United States Merchant Marine Academy - Midships Yearbook (Kings Point, NY)

Page 18 text:

THE GLORY THE “rainbow” BOWS AND BODY PLAN They are my country’s line, her great art done By strong brains labouring on the thought unwon. They mark our passage as a race of men. Earth will not see such ships as those again. The clipper ship was an American invention, the first three-masted clipper being the “Rainbow,” a vessel of 750 tons designed by John Willis Griffiths and built in 1845. As our maritime trade grew and as the demand for fast ships increased, New York and Boston ship- builders strove to fill these demands; and so the American clipper was evolved. The extreme clipper, a notable contribution by Don- ald McKay, combined with the unrivaled seamanship of fearless Yankee skippers placed America in the lead on the high seas. America had finally become established as a first-rate maritime nation. But no story of the American clipper would be com- plete without mention of LT. Matthew Fontaine Maury, U.S.N., the celebrated pioneer American hydrographer. In charting the winds and currents Maury showed ship- masters the way to save time. Without his “Sailing Directions,” our clipper ships could never have made such splendid passages. Those were the Glory Days of Sail, the Golden Age of the American Merchant Marine. During that decade the best, swiftest, most beautiful, and largest merchant sailing ships in the world were constructed, a fact which contributed immeasurably towards America’s national growth and prosperity. The “Rainbo v”—the first true clipper. —4 T “Stag Hound’-McKay’s first clipper, hove-to off Cape Horn.

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) DONALD E. McKAY KING OF THE CLIPPERS A man of vision, a dreamer with the energy and ability' to make his dreams a practical reality, a ship- designer endowed with the creative genius of an artist and the clear perception of an engineer, a pioneer in the field of nautical mechanics who blazed a path when others held back, Donald McKay stands today as the epitome of those qualities which symbolized the spirit of a growing, young America. His name is indelibly inscribed in the pages of history with that high-spirited and inspiring Age of Clipper Ships, an age which he did more than any other man to glorify with the creations of his brain and hand. To the memory of this man we respectfully dedicate this, the 1962 edition of MIDSHIPS. Boston Harbor as McKay knew it. o

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t Sts i t in iad is can Iqq. ms Lift As I South Street New York in the early 50’s. Matthew Fontaine Maury The Pathfinder of the Seas DAYS OF SAIL