Pirates & Privateers: Steven Ujifusa's Books

These were our Gothic cathedrals, our Parthenon; but monuments carved from snow. For a few brief years, they flashed their splendor around the world, then disappeared with the finality of the wild pigeon.

This quote from Samuel Eliot Morison opens the final chapter in this account of merchants, ships, and shipwrights of the 19th century in their quest for speed and profits. (339) Their designs are based on the “Baltimore clipper,” like Isaac McKim’s Ann McKim (1833), but with less drag, less rake, more speed, and more elegance and grace. They initially sail to China to trade for tea, porcelain, silks, and spices. Later, they venture around the tip of South America to deliver goods to California after gold is discovered in 1848. Making money and delivering cargo faster than anyone else arre these men’s primary objectives. In the process, they revolutionize global trade, transform a remote outpost into a burgeoning region, and aid in the spread of opium.

First and foremost, this is a story about merchants like Warren Delano II, John Murray and Robert Bennet Forbes, and Abiel Abbot Low. They acquire assets that allow them to deal in exports and imports. They own the ships and oftentimes the cargoes they carry. They hire shipwrights like Donald McKay and John Willis Griffiths to build their ships, as well as those vessels’ captains: Charles Porter Low, Nathaniel Palmer, and Joshua Creesy to name a few.

It is also a story about the places and cultures to which their ships sail. Initially, China is an insular country, the government unwilling to trade with Westerners until Jorge Alvares visits Canton in 1513. By the mid 1800s, merchants from many European countries and the United States are purchasing Chinese goods. Warren Delano II belongs to a good, established family, but he lacks money. When he ventures to China in 1833 as a young bachelor, he has two goals he wishes to achieve. He wants to acquire enough funds to make him independently wealthy – $100,000 that will require living in China for at least five years – and to become a member of the prestigious firm of Russell & Company. What he soon realizes is that living in China is very different from living in America and it can quite dangerous for foreigners. He isn’t permitted to learn Chinese. He has to operate according to many strict dictates. He has to live in a section of Canton in a compound allotted to those who broker goods for export. Wives of these men, if they come, have to live in Macao, as they are never permitted on the mainland. One Chinese merchant heads the Cohong (a guild of traders) and is personally responsible for the foreign merchants. Wu Ping-Chien (whom Westerners call Houqua), mentors some of these foreigners, including Delano. While the Chinese have much to offer in the way of exports, Westerners have little to offer in return, except money and opium. The illegal importation of this addictive drug leads to a shortfall of silver in China and many become addicts unwilling to work. Eventually, the government intervenes and Houqua is arrested. While the Americans tacitly acquiesce to China’s demands, the British do not and the First Opium War soon erupts.

Aside from the cultural and personal aspects of this account of the “barons of the sea,” this book is also a tale of the ships. The sooner merchant ships return home to New York or Boston, the sooner the tea can be auctioned. This not only leads to greater profits, but also increases a firm’s reputation. This is why men like Delano and Low seek ships with greater speed and cargo capacity. For example, when Oriental arrives in London in 1850 – the first Yankee clipper to do so – she does so in ninety-seven days, a vast improvement from the usual six months which British ships normally take to go from China to London. Her cargo sells for $48,000, a vast sum when compared to the $10 to $12 an average working man earns in one month.

Prior to this time period, ship design has remained fairly stable for 200 years. Ships that sail to China and India are called “Indiamen” and a typical one averages 175 feet in length, thirty feet in width, and possesses a deep draft and rounded topsides. Beginning in the 1830s, the shipwrights and merchants begin to revolutionize the design to create Yankee clippers. The men who build these vessels don’t agree on what designs are best. Captain Nathaniel Palmer favors ships with sharp bows and flat bottoms that he believes will average twelve to thirteen knots when laden with tea. John Willis Griffiths, who never goes to sea, designsvessels with V-shaped bottoms because his draftsman’s mind believes this will make them faster. One of his ships, Sea Witch, travels 264 miles each day for ten days during a monsoon. Her best single day’s distance is 302 miles.

These Yankee clippers undergo even more radical changes once the merchants turn their attention to the California trade. Donald McKay’s designs and skill turn the building of such ships into an art. Stag Hound, built in 1850 for the California runs, can carry 1,500 tons of cargo and her sails consist of 9,500 square yards of canvas. She is the first of the extreme clippers. McKay goes on to design even bigger ones. Sovereign of the Seas’ tonnage exceeds 2,400 and she measures 252 feet in length, while Great Republic as designed will carry 4,555 tons and be longer than today’s football field.

Memnon, one of Delano’s ships, travels 15,000 miles from New York to San Francisco Bay in 123 days. Until then the journey around Cape Horn often takes over 200; covered wagons leaving Independence, Missouri to go overland average six months. It doesn’t take long before the various merchants begin competing with one another. Their ships are “majestic clippers, flying before the wind like great birds of prey, their vast spreads of canvas stretches taut, their deep sharp bows piercing wave after wave.” (6) In 1851, three clippers leave New York bound for San Francisco. Captain Charles Low commands N. B. Palmer, owned by the Lows and named for Captain Nathaniel Palmer, on her maiden voyage. Moses Grinnell’s Flying Cloud is captained by Josiah Creesy, whose wife serves as his navigator. The third ship, Challenge, is owned by N. & G. Griswold and costs over $150,000 to build. She has three decks instead of the normal two and her masts rise more than 200 feet above the weather deck. Her captain is Robert Waterman. There can be only one winner, and the race becomes one that involves rough weather, major repairs at sea, sabotage, and mutiny. It ends with the arrest of one of the captains and his first mate.

As with all things, the time for Yankee clippers ebbs. Fewer men want to earn their livings at sea. As California grows and develops, her citizens become more self-sufficient and no longer have need for ships to bring them necessaries. They can make or grow these items themselves and purchase them for far lower prices than the East Coast merchants charge. Confederate raiders take their toll on Northern shipping during the Civil War. Steam ships are becoming more and more plentiful. Finally, the sinking of SS Central America in 1857 proves fatal not only to the 420 male passengers and crew aboard, but also to the American economy. Lost during the hurricane is the nine tons of California gold and specie that she carries. The loss, valued at around $2,000,000, results in more than just a run on banks. Fewer and fewer shipowners can afford the beautiful, graceful vessels that have brought great wealth to men who become pillars of 19th-century American society and whose influence on our culture and politics lasts far into the next hundred years.

These are the stories that Steven Ujifusa weaves together in his book. He includes an inset of photographs, an appendix with ship and sail diagrams, a section of notes that double as a bibliography, and an index. He also defines unfamiliar terms at the bottom of the pages where the words occur. Barons of the Sea is informative, entertaining, and enthralling. It’s a voyage not to be missed, whether you’re fascinated with sailing ships, the tea trade or the gold rush, or just history in general.

Meet the author
Listen to an excerpt