![]() To make up for the lost space, they had high beams above the waterline and used extra sails to quicken the journey around the Cape of Good Hope. To meet this growing requirement for high-quality tea and Opium, the British turned to a new class of clippers operating from Asia- the Opium and Tea clippers.īuilt and operated by Chinese and Arab merchants, and manned by Indians and Far East Asians, these vessels featured extremely high deadrise angles. Produced in the plantations of China and India, they required short voyage times in order to retain cargo freshness. Tea was another commodity with high demand in British society. Opium was a fast-selling commodity in Britain and China, with annual consumption far exceeding the production capabilities of the East India Company. Even today, they rival the speed of modern commercial vessels. In fact, the Chinese clippers that plied these routes were touted to be some of the fastest ships ever built. ![]() They employed fast clippers to keep a constant supply of goods between these locations and India. The East India Company was a major driving force in creating a demand for goods in Asia and Europe. The phrase, “to clip” means “to proceed at a swift pace”, which explains the origin of the term clipper. Being a fast and able vessel, the clipper ship gained popularity and the term became mainstream by the second half of the 19th century. The term clipper originated in English texts and was followed by its prominent use in America. The other maritime contemporaries of the Baltimore Clipper were Pilot-boat, Virginia Built, and Baltimore Built vessels.Ī possible theory suggests that the term “Baltimore Clipper” was shortened to be “Clipper”, giving rise to the now-popular name. It was part of the American shipbuilding spree that gripped the nation in the 18th-19th centuries. But the consensus is that the Baltimore Clipper was the first vessel to employ that name. The origin of the term “clipper ship” in naval architecture is disputed.
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