''Mary Robinson'' was an 1854 medium clipper in the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, India, and the

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

trades. She was known for having spent an entire month attempting to round

Cape Horn Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the nor ...

in bad weather.

Voyages

''Mary Robinson'' made six voyages, from Boston to New York and then to San Francisco. In 1864, ''Mary'' ran her fastest run in 115 days. She was accompanied by '' Carrier Dove'' off Cape Horn on this trip, and beat ''Carrier Dove'' to San Francisco by 18 days. On her maiden run, ''Mary Robinson'' was not as fortunate. She spent 30 days rounding Cape Horn in "heavy gales and continual snow storms". During the commercial

panic of 1857 The Panic of 1857 was a financial crisis in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. Because of the invention of the telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission ...

, ''Mary Robinson'' was one of the many American clippers that was put into the more profitable British trade between India and England. ''Mary Robinson'' made a very fast passage in 1858. She made it in 58 days from San Francisco to Melbourne, continuing with 40 days from Melbourne to Honolulu.

Guano trade and loss of the ship

In 1858, ''Mary Robinson'' loaded

Jarvis Island Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island or Bunker's Shoal) is an uninhabited coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an Territories of the United States#Unincorporated u ...

for New York. ''Mary Robinson'' was lost June 27, 1864, on a voyage from San Francisco at Howland's Island, in the Pacific (). She was loading

when a squall drove her up on the reef. The next day she slid off and sunk in deep water, with 1300 tons of guano aboard.

References

{{Clipper ships California clippers Individual sailing vessels Ships built in Bath, Maine Age of Sail merchant ships of the United States Guano trade Jarvis Island Howland Island Maritime incidents in June 1864 Shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean 1854 ships