ClipperFan

Rob, Apparently, fact checking wasn't as accurate in 1926 when this article was published. Here's the entire November piece, warts and all, courtesy of Google books.

@uscharin Ron, nice find! I love these old periodicals and the fine details they share about these marvelous, long departed wind ships. As I told Rob, my personal, emotional preference for McKay's premier clipper ship is Staghound but according to ship's registries, her official name is Stag Hound. It's possible that at some point there was consideration of using the single word, as witness by Cornelius McKay's titling his ship plan banner as Staghound. Eventually a decision was made to name her Stag Hound. Meanwhile, I'm going to see if I can find the rest of this article.

@rwiederrich in fairness, I was reluctant to bring up the name board issue, since you did such a beautiful job. But Mike's insistence on historic accuracy prompted me to remind you. Personally I prefer the single word but that's inaccurate. Still, Rob you made a masterful recovery with your new signs.

@rwiederrich beautifully done name boards. Unfortunately according to Michael Mjelde, her officially registered name was two words Stag Hound, not a single word. He reminded me when I shared the fact that Cornelius W McKay used the single Staghound word in his banner for his drawing of her. Just thought I'd let you know. Still, they're lovely pieces.

I literally stumbled onto another artist's depiction of our topic Stag Hound featured on Eldred's Auctions: Charles F Kenny (1919-2014) "Clipper Ship Stag Hound." It began when I came across this same artist's depiction of the lovely 1853 clipper "Belle of the West" David & Asa Shiverick Shipyards, Dennis, Mass. On the back of the frame was a card with brief artist's bio on right and a small postcard of another piece "Glory of the Seas" rounding the Horn. While searching for that work, I came across his Stag Hound piece. I'm still trying to find the Glory work....

Rob, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass has this detailed scale model of the 1881 Down Easter Luzon, Smith & Townsend, East Boston, 1,391-tons. She has practically an identical aft portico entryway to her aft coach house which looks remarkably similar to the one we arrived at for your Stag Hound model.

in the same Facebook page, there were six sections of the Newburyport Herald covering events that occurred on clipper Staghound from July 8th, 1851 through November 21st, 1861. Then there's a single entry from May 15, 1925, discussing artifacts of Donald McKay including the Cornelius W. McKay Staghound model and letter generously donated to the Old State House Marine Museum by the late Captain Arthur Clark of Newburyport, Mass. They were put on display to raise awareness of an effort to raise a memorial to the memory of Donald McKay. Wednesday, September 17th, 2024, almost exactly a century later (actually 99 years, 4 months and 2 days) I received pictures of that marvelous model and associated 4-page letter. Monday, August 25th, 2025, courtesy of the MIT Maritime Museum, I finally received the long sought after Cornelius W. McKay Staghound plans (referred to as a drawing) in his November 18th, 1896, letter to Captain Arthur H. Clark. Dating from that initial letter, it's been 127 years, 10 months and 1 day since that profound full letter has been uncovered and 128 years, 10 months and 7 days since the even more detailed Staghound plans have seen the light of day! As Spock would say "Fascinating."

@rwiederrich May 10th, Customs House Museum, Newburyport, Mass shared a new acquisition. Another James E Buttersworth piece "Clipper ship Staghound with partially furled sails." I've shared the Facebook post which has a brief summary of her career. There are now at least three of these pieces, all by the same artist. I suspect the finalized version is at South Street Seaport, NYC while the other two (or possibly three) were studies leading up to that.

@BANYAN Pat, in the late 70s I worked for a while clearing trees for large housing developments. Occasionally we resorted to block & tackle to make sure large trees didn't fall on homes. Being familiar with how lines can bind, I say the left center illustration with dual outside chains is definitely the safer choice. The other one with a centrally mounted hoist chain gets offset to the right. A situation which could easily lead to binding, since the central chain appears to cross over to the other line. and the right side block has to accommodate two chains. The other arrangement is simpler and cleaner with no chance of crossing eachother. Of course, it would still need Rob's wishbone thingy, since I can't remember the proper nautical term.

@BANYAN Pat, where I see Rob's 50 years' experience translates to his model building prowess is in how he recreates actual working vessels and not just pretty mantlepiece decorations. We've discovered many incongruities in commercially produced plans. This latest correction by Rob is just one of many. He points out how the metal band supporting a yardarm would bind without a device to prevent it from doing so. Simple, yet overlooked. Another one is the long, wide lubbers hole on solid tops. It makes sense both for ease of rigging and to allow crew better access. Yet commercially produced plans still have tiny square openings. You'll notice too, Stag Hound has her twin navel hoods supporting her leaping dog figurehead and acting as a foundation for her bowsprit-jibboom above. It's been on McKay ships since launch but only recently been rediscovered.

Rob, D'oh! I meant James Craig and in a rush, since I was distracted picking up my wife from work, typed the wrong ship....

Rob, I noticed that lower and upper topsail yards on Barque James Baines have an octagonal center just afore her fore and main masts. Something I haven't seen on wooden masts before.

@BANYAN 1833 Ann McKim, Baltimore, MD, 143' 493 tons 3 masts was launched. She's considered America's first clipper. 1845 clipper Rainbow, 1846 clipper Sea Witch, 1849 clipper Oriental 183' 1003 tons was first American clipper to carry tea from China after the Navigation Laws were repealed. Aberdeen packet vessel Scottish Maid 89.25' 142 tons, 2 masted topsail schooner was launched in 1839, six years later then the first American clipper. Even the British acknowledge that for a decade Yankee clippers dominated the Chinese tea trade. Regardless, British clippers, as witnessed by the svelte tea clipper Cutty Sark were incredibly beautiful. Sadly the American Civil War was responsible for ending Yankee dominance.

Rob, that is some weighty mouthful. Who said it?

One of my all time favorite show tunes. Thanks Johnny now I got that song stuck in my head.... 😉

Stag Hound mast height differences: fore mast: total 190', deck to truck 146', 20' less then main mast main mast: total 210', deck to truck 166' mizzen mast: total 173', deck to truck 129', 17' less then fore and 37' less then main.

Then again, in the immortal words of Yoda, Jedi Master "There is no try, only do!"

Rob, I try without trying to be trying.....

@rwiederrich I total Stag Hound main mast height as 209'. Cornelius McKay's handwritten specs say her main mast height deck to truck is 166'. So her main mast is 44' below deck. Since only the lowermost of each mast is affected, it means her main mast is 44' to her main top as it's 88' total. Main mast: lower 88' + hound 14' + top 37' (51' - 14') + hound 9'6" + t'gallant 18'6" (28' - 9'6") + royal 19' + skysail 15' + pole 9' = 210' Fore mast: lower 82' + hound 13' + top 33' (46' - 13') + hound 9' + t'gallant 16' (25' - 9') + royal 17' + skysail 13' + pole 7' = 190' Mizzen mast: lower 78' + hound 12' + top 28' (40' - 12') + hound 8' + t'gallant 14' (22' - 8') + royal 16' + skysail 11' + pole 6' = 173' Fore mast 82' gives 38' to fore mast top while mizzen is 78' resulting in 34' to her mizzen top. As her fore mast totals 190' -44' = 146' deck to truck and her mizzen mast is 173' -44' = 129' deck to truck. I hope you find this helpful; if any of these calculations are wrong, feel free to correct them. FYI: only her fore and main mast are fished, meaning made masts. Her mizzen was a solid stick. Fore was 32.5" base and 29.5" at truss band, main was 33" base and 30" at truss band and mizzen was 26" base -3" would be 23" at truss band.

While discussing unusual deck arrangements, I read that the Donald McKay had a semi-circular glass door entrance to her aft dining room which was described as having a corresponding extended roof shelteriing above. This leads me to conclude her single catwalk was centrally mounted and intersected this sheltering semi-circular roof. Since she was a very spacious vessel intended more for Australian emigration service, she could be considered a clipper packet.

Rob, no surprise that I agree with you. McKay's clipper Lightning was the first to pioneer McKay's radical raked keel which for 60' had a gradually curving stem which never had a sharp angle like other clippers of her day. This controversial design so flustered English shipwrights that they attached extra hull forms to fill her out. Fortunately that crap washed off and she performed as McKay intended. This ship was first to pioneer raised catwalk allowing crew to traverse more quickly.

@Sailor1234567890 Rob may not agree with my recommendation but here's my answer and why. Based on her two record 89 day performances, anchor to anchor from New York to San Francisco, CA there was no other extreme California clipper that could match the inimitable Boston built 1851 Flying Cloud. Her records stood for over a century and when it was finally beaten, it was done by a racing yacht and not a fully laden merchant sailing ship. To that I say "Apples and oranges." Only one other clipper, Mystic built Andrew Jackson matched her time from New York to the Golden Gate San Francisco Bay. But due to inability to get a Pilot, she waited another day before she could dock.

Rob, that makes eminent sense since I'm sure Donald McKay was building on his prior Atlantic Packet building practice. Not to mention, he was contractually committed to completely finishing her in 90 days! Another astounding fact confirmed in Cornelius McKay's letter to capt. Arthur H Clark. Time would have been of the essence.

@Veszett Roka @rwiederrich @Vladimir_Wairoa and I first joined together to do an exhaustive reconstruction of Donald McKay's final medium clipper Glory of the Seas. That effort began in 2021, although Rob and I had individually been studying her for over a dozen years earlier. Our research was aided and guided by Michael Mjelde, author of three books on her. Now we're using the knowledge gained from that project to resurrect McKay's Stag Hound "Pioneer craft of the California Clipper Fleet" as described by his son Cornelius. In Rob's log you'll see many pics of the gorgeous 1850 Staghound model created by Cornelius directly from the ship's lines taken from off the molding loft floor as she was being built! Thanks to the generosity of curators at The Old State House Museum, Boston, I was sent a copy of the entire 4 page letter written by Cornelius to Capt Arthur H Clark, Nov 18th, 1896. That letter confirmed existence of a drawing that Cornelius made at the same time he crafted his magnificent model. Only recently, MIT sent me a copy of that drawing. It's a 1:96th scale precise plan of Staghound with starboard sheer, fore & aft body, profile from below and small sail plan in lower right corner. When I enhanced colors to better see it, I discovered that besides dark blue, some lines were drawn in red! I paid $25.00 to get a clean pdf which required me to sign a confidentiality agreement not to publish it, although I was given permission to share it with modelers as long as they agree not to publish it. Since none of the other sources: Hall, Chappelle, MacGregor or Crothers got their plans right, it's safe to assume none of them ever saw the Cornelius McKay lines! That means this might be the first time this plan has come to light in over a Century!! As soon as possible, once I have free time, I plan to precisely trace these plans and share them here, giving full credit to the MIT Museum as the source. To sum up: our group doesn't build models, we create museum scale replicas.