Hornet (clipper)
{{about|the ship||Hornet (disambiguation)}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image | Ship image = Hornetclippership.jpg | Ship caption = }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = United States | Ship flag = {{USN flag|1851}} | Ship name = Hornet | Ship owner = Chamberlain & Phelps, New York. | Ship ordered = Westervelt & MacKay, New York City | Ship builder = | Ship original cost = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = June 20, 1851 | Ship acquired = | Ship commissioned = | Ship decommissioned = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship renamed = | Ship struck = | Ship reinstated = | Ship honours = | Ship captured = | Ship fate = Burned and sank 3 May 1866 | Ship notes = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = Extreme clipper | Ship tons burthen = 1426 tons | Ship length = 207 ft. | Ship beam = 40 ft. {{Cite book | last = Crothers | first = William L. | title = The American-Built Clipper Ship, 1850-1856: Characteristics, Construction, Details | publisher = International Marine | year = 1997 | location = Camden, ME | pages = xvii | isbn = 978-0-07-014501-6}} | Ship hold depth = | Ship propulsion = | Ship sail plan = | Ship complement = | Ship armament = | Ship notes = }} |
Hornet was an 1851 extreme clipper in the San Francisco trade, famous for its race with Flying Cloud.
Race with ''Flying Cloud''
Hornet had a two-day head start on Flying Cloud in their famous 1853 race. She left New York City for San Francisco, California on April 26, 1853, with Flying Cloud departing two days later.
After the roughly 15,000-nautical mile (27,780-km) voyage around Cape Horn, both ships arrived in San Francisco harbor 106 days later at almost the same time, with Hornet sailing in just 45 minutes ahead of Flying Cloud.
Loss
File:Clipper ship Hornet sailing card.jpgIn 1866, Hornet left New York City bound for San Francisco under Captain Josiah A. Mitchell with a cargo of candles, case oil, and oil in barrels. During the voyage, she caught fire and sank in the Pacific Ocean on May 3, 1866. The crew left the ship in three open lifeboats. The captain′s boat reached Hawaii after 43 days at sea on June 15, 1866, with 14 survivors aboard, but the two other boats disappeared.
{{Cite web
| last = Bruzelius
| first = Lars
| title = Clipper Ships: "Hornet" (1851)
| work = Hornet
| publisher = The Maritime History Virtual Archives
| date = 1996-01-02
| url = http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships/Clippers/Hornet%281851%29.html
| access-date = June 7, 2010}}
Mark Twain, on the islands as a special correspondent from the Sacramento Daily Union, interviewed several of the survivors and filed the first extensive report.{{Cite journal|last=Scharnhorst|first=Gary|date=2015|title=Notes and Documents: Mark Twain Reports the Hornet Disaster|journal=American Literary Realism|volume=47|issue=3|pages=272–276|doi=10.5406/amerlitereal.47.3.0272|jstor=10.5406/amerlitereal.47.3.0272|s2cid=160282313 }}
Images
- [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/award/mymhiwe/c112&topImages=c112-01-44.jpg&topLinks=,&title=HORNET%20%28Ship%29&displayProfile=0 Hornet clipper ship card]
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{Cite journal
| volume = 49
| issue = 2
| title = The Saga of the Clipper Ship Hornet and the Ferguson Brothers of Stamford
| journal = The Stamford Historical Society, Newsletter Excerpt
| access-date = 2013-02-26
| url = http://www.stamfordhistory.org/hornet.htm
}}
- {{cite book |last=Brown |first=Alexander C. |title=Longboat to Hawaii, An Account of the Voyage of the Clipper Ship Hornet of New York Bound for San Francisco in 1866 |publisher=Cornell Maritime Press |isbn=978-0870332012 |year=1974 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/longboattohawaii00brow }}
- {{Cite journal | date = Dec 1866 | volume = 34 | pages = 104–113 | title = Forty-three Days in an Open Boat | journal = Harper's New Monthly Magazine | author = Mark Twain [as "Mark Swain"] | access-date = 2014-09-02 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cEpGAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA104
}}
- {{cite journal |last=Zmijewski |first=David |title=The Hornet: Mark Twain's Interpretations of a Perilous Journey |journal=The Hawaiian Journal of History |date=1999 |volume=33 |url=http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10524/241/JL33061.pdf }}
{{Clipper ships}}
{{Ships built by Westervelt & Co.}}
{{1866 shipwrecks}}
Category:Individual sailing vessels
Category:Ships built by Westervelt & MacKay