My Life at Sea

Synopsis

My Life at Sea is an autobiography of the COMMANDER W. CAIUS CRUTCHLEY, a sailor who began his life at sea in sailing-ships, in the age of the Black Ball liners, the Baltimore clipper-ships, and those perfect specimens of naval architecture built in Aberdeen for the China tea trade. Captain Crutchley tells of the hardships of the sea. He gives stirring descriptions of the performances of the ships in which he sailed. His narrative may perhaps be briefly supplemented. 

Sir George Holmes, in his book on ancient and modern ships, quotes many examples of record passages. In 1851, the Nightingale, in a race from Shanghai to Deal, ran on one occasion 336 knots in twenty-four hours. In the same year the Flying Cloud, in a voyage from New York to San Francisco, ran 427 knots in one day. The Thermopylæ, 886 tons register, built by Messrs. Steel, of Greenock, sailed 354 knots in twenty-four hours. The Aberdeen clippers of the ’sixties did marvellous work. Under sail, the Ariel, Taeping and Serica started together from Foochow on May 30, 1866. They met off the Lizard on September 6; and on the same day the Taeping arrived in the East India Dock at 9.45 p.m., and the Ariel at 10.15 p.m.—a difference of half-an-hour after racing for over three months on end.

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