, and the knees under the beams are of hacmatack, about the same size as those below. The stanchions are of oak turned, secured with iron rods through their centre, in the usual style.

Her upper deck waterways are 10 by 14 inches, with 2 strakes of 4½ by 6 inches inside of them, let into the beams, and bolted both ways. The planking of both decks is of white pine, 3½ inches thick.

Her garboards are 7 inches thick, the next strake 6, the third 5, graduated to 4 inches, without projection, the last the substance of her planking on the bottom. Her wales are 5½ by 7 inches, and the three strakes of waist are 4½ inches, and she is square fastened with treenails, and extra butt and bilge bolted with copper. The planksheer and main rail are each 6 inches thick, the bulwarks stanchions are of oak, and her bulwarks are of 2½ inch, beaded, tongued and grooved. Her frame is seasoned with fine salt, and she has brass ventilators along her planksheer and in her bitts, and Emerson's patent ventilators forward and aft, for the purification of the hold and between decks.

She has Forbes's rig. The fore and main topmasts are fitted abaft the heads of the lower masts, so that the lower topmasts set upon the heads of the lower masts, below the caps; the mizzen topmast, topgallant mast, &c., are in one spar, and fitted before the mizzen mast head. The latter is fitted before, to avoid interference with the trysail mast, in sending the topmast up or down.

She has iron bands over her tresseltrees, bolted through them; and, in the wake of the mast-heads, an iron band on each side, fitted over each tresseltree, and also bolted. The other bands extent across, before and abaft the mast heads, and have each an eye to which a pair of shrouds are shackled. The heads of the lower masts project above the caps, and over these projections are iron bands, to which her mast-head shrouds and stays are also shackled. She has good rigging, well fitted, and looks very well aloft.

The following are the dimensions of her masts and yards:

The bowsprit is 29 inches in diameter and 23½ feet outboard; jibboom 15½ inches in diameter, 11 feet inside and 15 feet outside of the cap, with 3 feet end; spanker boom 10½ inches in diameter, 50 feet long, with 2 feet end, gaff 7 inches in diameter, 26 feet long, with 3 feet, and the other spars in proportion. By referring to the dimensions of her yards, it will be seen that all the yards on the main mast, except the main yard, are nearly of the same dimensions as those on the foremast -- thus, the lower main topsail yard will answer for a fore yard, and the yards above in regular order. The lower foretopsail yard will answer for a cross-jack yard, and so on upwards; hence it follows that, with the exception of the courses, and lower main topsail, all the sails on one mast will suit the yards on any of the other masts.

Her topsails and fore and main topgallant sails have a single reef in each, which reef to iron jackstays on the yards. But the great superiority of this rig consists in the manageable size of its topsails, and the ease which sail can be made or taken in. The topsails of our large clippers are of such vast size, that their very weight is an element of their weakness, and when by the wind, they cannot be set properly, for the yards must bend like a bow, and bag the sails. With Forbes' rig, the sails being of a proper size, can be set like boards, and consequently enable the vessel to lie nearer the wind, with less tear and wear aloft. For large vessels, we consider this the best square rig now in use, and hope yet, for poor Jack's sake, to see it universally adopted. Reefing topsails with this rig is an easy affair, compared with reefing the topsails of the old rig, as must be apparent from their relative size. This rig is no longer an experiment, for it has been tested many years in several vessels, and in every case has given the fullest satisfaction. For a full and accurate description of it, in its application to all classes of square rigged vessels, we refer those interested to a pamphlet published by Capt. Forbes.

The Flying Childers has a patent windlass, ground tackle in conformity with the requirement of Lloyd's, three hawse holes, two capstans, one forward and the other aft, five boats, and iron tank capable of holding 5000 gallons of water, patent pumps, a patent steering apparatus, every other detail belonging to a ship.

Although not so sharp in the ends, or on the floor, as some of the extreme clippers, yet she has advantages over many of them, in the lowness of her bulwarks, the absence of houses on deck, and her spacious deck room for working ship. When by the wind, she will feel the benefit of her decks and low bulwarks, not only on account of the diminished back surface of her sides, but, by bringing the courses so much lower down upon the hull, than if the bulwarks were high. When we consider these advantages, and above all the excellence of her rig, she appears to us as good a ship of her size as could be desired. Her spars were made by Messrs. Fernald, of East Boston, and they are as well made as any that ever towered above a ship's deck.

She was built at East Boston by Mr. Samuel Hall, the designer and builder of the clippers Surprise, Gamecock, R.B. Forbes, and many others, famous for their sailing qualities, and she is owned by Messrs. J.M. Forbes, and Cunningham Brothers, of this city.

Capt. White, formerly of the ship Epaminondas, commands her, and she is now loading in Winsor's line of San Francisco clippers.

Transcribed by Lars Bruzelius.

Sjöhistoriska Samfundet | The Maritime History Virtual Archives | The Boston Daily Atlas. Search.

Copyright © 1997 Lars Bruzelius.