Clipper Ships

"Clipper Ships - Emigrants Passage" documents accounts of the beautiful sailing ships which played so great a part in the development of the British Territories. It contains actual log book records which bring to life the daily routine, successes and demise of clipper ships, captains, crew and passengers bound for far-off horizons such as Australia, New Zealand and other ports. The many illustrations, photos and drawings will hold the interest of any sailor or armchair voyager.

"Paradiso Adesso" è il titolo dell’ultima edizione del Festival Kilowatt.  Il Festival anche quest'anno ha mantenuto la doppia localizzazione inaugurata l’anno scorso, nei due bei comuni di  Sansepolcro e Cortona, in provincia di Arezzo.  I direttori artistici del Festival,  arrivato ormai  alla sua ventunesima edizione, hanno invitato Neja Tomšič, artista visiva, narratrice  e performer a presentare  dal 19 al 23 Luglio 2023,  “ Opium Clippers”: una narrazione molto particolare del commercio dell’oppio in Cina e delle rotte connesse ad esso,  tra la seconda metà del XVIII e il XIX secolo.  Ospitata nel chiostro di sant’Agostino a Cortona, la performance, un rituale per dieci spettatori soltanto, si è svolta, intorno ad un tavolo ovale. Gli spettatori si sono seduti ad ascoltare la narrazione di Neja, sorseggiando un tè caldo, servito più volte dalla performer in originali ceramiche dipinte a mano da lei stessa. Le ceramiche sono state usate dall’artista come supporto di ausilio alla narrazione:  le imbarcazioni, i luoghi narrati, le tratte dell’oppio e del tè e le persone chiave di questa storia sono state finemente tratteggiate sui fianchi delle teiere e delle piccole coppette del tè.  Segue il dialogo che ho avuto il piacere di scambiare con l'artista.

Alors que le milieu du XIX° siècle voit le triomphe progressif de la navigation à vapeur dans l’acheminement des correspondances vers l’outre-mer, l’étude d’une lettre pour Melbourne, postée à la fin de l’année 1854, nous permet de rappeler le rôle non négligeable joué par les clippers et la marine à voile dont resplendissaient alors les derniers feux.

In the modern era, fast sailing ships were predominantly built and utilized for naval and dispatch purposes. The chaotic economic and political turbulence of the late 18th and early 19th century saw the first development of merchant vessels designed with speed as the primary factor, capacity second. Weatherliness and stability were also standard considerations, usually preceding speed in that an unstable or difficult to sail vessel would result in lost time, cargo, even life. Such were the extreme conditions at the end of the Enlightenment preceding Anglo-American industrialization that produced the first distinct American built class of vessel, the Baltimore Clipper. Descended from a variety of earlier fast sailing vessels, sloops, pilot boats, and galley ships, the Baltimore Clipper developed as a ground breaking ship type taking advantage of the schooner rig and earlier fast sloop hull designs.

An examination of the seaman's contract known as Shipping Articles of the coastwise St. s. DORA reveal a personal glimpse of the officers and crew of the Alaska Steamship Company’s most famous steamer of the early 20th century on a voyage to the Westward, the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific.

The institution of kidnapping sailors to sail under-manned outgoing ships from San Francisco harbor began during the Gold Rush and continued until federal legislation passed in 1915. The text discusses the conditions shipboard which led to shanghaiing, the procedures of shanghaiing, and the organization of the sailors and subsequent federal legislation passed to eradicate the practice.