Baltimore Clipper

Baltimore clippers were built as small, fast sailing vessels for trade around the coastlines of the United States and with the Caribbean Islands.

Their hull lines tended to be very sharp, with a V-shaped cross section below the waterline and strongly raked stem, stern posts, and masts.

During the War of 1812, merchant schooners were too small and slow to escape the British blockade, and larger, faster, more heavily armed, purpose-built privateer Baltimore clippers were developed.

[4] One particularly famous Baltimore clipper, and one of the last of the type in commercial service, was the schooner Vigilant that traded around the Danish Caribbean islands for over a century before sinking in a hurricane on September 12, 1928.

Jack Aubrey uses a captured Baltimore clipper, the Ringle, as his tender in the Patrick O'Brian novels The Commodore and The Yellow Admiral.

Replica of 1847 "Baltimore Clipper" Californian built in 1984
Drawing for the Flying Fish class, modeled on an American vessel, was sent to Bermudian builders by the Admiralty.
An original Baltimore clipper: These were used as privateers during the War of 1812.