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
Flying Cloud: The True Story of America's Most Famous Clipper Ship and the Woman Who Guided Her Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sea Wolf of the Confederacy: The Daring Civil War Raids of Naval Lt. Charles W. Read Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Ghost behind the Masks: The Victorian Poets and Shakespeare Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Flying Cloud
Related ebooks
Rear Admiral Herbert V. Wiley: A Career in Airships and Battleships Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarons of the Sea: And Their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Measureless Peril: America in the Fight for the Atlantic, the Longest Battle of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storm Below Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hatteras Blues: A Story from the Edge of America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIron Dawn: The Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle that Changed History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Naval War of 1812 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSink ‘Em All: Submarine Warfare in the Pacific Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Golden Horseshoe: The Wartime Career of Otto Kretschmer, U-Boat Ace Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fool's Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bones of My Grandfather: Reclaiming a Lost Hero of World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don't Just Look - See!: My Parents' War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnlikely General: "Mad" Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vanished Hero: The Life, War and Mysterious Disappearance of America's WWII Strafing King Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Old Front Line Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdmiral Farragut Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Destroyer Captain: Lessons of a First Command Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Awkward Truth: The Bombing of Darwin, February 1942 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pinon Pine: A Natural And Cultural History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStay the Rising Sun: The True Story of USS Lexington, Her Valiant Crew, and Changing the Course of WWII Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, HisLieutenants, and Their War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Giants: U.S. Escort Carriers Against Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBurning of Washington: The British Invasion of 1814 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAround the World Submerged: The Voyage of the Triton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quarterdeck and Bridge: Two Centuries of American Naval Leaders Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fur Country Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Steel Wedge: U.S. Marine Corps Armor in Pacific Island Combat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBattle For The Solomons [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Smoke and Mirrors: Q-Ships against the U-Boats in the First World War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
History For You
100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: Secrets, Conspiracies, Cover Ups, and Absurdities Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The 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 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Richest Man in Babylon: The most inspiring book on wealth ever written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of The War of Art: by Steven Pressfield | Includes Analysis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Victorian Lady's Guide to Fashion and Beauty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lessons of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa 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 stars4/5Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine 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 stars5/5
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.