Scottish Maid

A two-masted top-sail clipper schooner built in 1839 by Alexander Hall & Co., Aberdeen, at a cost of £ 1700.. Dimensions: 92'4"x19'4"x11'7" and tonnage 142 tons.

The half-model of the Scottish Maid and Non-such is preserved in the Glasgow Museum of Transport, Glasgow, Scotland.

1839 July 15: Launched at the shipyard of Alexander Hall & Co., Aberdeen, for a part ownership headed by Messrs Alexander Nicol an George Munro, Aberdeen. She was intended for the Aberdeen-London run where she was very successful together with two other schooners.

There is a photograph of her taken in the 1850s showing her with a butter-head rig.

The Scottish Maid, which was built with the Aberdeen bow to cheat the British tonnage laws, has often been called the first "true clipper" an honor she shares with Rainbow and Ann McKim.

Select Bibliography

Anderson, R.C.: Hollow Bows and "First Clippers".
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 31, London, 1945. p 109.
Cable, Boyd: The World's First Clipper.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 29, London, 1943. pp 66-91, ill., 4 plates.
Chapelle, Howard I.: The First Clipper.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 34, London, 1948. pp 26-33.
Henderson, J.: Hollow Bows and First Clippers.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 32, London, 1946. p 124.
Lyman, John: Butter-Rigged and Clipper-Rigged.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 63, London, 1977. p 50.
Lyman, John: The Scottish Maid as "The World's First Clipper".
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 30, London, 1944. pp 194-199,ill.
Salisbury, William: Hollow Water-Lines and Early Clippers.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 32, London, 1946. pp 237-241, 1 plate.

Updated 1998-10-22 by Lars Bruzelius.

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