Name Carrier Dove Tons burthen 1694 or 1545 tons Launched 1855 Builder Balti | Class and type Medium clipper Beam 42 ft (13 m), Length 63 m | |
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Owner Montell and Company, Baltimore, MD Owner 1863, Trask & Dearborn; sold at auction in New York in 1863 for $67,000; 1868, Union Navigation Company; 1870, J.D. Fish & Co.; 1875, John W. Elwell & Co. | ||
The Carrier Dove was an 1855 medium clipper. She was one of two well-known clippers launched in Baltimore that year, the other being the Mary Whitridge.
Contents
Construction
The Carrier Dove, like the Andrew Jackson of Mystic, the Mary Whitridge of Baltimore, and the Flying Mist of Medford, was a medium clipper, built on a practical modification of clipper ship lines. She combined much of the speed of the sleek, early 1850s extreme clippers with the larger cargo capacity of the fuller-bottomed traditional packet ships.
Voyages
Carrier Dove was dismasted in a hurricane just eight days out of New York City on her maiden voyage to San Francisco in 1855. Nevertheless, she made it to Rio de Janeiro on November 9, in 55 days. She remained in Rio for two months for repairs. The remainder of her trip around the Horn was more favorable, and she arrived in San Francisco on April 25, 1856, after a voyage of 98 days.
Her voyage from New York to San Francisco in 1860 under Captain Montell was more fortunate, and she arrived in 127 days.
In 1862, she took a cargo of wheat from San Francisco to Queenstown, Australia, in 124 days.
Fast passages
Liverpool to Melbourne, 78 days, in 1858. Melbourne to Valparaiso, 30 or 32 days, under Captain Theodore Corner, very close to the record.
Locomotive transport
Carrier Dove left New York on November 2, 1863, carrying San Francisco & San Jose Locomotive No. 4, and arrived in San Francisco on May 20, 1864.
Went ashore
In 1862, Carrier Dove sailed in the transatlantic trade under Captain Nash and Captain Jackson. She went ashore near Valentia, Ireland, in 1863, but was repaired and auctioned to her former owners, Trask & Dearborn. Also in 1863, she "collided with another vessel in the Mersey" that year, requiring assistance from three steam-tugs.
In 1865, while en route from Shields, laden with coal and general cargo, she went ashore on Governors Island, just outside her destination, New York. Her cargo was taken the rest of the way to the wharves by lighter.
Loss of the ship
Carrier Dove went ashore for the last time on Stone Horse Shoals, near Tybee, while on a voyage from Liverpool to Tybee, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, March 3, 1876. She was a total loss.