Samuel Hartt Pook
Encyclopedia
Samuel Hartt Pook was a Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
-based American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
naval architect noted for designing very fast clipper ships
Clipper
A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area...
.
Clipper ships
Pook designed several very fast clippers, including the SurpriseSurprise (clipper)
The Surprise was a California clipper built in East Boston in 1850. It initially rounded Cape Horn to California, but the vessel's owners, A. A. Low & Brother, soon found that the vessel performed well in Far Eastern waters...
, Witchcraft
Witchcraft (clipper)
The Witchcraft was a clipper built in 1850 for the California and China trade. She made record passages from Rio de Janeiro to San Francisco, and from San Francisco to Callao, Peru.-Construction:...
, Herald of the Morning
Herald of the Morning (clipper)
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...
and Northern Light
Northern Light (clipper)
The Northern Light was an American clipper ship. In 1853 she sailed from San Francisco, California to Boston, Massachusetts via Cape Horn with Captain Freeman Hatch at the helm in a record-setting 76 days, 6 hours. The record still stands for a single hull vessel. In 1993 the record was soundly...
, all of which made passages, prior to 1861, from an American East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
port to San Francisco, via 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...
in fewer than 100 days, a speedy passage for the period. He was involved in the design of the 1850 clipper barque Race Horse
Race Horse (clipper)
The Race Horse was an 1850 clipper barque. She set a record of 109 days from New York to San Francisco during the first Clipper Race around the Horn.-Construction:...
. Pook also designed the 1853 clipper Challenger
Challenger (1853 clipper)
The Challenger was an extreme clipper ship built in East Boston in 1853. She sailed in the San Francisco trade, and later in the guano trade in Peru.-Voyages:...
and the Red Jacket
Red Jacket (clipper)
|-Further reading:-External links:* -Images and models:** by Percy A. Sandborne* Currier and Ives print* Currier and Ives print, with less color, Springfield Museum* ship model...
, a holder of the speed record for the 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...
-Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and Liverpool-Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
passages.
Ironclad design for USS Galena
Pook was less successful in his design for the Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
-era ironclad Galena
USS Galena (1862)
USS Galena — an ironclad screw steamer — was one of the first three ironclads, each of a different design, built by the Union Navy during the American Civil War....
, which was found, in combat conditions, to suffer from ineffective armoring.
Pook's father was the naval architect Samuel Moore Pook
Samuel M. Pook
Samuel Moore Pook was a Boston-based American naval architect and father of Samuel Hartt Pook, the noted clipper ship naval architect. In 1861, at the outbreak of the American Civil War, he designed the City class ironclads for James B. Eads...
, who designed the far more successful City-class Ironclads
City class ironclad
The Pook Turtles, or City class gunboats to use their semi-official name, were war vessels intended for service on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. They were also sometimes referred to as "Eads gunboats." The labels are applied to seven vessels of uniform design built from...
of the same period.