Samuel Hartt Pook (January 17, 1827 – March 30, 1901) was a

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

-based American

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 ...

and son of Samuel Moore Pook (1804-1878), the noted

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 ...

Clipper ships

Pook designed several very fast clippers, including the '' Surprise'', ''

Witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

'', '' Herald of the Morning'' and '' Northern Light'', all of which made passages, prior to 1861, from an American East Coast port to

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 ...

, via

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 fewer than 100 days, a speedy passage for the period. He was involved in the design of the 1850 clipper barque '' Race Horse.'' Pook also designed the 1853 clipper '' Challenger'' and the '' Red Jacket'', a holder of the speed record for the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

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and Liverpool-

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passages.

Ironclad design for USS ''Galena''

Pook was less successful in his design for the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

-era

ironclad An ironclad was a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by iron armour, steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or ince ...

Galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crysta ...

'', which was found, in combat conditions, to suffer from ineffective armoring. Witchcraft Curtis Taylor MIT

Pook's father was the naval architect Samuel Moore Pook, who designed the far more successful

City-class ironclad The Pook Turtles, or City-class gunboats to use their Ship class#United States, semi-official name, were war vessels intended for service on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. They were also sometimes referred to as "Eads gunb ...

s of the same period. The ''Idler'' was a luxury

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

yacht A yacht () is a sail- or marine propulsion, motor-propelled watercraft made for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a ...

built in the summer of 1864 by the S. H. Pook in Fair Haven. She was owned by yachtsman Thomas C. Durant and part of the New York Yacht Squadron.

References

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External links

The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans
The Era of the Clipper Ships {{DEFAULTSORT:Pook, Samuel Hartt 1827 births 1901 deaths American naval architects People from Brooklyn Architects from Boston