The sailing ship ''Andrew Jackson'', a 1,679-registered-ton

medium clipper A medium clipper is a type of clipper designed for both cargo carrying capacity and speed. An evolutionary adaptation of the extreme clipper, the medium clipper had been invented by 1851, when the hull type appeared in U.S. shipyards. Medium clipp ...

, was built by the firm of Irons & Grinnell in

Mystic, Connecticut Mystic is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Groton and Stonington, Connecticut, United States. Historically, Mystic was a significant Connecticut seaport with more than 600 ships built over 135 years starting in 1784. Mystic Seap ...

in 1855. The vessel was designed for the shipping firm of J.H. Brower & Co. to carry cargo intended for sale to participants in the California Gold Rush.

Construction

The ship's dimensions were: length , beam 41 ft., 2 in., and draft 22 ft., 3 in. The vessel was described as "a very handsome, well-designed ship. She was heavily sparred and carried double

topsail A topsail ("tops'l") is a sail A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail- ...

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, and

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studdingsails."

Voyages

''Andrew Jackson'' made seven passages from New York to San Francisco, with an average time of 106 days. These times compare well with the passages of

extreme clipper An extreme clipper was a clipper designed to sacrifice cargo capacity for speed. They had a bow lengthened above the water, a drawing out and sharpening of the forward body, and the greatest breadth further aft. In the United States, extreme clipp ...

s such as '' Flying Cloud'' and ''Flying Fish'', which averaged 105 days and 103 days respectively, and the vessel was advertised as "The Fastest Ship in the World."

Record passage to San Francisco

''Andrew Jackson'' is best known for her 1859–1860 run around

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from New York City to San Francisco, which the vessel performed in 89 days and 4 hours. The run began at noon on Christmas Day, 1859, and ended at 4 p.m. on 23 March 1860 at the

Farallon Islands The Farallon Islands, or Farallones (from the Spanish ''farallón'' meaning "pillar" or "sea cliff"), are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The island ...

. This was one of only three 89-day runs performed by square-rigged ships driving from New York City to California. The other two runs were both posted by ''Flying Cloud''. ''Flying Cloud''s fastest New York-to-California run had taken 89 days and 8 hours; ''Andrew Jackson''s run was, by four hours, widely acclaimed in the newspapers as the fastest in history. ''Andrew Jackson's'' run, as calculated above, was from New York City to the Farallon Islands, the

pilot boat A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming shi ...

entry point to the harbor of San Francisco. ''Andrew Jackson'' did not get a pilot boat in a timely manner and did not actually tie up at a San Francisco wharf until the next day. Some clipper ship authorities, including Howe and Matthews, assert that ''Andrew Jackson'' did not actually set the record described above. They concede, however, that this medium clipper, perhaps not naturally as fast as ''Flying Cloud'', achieved a remarkable passage as the result of a combination of hard driving by the

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and favorable winds.

''Andrew Jackson'' vs. ''Flying Cloud''

However, after careful scrutiny of the logbooks, one author, Carl C. Cutler, concludes that a case can be made for either ''Flying Cloud'' or ''Andrew Jackson'' holding the record. Some will consider the passage from pilot-to-pilot as the appropriate indicator of fastest sailing performance around

. ''Flying Cloud'' holds the record time for a passage anchor-to-anchor from New York to San Francisco, of 89 days 8 hours, while ''Andrew Jacksons completed passage anchor-to-anchor may have been as long as 89 days 20 hours.

Loss

''Andrew Jackson'' was lost on December 4, 1868, after going ashore on a reef in the

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Legacy

''Andrew Jackson''s 1859–1860 run was to be one of the final sailing-ship records posted by an American clipper ship. During the 1860s, the progress of

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led to the creation of a network of coaling stations worldwide to serve fast steamships with a reliable supply of fuel, and the market for clipper-ship freight collapsed.

Images

Painting of clipper ship ''Andrew Jackson''
Mystic Seaport Museum *Painting by Percy Sanborn,
Clipper Ship Andrew Jackson
'' sold in 2012.

References

{{1868 shipwrecks 1855 ships California clippers Individual sailing vessels Maritime incidents in December 1868 Ships built in Mystic, Connecticut Shipwrecks of Indonesia