The Herald of the Morning was one of the few clipper ships with a passage to San Francisco in less than 100 days.

Construction

Herald of the Morning was designed by Samuel Hartt Pook

Samuel Hartt Pook

Samuel Hartt Pook was a Boston-based American naval architect noted for designing very fast clipper ships.-Clipper ships:...

. 'Her lines were sharp, approaching those of an actual clipper, yet she could carry in dead weight close to 1600 tons."
The Mauritius Commercial Gazeteer described the bow of the Herald of the Morning as "so sharp as to take the form of a razor, the keel forming the edge; there are no rails at the bow, which is quite unencumbered."
An 1854 "Boston Daily Atlas" writer was impressed by the beauty of her accommodations, and described the ship's overall appearance thus: "Her stern is oval in outline, and is finely ornamented with gilded carved work. She is sheathed with yellow metal

Muntz metal

Muntz metal is a form of alpha-beta brass with about 60% copper, 40% zinc and a trace of iron. It is named after George Fredrick Muntz, a metal-roller of Birmingham, England who commercialised the alloy following his patent of 1832....

, and is painted black outside; inside she is white, and the waterways blue, and her rack rail is covered with yellow metal fore and aft."

Named after ancient goddess

The name Herald of the Morning refers to Eos

Eos

In Greek mythology, Eos is the Titan goddess of the dawn, who rose from her home at the edge of Oceanus, the ocean that surrounds the world, to herald her brother Helios, the Sun.- Greek literature :...

 (Greek) or Aurora

Aurora (mythology)

Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry.Like Greek Eos and Rigvedic Ushas , Aurora continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, *Hausos....

 (Roman) the Goddess of Dawn. Her figurehead was a "full figure of Aurora ... placed to correspond with the inclination of the cutwater."

Voyages

Herald of the Morning had a reputation for speed. She made 18 passages around Cape Horn

Cape Horn

Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...

 during the 20 years she was under the U.S. flag, and two homeward trips around the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

.

Boston to San Francisco, Capt. Baker, 106 days, 1854
(Was within 180 mi. of the Golden Gate 100 days out)

New York to San Francisco, Capt. Lathrop, 130 days, 1857

Boston to San Francisco, Capt. Baker, arriving March 18, 1859, 116 days

Boston to San Francisco, Capt. Mitchell, arriving May 25, 1860, 108 days

Record California passage in 1855

Herald of the Morning made the fastest passage of the year from New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 to San Francisco, arriving May 16, 1855

100 days, 6 hours, anchor to anchor

99 days, 12 hours, pilot to pilot

Best day’s run, 340 mi.

After this passage, she took a load of guano

Guano

Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...

 to Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

, arriving Dec. 7 1855, under Captain Otis Baker, Jr.

Locomotive transport

Herald of the Morning left Boston on May 16, 1863, carrying Central Pacific

Central Pacific Railroad

The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...

 Locomotive No. 1, and arrived in San Francisco on Sept 20, 1863, after a voyage of 117 days.

Struck by a sperm whale

Herald of the Morning was struck by a very large sperm whale

Sperm Whale

The sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, is a marine mammal species, order Cetacea, a toothed whale having the largest brain of any animal. The name comes from the milky-white waxy substance, spermaceti, found in the animal's head. The sperm whale is the only living member of genus Physeter...

 off Cape Horn in 1859. The whale sustained severe injuries. “The ship lost part of her stem, and the pumps had to be kept going until her arrival at destination.”

Painting of the ship

• Herald of the Morning, by Charles Lundgren

External links

• Calculations of clipper ship Herald of the Morning
• Description in the Boston Daily Atlas, Jan. 1854
• Description in the U.S. Nautical Magazine, by John W. Griffiths
  John W. Griffiths
  John Willis Griffiths was an American naval architect who designed the first true clipper ship.His first ship, the Rainbow, was viewed with shock as a difference in design, until she made the round trip from New York to Canton in 180 days instead of the normal year.-Books and...
  
  
• Race to San Francisco with Flying Cloud, Era of the Clipper Ships
• Central Pacific Railroad 56 lb./yd. rail that was shipped on Herald of the Morning, used between Sacramento City and Colfax, Placer Co., Cal.