Lightning (clipper)
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=The Clipper Ship Lightning 1854 (1769 Tons Register). Messrs James Baines and Co Owners RMG PU6464.tiff |Ship caption="Clipper Ship Lightning" }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag=Image:Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg |Ship name= |Ship namesake= |Ship owner=James Baines & Co. |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered=1853 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Donald McKay |Ship original cost=£32,000 |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=*1854, January 3rd
|Ship launched=3 January 1854 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened=3 January 1854 |Ship completed= |Ship acquired=British Merchant Navy |Ship commissioned=18 February 1854 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage=18 February – 3 March 1854 to Liverpool |Ship in service=18 February 1854 |Ship out of service=31 October 1869 |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport=Liverpool |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Scuttled 31 October 1869 at Geelong, Australia |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=*full-rigged three-masted sailing ship (clipper rigging)
|Ship type=Clipper |Ship tonnage=2,084 GRT |Ship displacement= |Ship tons burthen=3.500 tons |Ship length=*hull: {{convert|237.5|ft|m|abbr=on}},
|Ship beam={{convert|44|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship height={{convert|164|ft|m|abbr=on}} main mast (deck to truck) |Ship draught={{convert|23|ft|m|abbr=on}} loaded |Ship draft= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=Sails |Ship sail plan=13,000 yards of canvas when under all plain sail |Ship speed={{convert|19|kn|km/h|abbr=on}}; best 24-hour run: {{convert|436|nmi|km}} in 1854 |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats=6 lifeboats |Ship capacity=1,450 tons cargo |Ship troops= |Ship complement=100 crew |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament= |Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
Lightning was a clipper ship, one of the last really large clippers to be built in the United States. She was built by Donald McKay for James Baines of the Black Ball Line, Liverpool, for the Australia trade.Some famous sailing ships and their builder, Donald McKay, by Richard C. McKay. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1928; Easton Press, 1988.{{Cite VHD shipwreck|415|Lightning}}
It has been said{{by whom|date=May 2017}} that Lightning was the most extreme example of a type of ship classified as an extreme clipper.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}
Her builder was the famous Donald McKay of Boston, a follower of John Willis Griffiths and his principles of ship design. Lightning is a prime example of a change in thinking that turned builders away from shaping ships' hulls like cod's heads and mackerel tails. She had {{convert|16|ft|m}} of concavity in her bows and a beautiful fine run, yet she also had a moderate deadrise and a good full midsection with tumblehome, allowing her to be fast yet stable, with good sail-carrying ability.
History
When Lightning was built in 1854 in Boston, America's clipper boom was on the wane. The Australian gold rush was on, however, and McKay was building ships for James Baines of the Black Ball Line (house flag featured a black disk ("ball") on a red background) in Liverpool. Baines needed to transport passengers and cargo to Australia and had been impressed by the huge American ships. Lightning was powerfully and heavily constructed to handle the heavy seas and storms of the Australian run. Only the finest materials went into her construction. She cost £30,000 to build, and Baines put in another £2,000 in interior decoration, adding fine woods, marble, gilding and stained glass. It is said that her rooms rivaled those of the later Queen Mary. An on-ship newspaper called the Lightning Gazette was published for the passengers and crew.
File:Emigrant fleet in Hobson's bay (Kent, Lightning, White Star, Malabar).tif
After arriving in England, Lightning's hollow bow was ignorantly filled in by her captain Anthony Enright. McKay called the people who did it "the wood butchers of Liverpool". When the famous James "Bully" Forbes became her captain, he drove her mercilessly, often running with the lee rail underwater, and the fillings soon washed out. Lightning began to set records. She crossed from New York to Liverpool in 13 days, 19½ hours, and she sailed {{convert|436|nmi|km}} in 24 hours, doing 18 to 18½ knots.{{Cite book|title=The colonial clippers|last=Lubbock, Basil|publisher=Brown, Son & Ferguson|year=1921|oclc=13940509}} In 1854–55, she made the passage from Melbourne to Liverpool in 65 days, completing a circumnavigation of the world in 5 months, 9 days, which included 20 days spent in port.{{cite book |title=Along the Clipper Way |first=Francis |last=Chichester |page=69 |location=London |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |year=1966 |isbn=0-340-00191-7 |oclc=3548425 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ayezAAAAIAAJ&q=Lightning+Melbourne+Liverpool}}
Lightning did a brief stint as a troop ship, taking British soldiers from England to India (in 87 days) to fight the 1857 Indian Mutiny.{{Cite book|last=Wilson, Charles J. A.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/205644|title=C.J.A. Wilson's Ships.|date=1971|publisher=Barre Publishers|others=Baker, William A.|isbn=0-8271-7103-X|location=Barre, Mass.|oclc=205644}}
In 1867, she was purchased by Thomas Harrison of Liverpool.
File:StateLibQld 1 72343 Lightning (ship).jpg
At around 01:00 on 30 October 1869, Lightning caught fire at Geelong in Australia, when she was fully loaded and ready to sail with 4,300 bales of wool, 200 tons of copper, 35 casks of wine, and some tallow. Attempts to control the fire were unsuccessful, so at around noon the decision was taken to sink her. She was towed out to the shoals in Corio Bay where initial attempts to hole her below the waterline with cannon fire from the shore were unsuccessful. At about four in the afternoon some of the crew scuttled her by cutting holes on the waterline, and she sank in {{convert|27|ft|m}} of water. The shoals became known as "Lightning Shoals".
Affiliations
- TS Lightning, Australian Navy Cadets - (Former Unit)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Lightning (ship, 1854)}}
- [http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships/Clippers/Lightning(1854).html Sailing Ships: Lightning]
- [http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Maritime_History/Passages/USNM-3(1855)_p291.html Voyage of the Clipper Ship Lightning from England to Australia and Back]
- [http://www.schoonerman.com/lightning_and_red_jacket.htm Lightning data]
- {{citation |url=http://www.shippingwondersoftheworld.com/lightning.html |chapter=The record-breaker Lightning |title=Shipping Wonders of the World |year=1937 |pages=300–302 |editor-first=Clarence |editor-last=Winchester }} illustrated account of the clipper Lightning
{{Clipper ships}}
{{1869 shipwrecks}}
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Category:Individual sailing vessels
Category:Ships built in Boston
Category:Ships designed by Donald McKay
Category:Age of Sail merchant ships of the United States
Category:Victorian-era passenger ships of the United Kingdom
Category:Troop ships of the United Kingdom
Category:Maritime incidents in October 1869