Barons of the sea : and their race to build the world's fastest clipper ship / Steven Ujifusa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ujifusa, Steven, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Clipper ships--United States--History--19th century.

Clipper ships.

Merchant marine--United States--History--19th century.

Merchant marine.

Shipping--United States--History--19th century.

Shipping.

History.

United States.

Local Subjects:

Merchant marine--United States--History--19th century.

Shipping--United States--History--19th century.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 427 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Edition:

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Simon & Schuster, 2018.

Summary:

"There was a time, back when the United States was young and the robber barons were just starting to come into their own, when fortunes were made and lost importing luxury goods from China. It was a secretive, glamorous, often brutal business--one where teas and silks and porcelain were purchased with profits from the opium trade. But the journey by sea back home to New York could take six agonizing months, and so the most pressing technological challenge of the day became ensuring one's goods arrived first to market, so they might fetch the highest price--making their sellers some of the first millionaires. Barons of the Sea tells the story of a handful of cutthroat competitors who raced to build the fastest, finest, most profitable clipper ships to carry their precious cargo to American shores. They were visionary, eccentric shipbuilders, debonair captains, and socially ambitious merchants with names like Forbes and Delano--men whose business interests took them from the cloistered confines of China's expatriate communities to the sin-city decadence of Gold Rush-era San Francisco and from the teeming hubbub of East Boston's shipyards and to the lavish sitting rooms of New Yorks Hudson Valley estates. Elegantly written and meticulously researched, Barons of the Sea is a riveting tale of innovation and ingenuity that draws back the curtain on the making of some of the nation's greatest fortunes, and the rise and fall of an all-American industry as sordid as it was genteel"--Dust jacket.

Contents:

Prologue: the patriarch

The Canton Silver Cup

Breaking into the family

Opium hostages

Yankees in Gotham

Mazeppa and the problem child

Captain Nat

Family pressure under sail

Memnon: Delano's California bet

Enter Donald McKay

Grinnell grabs the Flying Cloud

At the starting line

Around the world

Frightful to look aloft: Sovereign of the Seas

Great Republic

Hill and river

Surprise and danger

Glory of the Seas

Keeping it in the family.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 367-400) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Weiner fund bookplate; c.2 and c.3 are gift of the author.

Other Format:

Online version: Ujifusa, Steven. Barons of the sea.

ISBN:

9781476745978

1476745978

OCLC:

1000150656