Swordfish

Owner: Manhattan Sailing Club
LOA: 24'
Type: J/24
Designer: Rod Johnstone
Year Built: 19__?
Material: Fiberglass
Sail #: SF
Commissioned into the Manhattan Sailing Club fleet on August 14, 2000.

Our club boat Swordfish is named after the famous clipper ship.  Swordfish recorded the 4th fastest sailing time ever from New York to San Francisco.  She sailed the route in 91 days under Master D.S. Babcock, departing New York on November 12, 1851 and arriving in San Francisco on February 10, 1852.

The below excerpted information about the clipper ship Swordfish is from "Greyhounds of the Sea," Third Edition, by Carl C. Cutler, Published by Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, (c) 1930, 1984 & 1960

Beginning on p.215:

Meanwhile another race was under way.  The 7th of November, 1851, had witnessed the start of what was to prove one of the most notable of all the Cape Horn contests.   On that day the Flying Fish, McKay's new model, said to be sharper than any ship then afloat, sailed from Boston commanded by E.C. Nickels.  At 8 o'clock that evening she was ten miles off the tip of Cape Cod and "going like a steam boat."

Five days later the Swordfish, a somewhat fuller clipper, built by Webb and commanded by David S. Babcock, of Stonington, left New York passing Sandy Hook at 3 p.m.   It was a race from the start; Nickels against Babcock, Boston against New York and McKay against Webb.  The event had been anticipated for weeks and probably no two ships ever left port with masters more thoroughly keyed up to the task in hand, or with a better appreciation of what was expected of them by their respective supporters.

In the light of present day knowledge it would be assumed that the Flying Fish, with her 500 tons heavier register than the Swordfish, had the odds greatly in her favor, and time allowances would undoubtedly be elaborately figured.  The master mariner of '52 would have scorned such aid to his art.  He would sail it out ship for ship and man to man or not at all, and generally speaking, the results of clipper ship contests justified the attitude.  If greater length and weight counted off the Horn or running the Easting down, the smaller and lighter ship had a certain advantage in the light variable airs prevalent in the middle latitudes.

As it turned out, therefore, victory fell a second time to New York and Webb.  The Swordfish made the best passage of the year and the fourth best for all time, arriving at San Francisco on February 10th after a passage of 90 days and 18 hours from Sandy Hook.  Four days later the Flying Fish dropped her anchor on the bar, after a run of 100 d ays and 6 hours.  It was a decisive victory for Babcock, yet it must be said that both ships rank among the fastest of the entire Cape Horn fleet, their average passages indicating that they were exceptionally well designed for the conditions of that run.

Nickels had made the Equator crossing on November 25th, a fine 19 day run, while the Swordfish did not reach that point until the 4th of December, the Flying Fish having increased her lead another four days.  On the slant from the Line down to the Horn, however, the Swordfish did excellent work, reducing the nine day lead of her opponent to a scant three days.  Up the Pacific they went, the Swordfish now gaining every day.  At the Pacific crossing the Swordfish was two days ahead and moreover had the advantage of being ten degrees farther east.  On the last stretch the Swordfish continued to increase her lead and on the 10th of February Babcock wrote his final entry: "12 noon passed the Fort - 91 day passage."

The foregoing by no means tells the story of the quality of the performance of the Swordfish - a performance which she continued to maintain as she sailed for China and home.  A brief summary of her work is contained in the following letter published a year or two later:

"May 18, 1853.

"To the Editor of the New York Herald.

SIR - In the Morning Herald of this date, I notice a statement of the comparative passage of clipper ships from New York to California, in which the Swordfish is put down at 93 days.

"The Swordfish sailed from New York on the 11th of November, 1851, and arrived at San Francisco on the 10th of February, 1852, making the passage in 90 days, 18 hours.   She crossed the Equator in the Pacific inside of 71 days and at the end of 89 days was within 100 miles of San Francisco, or 140 miles less than the Flying Cloud on her first passage.

"The time of the Swordfish, say 91 days to San Francisco, 46 from thence of China, and 89 from China home (against the monsoon), has never been equaled, and if the size of the ships is taken into consideration, her passage to California is far ahead of any other.

"Yours respectfully, D.S. Babcock."

Beginning on p. 251:

Closely contested races continued to mark the season [1853].  Two old rivals, the Swordfish and Sea Serpent, sailed from New York on the 12th of February just as the Sovereign of the Seas left Honolulu on her epochal voyage.  Both ships were sailed for all that was in them.  It was anybody's race up to the last few hundred miles, with almost equal honor to victor and vanquished.  The Swordfish arrived out on the 30th of May in the excellent passage of 107 days, with the Sea Serpent less than 48 hours behind.

Beginning on p. 292:

Many ships in '54 did as good, but few did a better year's work than the Swordfish.   Captain Horace Osgood had her.  He left New York on the 3rd of April, facing the pleasant prospect of a midwinter passage around the horn.  On the 20th of May he was fighting for westing with one sail going after another, the forecastle battered down and the entire crew mustered in the safest possible place - on deck.  When risk of drowning in a forecastle becomes greater than danger on deck, it may be safely assumed that the ship is, as one master mariner grimly noted, "very damp forward."   He crossed the Line in the Pacific 78 days 4 hours out, 35 days under the average passage for that season of the year.  From California he went to Manila and thence home to New York, anchoring inside the Hook at 11:00 P.M., February 13th.  He had been 261 days at sea and had sailed 39,979 miles.

Beginning on p. 372:

Good passages were becoming increasingly rare.  It is therefore somewhat remarkable that the record from Shanghai to New York should be lowered this year.  The Swordfish, Captain Joseph W. Crocker, left the former port on the 12th of December, 1859, and arrived at Sandy Hook on the 2nd of March, her passage of 81 days being the shortest on record, in spite of the fact that she was becalmed 5 days on the equator in the Atlantic. 

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