“WAR-HAWK” – 1855 ~ 1883 – Medium clipper built by George W. Jackman of Newburyport , Mass. for Bush and Comstock of Boston & New York – 182' x 35' x 23'6” – Made ten passages from New York and Boston to San Francisco. Her best run was 121 days from New York.
In her twenty-eight years of ocean service, “WAR-HAWK” was primarily a general trader, seeking a variety of cargoes to remain profit-able for her owners. In 1871 she was purchased by S.L. Mastick & Co., to carry lumber from their company mills at Fort Discovery , Puget Sound , to the San Francisco market. The “HAWK” competed with the famous Ports-mouth , NH , clipper “DASHING WAVE” fro the greatest number of turnaround runs.*
This card depicts the clipper running fast under three topsails and a staysail. The birds hovering are long-winged, twin-tailed frigate birds of the tropics. “War-Hawks” exist only in the human species.
*”DASHING WAVE” (1853 ~ 1920) was the second oldest clipper fleet survivor and “SYREN” (1851 ~ 1920) won the distinction of being the oldest lived of the 352 American clipper ships that once astonished the maritime world.
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