Glory of the Seas (clipper)

Glory of the Seas was a medium clipper ship launched in 1869. She was the last merchant sailing vessel built by Donald McKay.

Voyages

On her maiden voyage, Glory of the Seas sailed from New York in February 1870 under the command of Captain Donald McKay, according to Custom House records. Donald McKay hired Capt.John Geit as sailing master per McKay family correspondence. She anchored at San Francisco on June 13 after a passage of 120 days. From there she sailed to Liverpool, England, under Captain William Chatfield. Donald McKay subsequently went bankrupt in 1870-1871. As a result, McKay's creditors sold Glory to J. Henry Sears of Boston, as managing owner, and a group of investors. Sears subsequently replaced Captain Chatfield with Josiah Nickerson Knowles who purchased an interest in the ship.

Details of her time between 1870 and 1885 are incomplete, but she "ran between New York and British ports and San Francisco almost exclusively" during those years. She did make a fast voyage from New York to San Francisco between October 13, 1873 and mid-January, 1874 (see the table and note). In 1875 she set the record of 35 days for a passage from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia. According to McKay, until 1885 under Captain McLaughlin Glory carried general cargo from New York to San Francisco and wheat from there to Britain, and was nearly wrecked in a storm when arriving in Britain in 1880. The Bruzelius timetable (below) differs and does not mention the 1880 event. Both agree that she was laid up at San Francisco between December 1882 and February 1885.

After 1885, Glory of the Seas spent the rest of her long life on the Pacific coast, for a time sailing between San Francisco and Puget Sound, British Columbia, and made four voyages to Alaska. In March 1906 she was sold in San Francisco for conversion to a barge but was repaired after the April earthquake and "put under sail again". She made a voyage to Callao in 1907-1908, hauled coal under tow from Nanaimo, BC, to Seattle from fall 1908 to spring 1909, and in September 1910 made a voyage hauling coal from Victoria, BC, to Unalaska. Under new owners in 1911, she was stripped of most of her spars and converted to a floating fish cannery and then to a floating cold storage plant. She remained in service as a reefer until early 1922. In December 1922 she was beached near Seattle and on May 13, 1923, was burned to recover her iron and copper fastenings.

Glory of the Seas' known voyages are tabulated below. Entries are from Bruzelius unless noted otherwise; disagreements or ambiguities are individually cited. City names are as they were at the time.

Artifacts

The figurehead of Glory of the Seas is a partially-clad female figure. It is pictured in a book, The Clipper Ships, which notes that it is in the collection of a private New York City club, India House. The builder's half-model, four prints or paintings, and several relics are held by the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia.

Notes

References

Further reading

• Mjelde, Michael Jay (1970). Glory of the Seas (1st ed.). Middletown, CT: Marine Historical Association/Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0819540164.(2nd edition (2000). Palo Alto, CA: Glencannon Press. ISBN 978-1889901183) reprinted |date 2000 | publisher=Glencannon Press |location=Palo Alto, CA and Mystic Seaport Museum. |Mystic, CT |isbn 889901-18-0
• Mjelde, Michael Jay (1979). "The Medium Clipper Ship "Glory of the Seas"". Nautical Research Journal. 25. Washington DC: 111–118.
• Mjelde, Michael Jay (1997). Clipper ship captain : Daniel McLaughlin and the Glory of the Seas. Palo Alto, CA: Glencannon Press. ISBN 978-1889901046.
• Mjelde, Michael Jay (2023). From Whaler to Clipper Ship. College Station, Texas: Texas A & M University Press. ISBN 978-1-64843-112-8.
• Mjelde, Michael Jay (2014). "Glory of the Seas, Last Voyage Under Sail". The Sea Chest. 48. Seattle WA: 4–22.
• Jones, Richard (2023). "Reconstructing Donald McKay's clipper ship GLORY OF THE SEAS using many rare, historic, previously unavailable images". Nautical Research Journal. 68. Westmont IL: 50–72.

See also

List of clipper ships