Product Description

The Harvey was built in 1847 in the State of Maryland and is a fine example of the first generation of the American Clippers having big sails hoisted on two long masts. She was an able sailboat working out of the port of Galveston, Texas. At the turn of the Century she was making several voyages a year between Galveston and the ancient Jewish port of Jaffa which at the time was still under the Ottoman Empire. Her main cargo was hemp used to make ropes for the rigging of ships. Fast and kind of ‘’roomy’,’ clippers were used during the War of Independence (with canons on board) and to transport opium and slaves. But they were mostly known as a secure and fast transportation meaning to bring goods and rich merchants from the East Coast to California via Cap Horn. The golden era of the Clippers happened during the gold rush years in San Francisco. Band wagon trails in hostile countries was not the best way to travel across the continent and a clipper would bring you in 89 days to San Francisco. Later on, shipyards on the East started to built 3 masts clippers with more sails to go faster but this golden age of sail transportation came to an end when the train reached California and steamers would cross the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal.