COMET clipper 1851

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aukepalmhof
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Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

COMET clipper 1851

Post by aukepalmhof » Mon Apr 05, 2010 8:24 pm

Built in 1851 as a wooden clipper vessel by William H. Webb, New York for Bucklin & Crane, New York.
Launched as the COMET.
Tonnage 1,836 ton, dim. 73.5 x 12.6 x 6.8m
Bark rigged.
Passenger accommodation for 525 and 41 crew.
Fitted out with a smoking room, bathrooms and a library.

She was built for the California and China trades.

Her maiden voyage was in October 1851under command of Capt. E.C.Gardner from New York via Cape Horn to San Francisco, where she arrived on 13 January 1852. A not so fast passage of 102 days.
From San Francisco she sailed for Hong Kong for a cargo of tea and silks
Her second voyage she made in 112 days between New York and San Francisco, in the vicinity of Bermuda she was hit by a storm in which she lost her topmast and all sails.
In 1854 she made a record voyage from San Francisco to New York in 76 days, the same year an other fast voyage she made from Liverpool to Hong Kong in 84 days 16 hours, with an average speed of 212 mile in 24 hour.
Around 1857 she made her fastest voyage when she sailed from Canton to New York in 99 days. Otherwise her career was uneventful the next decade.

July 1863 Sold to T. M. Mackay (Black Ball Line), and renamed in FIERY STAR. Command was taken over by Capt. W.H. Yale or Yule. She was registered at London.
11 April she sailed from London made a call at Queenstown on the 19th from where she left with on board 525 passengers, her log recorded nine deaths and four births before she arrived in the Moreton Bay, Australia on 20 November, after a passage of 93 days from Queenstown.
After her return voyage to the U.K. she made an other voyage with emigrants to Australia.
01 April 1865 she left Brisbane for London with a cargo of 2041 bales of wool and 55 passengers, and 41 crew, under command of Capt. Yule.
20 April when in the vicinity of the Chatham Islands some of her cargo in the lower hold was on fire, she was put before the wind and all hatches battened down and the ventilation pipes blocked.
The fire spread and after some days the decision was made to abandon the vessel, there was insufficient life-boat accommodation due to that two boats had been swept away during bad weather. On 23 April, 78 passengers and crew left the vessel, leaving behind 18 volunteers under command of the First Mate W.C. Sargeant.
The volunteers fought the fire and at noon on 3 May by dead reckoning, the mate estimated that she were about 98 miles from the New Zealand coast, the next days two islands were sighted what the mate thought were the Aldermen or Mercury Islands.
On the 5th of May the ship encountered a gale which drove her offshore, also the raft what was constructed to abandon the vessel was swept away during the night. At 11.00 a.m. the foremast went over the side taking with hem the topgallant mast and upper yards.
The gale continued the next day and all hope of making land was gone.
On the 11th they were about 25 miles from the shore.
On 12 May the light of a vessel were seen and the last rockets were fired, which were seen by the vessel.
She was the DAUNTLESS under command of Capt. Moore bound for Auckland, she altered course and rescued the 18 men. When her last man was taken off the main-masts fell and within 30 minutes the ship was engulfed in flames.

HMS BRISK searched later around the Chatham Islands for the two missing boats but not any trace was found

The remains of the wreck of the FIERY STAR where found in 1971 on the west side of Double Island in the Mercury Group off the North Island of New Zealand, her two anchors were recovered.

Niger 1984 300f sg992, scott?
St Thomas and Prince 2003 7000 Db sg?, scott? (the stamp is designed after a painting of Richard C. Moore.)

Source: Greyhounds of the Sea by Cutler. The Passage Makers by M.K. Stammers.
The Australia Run by Jack Loney and Peter Stone. New Zealand Shipwrecks.
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Anatol
Posts: 1037
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:13 pm

Re: COMET clipper 1851

Post by Anatol » Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:16 pm

Comet clipper 1851. The design stamp is made after painting of Richard Moor: Clipper ship Comet.
Tchad 2014;1000f. Uganda2016;50000s.
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