Designed and Hooked by Jane Olson
She was built in East Boston in 1851. Her figurehead, in keeping with her name, was that of an angel with a trumpet extended. On her first voyage, New York to San Francisco, she set a record of eighty -nine days, a time never beaten by a sailing ship, although twice equaled. Her captain, Josiah P. Cressy of Marblehead Massachusetts, was praised lavishly for one voyage when the ship logged 374 miles in one day, an average of over 15 knots.
In the late 1850's, she had become heavy and waterlogged. At the time all American vessels with soft wood. She was sold to British owners and was used to transport emigrants to Australia. Even in 1870 she still gave promise of speed when she raced from Liverpool, England to Hervey's Bay, Australia in eighty-seven days. In 1874 when the "Flying Cloud" was in a shipyard at St. John for repairs, a shipyard fire so badly burned her that she was broken up for her iron. So was the end of a gallant lady and the end of an era.
Pattern: #50-J
Size: 24" x 30"
Burlap: $30.00 / Monks Cloth: $35.00