''Houqua'' was an early

clipper ship A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. The term was also retrospectively applied to the Baltimore clipper, which originated in the late 18th century. Clippers were gen ...

with an innovative hull design, built for A.A. Low & Brother in 1844. She sailed in the China trade.

Name

''Houqua'' was named in honor of the Canton Hong merchant Houqua, a long-time trading partner of the Low brothers who had died the year before the ship's launching. Houqua, (also spelled Howqua or Hoqua), was the most prominent Hong merchant of the day. He "was to take her delivery in China as a warship on behalf of the Chinese government. However, upon arrival, she was found to be too small, and so she spent her career in merchant service for A.A. Low.

Construction

The ''Houqua'' design combined the practical experience of an experienced sea captain with the mathematical insights of a leading

naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners. {{Commons category, Architecture by occupation Design occupations Occupations Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's rol ...

of the time, John W. Griffiths. In 1843, the A. A. Low & Bros. representative in Canton, William Low, and his pregnant wife Ann had been passengers on a very slow and frustrating trip home from Canton with Captain Nathaniel Palmer on '' Paul Jones''. "To vent his frustration aptain Natbegan carving a block of wood into the shape of what he thought the ideal hull of a Canton trader should look like, one that .. 'would outsail anything afloat' ... "He incorporated John W. Griffiths' ideas concerning a sharp concave bow with his own ideas of a fuller flat-bottomed hull." Upon arrival in New York, they approached A. A. Low & Bros. with the new design, which was further developed and built by David Brown of Brown & Bell shipyard. Captain Nathaniel Palmer "became an advisor to the Lows as a marine superintendent."

Collision and meteor strike

In 1853, the ferry ''Tonawanda'' collided with ''Houqua'' in the fog in New York Harbor, necessitating repairs before she could set sail for San Francisco. "Subsequently, off the Horn, on this passage, she had very heavy weather, lying to, off and on, for many days. On May 5th, in a violent squall, a

meteor A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a ...

, apparently about the size of a man’s head, broke at the masthead, throwing out the most violent sparks. Coming down the mast it passed to leeward and the two men standing near were sensibly affected and much frightened."

Disappearance

"She sailed from

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

, August 15, 1864, for New York, and was thereafter never heard from again. It is assumed she foundered in a tsunami."

References

External links