Speed on the Deep
An MIT Museum exhibit explores the heyday of clipper ships
By Sally Atwood

For about two decades in the middle of the 19th century, clipper ships ruled the seas. Sparked by the opening of the China tea trade and gold rushes in California and Australia, it was a brief golden era marked by frenetic shipbuilding and exorbitant cargo rates that could pay for ships in a single voyage. Records for size and speed were shattered almost as soon as they were established, and just about anyone who owned part of a clipper ship was made wealthy, seemingly overnight.

The Clipper Ship Era, an exhibition at the MIT Museum, delves into the design and construction of these speedy merchant ships, their immense economic impact, and how they came to symbolize American ingenuity in shipbuilding technology. Highlights of the exhibit include half-hull models of famous clippers, the original plans of five celebrated ships by Donald McKay, a noted Boston shipbuilder, and lithographs of some of the most important clipper ships built in the United States and Britain. Rare books, photographs, and a rigged scale sailing model made by a relative of McKay also help tell the story of the clippers' rise and fall. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the advent of the compound steam engine signaled the beginning of the end of the sail era.

According to curator Kurt Hasselbalch, "The term 'clipper' was used to describe many fast sailing vessels." The ships generally had three full-rigged masts with square sails, a more streamlined bow and stern than their predecessors, and lengths of 50 to 80 meters (although the largest built was 100 meters). "The purpose of the design was to carry perishable goods vast oceanic distances," Hasselbalch says. "It was pushing up the threshold of speed and size."

The exhibition, which is on view until July 10, is based on the collection of ship captain Arthur H. Clark. In 1922, Clark donated his collection to MIT.