Flying Cloud: The True Story of America's Most Famous Clipper Ship and the Woman Who Guided Her
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Flying Cloud is the riveting and thoroughly researched tale of a truly unforgettable sea voyage during the days of the California gold rush. In 1851, navigator Eleanor Creesy set sail on the maiden voyage of the clipper ship Flying Cloud, traveling from New York to San Francisco in only 89 days. This swift passage set a world record that went unbroken for more than a century. Upon arrival in San Francisco, Flying Cloud became an enduring symbol of a young nation's daring frontier spirit. Illustrated with original maps and charts as well as historical photographs, Shaw's compelling narrative captures the drama of this thrilling adventure.
In a position almost unheard of for a woman in the mid-19th century, Eleanor Creesy served as the ship's navigator. With only the sun, planets, and stars to guide her, she brought Flying Cloud safely around Cape Horn at the height of a winter blizzard, faced storms, dodged shoals, and found her way through calms to make the swift passage possible. Along with her husband, Josiah, the ship's captain, she sailed the mighty 3-masted clipper through 16,000 miles of the fiercest, most unpredictable oceans in the world.
Shaw vividly recreates 19th-century seafaring conditions and customs, for both the crew and the passengers who entrusted their fate to an untested ship. Including excerpts from letters and diaries of passengers, Shaw recounts Flying Cloud's victory in the face of adversity—including sabotage, insubordination, and severe damage to the clipper's mainmast that might have sunk her with all hands lost. But the ship triumphed and would ultimately sail the world. Flying Cloud brings to life, for the first time, the glory of one of America's most important seafaring tales and one woman's incredible achievements.
Read more from David W. Shaw
Sea Wolf of the Confederacy: The Daring Civil War Raids of Naval Lt. Charles W. Read Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Flying Cloud: The True Story of America's Most Famous Clipper Ship and the Woman Who Guided Her Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghost behind the Masks: The Victorian Poets and Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Flying Cloud
Related ebooks
Carrier Daze: Tales from the Uss Oriskany and Uss Lake Champlain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Measureless Peril: America in the Fight for the Atlantic, the Longest Battle of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Endeavour: The Ship That Changed the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Insurrection, Corruption & Murder in Early Vermont: Life on the Wild Northern Frontier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAwkward Truth: The Bombing of Darwin, February 1942 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Newton Forster or the Merchant Service Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Battle For The Solomons [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mohawks on the Nile: Natives Among the Canadian Voyageurs in Egypt, 1884-1885 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBurning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bones of My Grandfather: Reclaiming a Lost Hero of World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Naval War of 1812 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWar Diaries, 1939–1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wreck of the Grosvenor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSmoke and Mirrors: Q-Ships against the U-Boats in the First World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDon't Just Look - See!: My Parents' War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGreat Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mighty by Sacrifice: The Destruction of an American Bomber Squadron, August 29, 1944 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Far Shore Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Churchill's War Lab: Code Breakers, Scientists, and the Mavericks Churchill Led to Victory Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tales Of An Empty Cabin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stay the Rising Sun: The True Story of USS Lexington, Her Valiant Crew, and Changing the Course of WWII Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Iron Dawn: The Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle that Changed History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Admiral Farragut Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5“One Minute to Ditch!” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHell in the Pacific: The Battle for Iwo Jima Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
History For You
The Lessons of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: Secrets, Conspiracies, Cover Ups, and Absurdities Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Richest Man in Babylon: The most inspiring book on wealth ever written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wise as Fu*k: Simple Truths to Guide You Through the Sh*tstorms of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Flying Cloud
7 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A book about a record set by a female navigator in 1851 on a schooner from NY to San Francisco. Good description of transporting goods via schooners in the 1850s, the boats, sailors and conditions and how they navigated and the officers and their lives. The author did an excellent job of making the voyage real and giving us an insight into the lives of the officers, crew and passengers of a working schooner in the 1850s. I loved all of the facts he gave us about the shipbuilder, details of the ship and how they navigated at the time, as well as why they didn't use the Magellan Strait and what happened to the working sailing ships with the takeover of steam ships and the railway line across the isthmus of Panama.