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"Southern Cross" (Clipper Ship)
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The medium clipper ship "Southern Cross" was built in 1851 by E. and H.O. Briggs at their shipyard in South Boston for the shipping firm of Baker & Morrill of Boston. She was named for what her owners regarded as the most beautiful constellation in the Southern Hemisphere. Recent claims that the Briggs yard was in East Boston are not supported by a very detailed contemporary newspaper account (very likely The Boston Atlas), which gave South Boston as the yard's location.
"Southern Cross" experienced more than her fair share of adversity, with contrary winds, dismastings, and a fire, preventing her from making the quick passages her owners expected. Her career ended abruptly when the Confederate cruiser "Florida" captured and burned her in June, 1863.
– Erik Ronnberg
Reference:
Octavius T. Howe, and Frederick C. Matthews. American Clipper Ships: 1833–1858 (Salem, MA: Marine Research Society, 1927).
Related tables: Ship (Full-Rigged) »
Tinted lithograph with hand coloring
13 7/8 x 22 3/8 in.
Boston Athenaeum
From Sally Pierce and Catharina Slautterback, Boston Lithography, 1825–1880: The Boston Atheneaum Collection (Boston: Athenaeum, 1991): "Tidd drew this print when he was a consulting engineer for Simpson's. He has depicted the clipper ship 'Southern Cross' in the dry dock. Built in 1851, she was known for having sailed from San Francisco to Hong Kong in the record breaking time of thirty-two days. The Bethlehem Ship Building Company eventually took over this location and operated a dry dock there until the mid 1940s."
Also filed under: Boston Harbor » // M. M. Tidd, Lith. – Boston »
