Howdy, Before we start our 1850 California Clipper Ship race, I would like to review a portion. of my prior posting giving a little history of those wonderful Clipper Ships..First, the source for these postings is a wonderful old book "The Clipper Ship Era" - 1843 - 1869" by Arthur H. CLARK.-first printed in 1910. I doubt it's worth paying an arm and a leg. . But if you find a reprint, or rent it from your library, it's an informative/fun book by a bona fide, ole time sailing captain. Couple it with Oscar Lewis' "Sea Routes to the Gold Fields" and Delgado's "To California by Sea," and you can probably handle any maritime quiz on the CA gold rush -at whatever level. To bring us up to speed, I previously posted: "[A]ccording to [author]Arthur CLARK, in 1849, 775 vessels cleared - not arrived - from Atlantic ports for San Francisco. Among these were New York's 214 vessels, Boston had 151, and New Bedford with 42. Clark expounds: 'In 1849, 91,405 passengers(Clark does NOT list them:-))) landed at San Francisco from various ports of the world, of almost every nationality under the sun and some of the best and some of the worst types of men and women. The officers and crews, with hardly an exception, hurried to the mines, leaving their ships to take care of themselves; in some instances the crews did not even wait to be paid off, so keen were they to join the wild race for gold. Many of these vessels never left the harbor; over 100 were turned into store ships, while others were converted into hotels, hospitals, and prisons, or gradually perished by decay.' "The speculators and merchants in the Eastern states were as interested in California gold as the miners. No one could predict how long this phenomenon would continue. Speed was everything; a week or even a day's delay might be the difference between a heavy loss and a large profit. Goods could not be shipped overland across the continent And the Pacific Mail Company had its hands full conveying passengers and mails across the Isthmus. This left "going round Cape Horn" the only transport from the Atlantic States to San Francisco - the California Clipper was born'. " While technically the California clipper period was from 1850 to 1860, most of the famous ships were built in NY or Boston the first few years - they number 160, which Clark lists in his Appendix I by captain, owner, and builder." Reportedly, the only clipper ship to voyage to San Francisco prior to 1850 was the MEMNON, arriving in SF on July 28, 1849, after a record passage of 120 days. The first contest among the clippers round Cape Horn took place in 1850 between, old rivals from China voyages: the HOUQUA, SEA WITCH, SAMUEL RUSSELL & MEMNON and the new clippers: CELESTIAL, MANDARIN and RACE HORSE. All these vessels had their supporters, and large sums were wagered. with the four older ships, especially the SEA WITCH favored because of their high reputations for speed. The SAMUEL RUSSELL arrived at San Francisco on May 6, 1850 after a passage of 109 days from New York, which knocked 11 days off the record. Friends and backers thought that they surely had won especially when the HOUQUA arrived on July 23d, some 120 days from New York. But their celebration was short lived when the SEA WITCH arrived the following day(May 7th), 97 days from Sandy Hook(?), reducing the record by another 12 days. The remainder of the fleet arrived in the following order: MEMNON, September 27th, 123 days; CELESTIAL, November 1st, 104 days; RACE HORSE, from Boston, November 24th, 109 days; and the MANDRIN, November 29th, 129 days from New York. The SEA WITCH'S passage astonished everyone. And according to author CLARK, "...[97 days] has never been equalled by a ship of her tonnage[890 tons] and not often excelled even by larger vessels. This performance of the SEA WITCH was the more remarkable as she had rounded Cape Horn during the ANTARTIC midwinter." If ok, got another one on clipper captains and crews, Bob Norris in Dallas <BNorris166aol.com>