The New Clipper Ship Starlight, — This vessel was built by Messrs. Briggs, of South Boston, and to our eye she appears the most perfectly beautiful clipper they have yet produced. She has great length, fine ends, a beautiful and lively sheer, and has all the apparent requisites for great speed. We had a brief view of her yesterday, lying alongside Lewis wharf, and although she had only her lower masts in, she appeared to great advantage. It is astonishing that a ship so beautiful in outline, so well built and finished, should have the enemy of mankind for a figure-head. We were at a loss to ascertain what the figure was intended to represent, and would have been so still, but a clear-sighted medium, who had seen Jas. Tapertoes, Esq., informed us that it was a good likeness of him. Per contra, however, we learned from another source that the figure was designed to represent a dragon, and that the artist who made it never intended that it should bear the slightest resemblance to the serpent that beguiled Eve. The ship is intended for the California and China trade, and is now loading in Glidden & Williams' line of clippers, and will have quick despatch. Students of spiritual and natural history would do well to examine her head, and shippers to send their goods on board.

Transcribed by Lars Bruzelius.

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

Copyright © 1999 Lars Bruzelius.