The California Clipper FLYING CLOUD, with a fair evening breeze and following sea in the Golden Gate Narrows.  A generic scene, circa 1853.  The work conveys a study of colour and light, by the play of evening shadows and the projection of the setting sun through the spread of canvas aloft.  A welcoming mood is offered by the glow of the evening sky.  The seaway is tempered so as not to unduly romanticise the scene – suggestive of mastery of the sea while still conceding its peril – and the tidal conditions often prevailing in this stretch of water.  The vessel rounds the Marin Headlands – with Point Bonita in the visible distance of ocean haze saturated with the evening light.  She makes her Marryat number at the mizzen; the third distinction pennant visible at the mizzen truck, with the sequence of numerical pennants 3-4-7-1 hinted behind the mizzen royal and topgallant.  The house flag streams at the main.   Sailing offwind with calmer air across her decks the American Ensign hoisted at the mizzen peak rests and dips its tail.  The foretopsail also rests in its buntlines, becalmed by the blocking effect of upstream canvas.  The mizzen’sl is brailed at the driver boom; the weather clew of the mainsail picked up; and studdingsails set athwart opposite beams of the fore and mainmasts – all practices of seamanship specific to offwind points of sail.   A crossjack would likely have been carried but would have been no use in this situation – thereby a small convenience was taken to leave the mizzen’yd bare to show as much of the American Ensign as I could.  I will acknowledge the authority of William Crothers’ The American Built Clipper Ship, and Captain Arthur H. Clark’s The Clippership Era, to both of whom I am indebted as principal references for this ship.  I will note their specifically helpful mention of: Rig, comprising three standing skysails; bowlines (and their associated bridles) rigged to topgallants; four reef bands in the – topsails with a single in the topgallants, and square lower studdingsails at the foremast; further, illustration of the extent of deadrise and corresponding lesser swelling of the hull sections in observed freeboard; detailed general arrangements, as well as mention of the vessel’s name having been carved in gilt between the rails (which I took to mean between the main and monkey rails, rather than the mainrail & planksheer).    Admittedly it emerged as a point of contention whether this detail should have been conveyed forward or abaft of the catheads, not to mention above or below the planksheer.  Forward of the catheads seems to have been more common with the US Clippers and I would be at pains to consider the planksheer a rail.   Notwithstanding that, references to the contrary are still abound.    As with all aspects of period detail my wager is made.  If compelling evidence to the contrary can be found then I will gladly make any correction.  As a point of further interest: Arthur H. Clark makes specific mention of the American Clippers having fided a white light at the bowsprit cap, “to be lit from Sunset to Sunrise”.  I have seen these illustrated, albeit subtly, in period engravings, notably The Packetship DREADNOUGHT off Tuskar Light by Currier & Ives. It was a point of license then, to illustrate this detail as early as Dusk.  The shimmer of light reflecting in the seaway, and its variance from the ambient harmony helped, I thought, to suggest something beyond the scene – this being the corresponding vignette of the Port Town of San Francisco as it awaited, a welcoming glimmer waxing bright against gathering nightfall. With the fastest passages between New York and San Francisco occupying the greater extent of 115 days, traversing some of the most hazardous navigable waterways then known to man, one can only imagine the relief of arrival, the anticipation of sailors, and the incidents and calamities hither.
          Built in 1851 FLYING COULD was another thoroughbred of Donald McKay’s extreme Clippers; she led a storied life and accomplished notable fame at the hands of Captain Josiah Perkins Creesy.  The ship’s navigating officer, Mrs. Nicola Creesy, was in fact the Captain’s wife. Of all the California Clippers to have made that passage in 115 days or fewer, the name FLYING CLOUD appears with regularity.    FLYING CLOUD actually set the standing record from New York to San Francisco of 89 days – and did so twice – prompting the famous signal “I HAVE BEEN AT SEA 89 DAYS”, which I respectfully did not copy, to afford a little sea-room to John Stobart who has painted it at least twice.   There appears to have been a close second – being the SWORDFISH, which made the same passage in 90 days; arriving in February of 1852.  History will never afford us a perfect measure by which we can compare these ships fairly, but FLYING CLOUD is widely understood to have been one of the faster Clippers ever built – she famously raced the NATHANIEL B. PALMER, from the equal starting point of an equatorial calm off Brazil, through the South Atlantic and around Cape Horn.  As both ships came up on a freshening Southerly the FLYING CLOUD pulled away, leaving the N. B. PALMER out of sight to leeward by nightfall of the following day; ultimately leading her into San Francisco by 23 days (notwithstanding that Captain Low of the N. B. PALMER had lost 5 days putting into Valparaiso to offload two of his crew).  Captain ‘Joe’ Creesy later lived the unusual experience of reading his own obituary at sea.  Making the passage from Canton, China to San Francisco, exchanging newspapers and victuals with an outbound ship off Java Head he read of his apparent passing.  The event of his death supposedly occurring two days out from San Francisco to Canton; his first officer having taken command for the remainder of the voyage from which he was now returning.  By his own luck the erroneous news piece relieved him of a lawsuit pressed by his former first officer, who had the enlisted help of a New York sea-lawyer – the first officer whom he had reprimanded during FLYING CLOUD’s maiden California passage of 1851, and who upon reading of his former Captain’s passing had dropped the charge!