Flying Cloud: The True Story of America's Most Famous Clipper Ship and the Woman Who Guided Her
In the early days of the California gold rush, it took more than 200 days for a ship to travel from New York to San Francisco, a voyage of more than 16,000 miles. In 1851, however, a clipper called theFlying Cloudmade the same journey in only 89 days, a headline-grabbing world record that theClouditself beat three years later (and that would not then be broken until 1989).TheFlying Cloud's achievement was remarkable under any terms. But, writesDavid W. Shaw, it was all the more unusual because its navigator was a woman, Eleanor Creesy, who had been studying oceanic currents, weather phenomena, and astronomy since her girlhood in Marblehead, Massachusetts. With her husband, ship captain Josiah Perkins Creesy, she logged many thousands of miles on the ocean, traveling around the world carrying passengers and goods. In the wake of their record-setting transit from New York to California, Eleanor and Josiah became instant celebrities. But their fame was short-lived and their story quickly forgotten. Josiah died in 1871,Flying Cloudburned to the waterline in 1874, and Eleanor lived far from the sea until her death in 1900.Though spotty in its documentation and full of invented dialog,Flying Cloudis a spirited and capable reconstruction of the clipper's voyage, and an interesting glimpse into the days of the tall ships.--Gregory McNamee--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.