U.S. Frigate Congress

In this colorful marine painting Christopher Blossom presents us with the Flagship of the California squadron during the war with Mexico. Built between 1839 and 1842 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Maine, the U.S. Frigate Congress served off South America in the 1840's.

The Civil War brought the Frigate Congress back to U.S. waters, joining the blockade of the Confederacy's Atlantic Coast. In March 1862, the US Congress was attacked by the Ironclad CSS Virginia and forced to surrender.

Sea Witch

In 1849 the famous tea clipper, Sea Witch above,

set a new record for the China to New York

run of 74 days 14 hours

HMS Victory

1805

Her Majesty’s Ship Victory is the only surviving naval warship that represents the skill of naval dockyard shipwrights, ship designers and the industrial ability of Britain during the mid 18th century.HMS Victory is a first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, started in 1759 and launched in 1765, most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar. She is the oldest naval ship still in commission, and now sits in dry dock in Portsmouth, England as a museum ship.

More than this the Victory is equally a classic example of warship construction techniques used by all maritime powers of that period including Denmark, France, Holland and Spain, also the lesser naval powers of Russia, Naples, Sweden and Turkey.

Besides her historic role serving as Admiral Lord Nelson’s flagship at the battle of Trafalgar, the Victory stands in the line of technical advances made between the 16th century Tudor warship Mary Rose, the Victorian built iron warship Warrior of the mid 19th century and the steel built monitor M33 of the early 20 century.

Simply just a manoeuvrable floating weapons platform, the Victory is likewise historically comparable with the modern naval warships of the 21st century.

USS constitution

USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the oldest commissioned naval vessel afloat in the world.

Flying Cloud

Held record for passage under sail from New York to San Francisco,

89 days 8 hours, for over 100 years, from 1854-1989

Thermopylae

The famous tea-clipper Thermopylae, was built 1868 by Walter Hood in Aberdeen, Scotland. Thermopylae was known as one of the fastest clipper ever. An awesome competition was between Thermopylae and Cutty Sark, another famous British tea-clipper of similar size. After the opening of the Suez-Canal in 1869 steamers took over from the sailing ships carrying the tea from India to England. Thermopylae was then used for transport of lumber and one of its voyages from London to Melbourne, Australia, took but 59 days and another, between Newcastle, England and Shanghai, China, took 28 days - both a record that stood for a long time. Theropylae could reach a speed of 20 miles per hour - no steamer could match its speed but in dead calm wind. A legend told that Thermopylae did not require but such a light breeze to reach 7 miles speed that it was possible to walk the deck with a burning candle. The Portuguese Navy bought Thermopylae and used it as a training-ship for a while or until it was destroyed by a torpedo in an exercise in 1907. This picture is of a painting by the Dutch artist Cornelis de Vries as printed in the book "Great Classic Sailing Ships", by author Kenneth Giggal. That book, in a grand format and with English text, is of exceptional quality containing the brief history along with remarkable illustrations of many of the grandest sailing ships until the third decade of the 20th Century.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Mariner up on the mast in a storm.

One of the wood-engraved illustrations by Gustave Doré

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere) is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 (see 1798 in poetry). The modern editions use a later revised version printed in 1817

It is an ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three.
`By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
Mayst hear the merry din.'

He holds him with his skinny hand,
"There was a ship," quoth he.
`Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!'
Eftsoons his hand dropped he.

He holds him with his glittering eye -
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child:
The Mariner hath his will.
 
READ THE POEM