Glory of the Seas was a medium clipper ship launched in 1869. She was the last merchant sailing vessel built by Donald McKay.[1] [2] [3]
On her maiden voyage, Glory of the Seas sailed from New York in February 1870 under the command of Captain Donald McKay, according to Custom House records. Donald McKay hired Capt.John Geit as sailing master per McKay family correspondence. She anchored at San Francisco on June 13 after a passage of 120 days. From there she sailed to Liverpool, England, under Captain William Chatfield. Donald McKay subsequently went bankrupt in 1870-1871. As a result, McKay's creditors sold Glory to J. Henry Sears of Boston, as managing owner, and a group of investors. Sears subsequently replaced Captain Chatfield with Josiah Nickerson Knowles who purchased an interest in the ship.
Details of her time between 1870 and 1885 are incomplete, but she "ran between New York and British ports and San Francisco almost exclusively" during those years.[1] She did make a fast voyage from New York to San Francisco between October 13, 1873 and mid-January, 1874 (see the table and note). In 1875 she set the record of 35 days for a passage from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia. According to McKay,[1] until 1885 under Captain McLaughlin Glory carried general cargo from New York to San Francisco and wheat from there to Britain, and was nearly wrecked in a storm when arriving in Britain in 1880. The Bruzelius timetable (below) differs and does not mention the 1880 event. Both agree that she was laid up at San Francisco between December 1882 and February 1885.After 1885, Glory of the Seas spent the rest of her long life on the Pacific coast, for a time sailing between San Francisco and Puget Sound, British Columbia, and made four voyages to Alaska. In March 1906 she was sold in San Francisco for conversion to a barge but was repaired after the April earthquake and "put under sail again". She made a voyage to Callao in 1907-1908, hauled coal under tow from Nanaimo, BC, to Seattle from fall 1908 to spring 1909, and in September 1910 made a voyage hauling coal from Victoria, BC, to Unalaska. Under new owners in 1911, she was stripped of most of her spars and converted to a floating fish cannery and then to a floating cold storage plant. She remained in service as a reefer until early 1922. In December 1922 she was beached near Seattle and on May 13, 1923, was burned to recover her iron and copper fastenings.
Glory of the Seas known voyages are tabulated below. Entries are from Bruzelius unless noted otherwise; disagreements or ambiguities are individually cited. City names are as they were at the time.
| Origin | Depart | Destination | Arrive | Days | Captain | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | February 13 or 14, 1870 | San Francisco | June 13, 1870 | 120 [4] | John Geit | |
| San Francisco | July 30 or August 4,[5] 1870 | Queenstown, Ireland[6] (for orders), then London[7] [8] | November 24, 1870 (Queenstown) | 112 | William Chatfield | |
| Saint John, New Brunswick[9] | May 14, 1871 | Liverpool | June 8, 1871[10] | 25 | Sears | |
| Cardiff, Wales | August 19, 1871 | San Francisco | December 16, 1871 | 120 | Josiah Nickerson Knowles | |
| San Francisco | February 7, 1872 | Liverpool | May 28, 1872 | 112 | Knowles | |
| Liverpool | July 27, 1872 | San Francisco | November 25, 1872 | 119 | Knowles | |
| San Francisco | January 15, 1873 | Liverpool | May 23, 1873 | 128 | Knowles | |
| New York | October 13, 1873 | San Francisco | January 16 or 18, 1874 | 96 or 94 [11] | Knowles | |
| San Francisco | February 26, 1874 | Liverpool | June 23, 1874 | 117 | Knowles | |
| Liverpool | August 13, 1874 | San Francisco | December 22, 1874 | 131 | Knowles | |
| San Francisco | March 14, 1875 | Sydney, Australia | April 19, 1875 | 35 | Knowles | |
| Sydney | June 4, 1875 | San Francisco | July 26, 1875 | 53 | Knowles | |
| San Francisco | October 7, 1875 | Liverpool | February 17, 1876 | 133 | Knowles | |
| Liverpool | May 2, 1876 | San Francisco | August 23, 1876 | 114 | Knowles[12] [13] | |
| San Francisco | October 24, 1876 | Liverpool | February 3, 1877 | 103 | Daniel S. McLaughlin[14] [15] | |
| Liverpool | April 2, 1877 | San Francisco | August 23, 1877 | 144 | McLaughlin | |
| San Francisco | November 9, 1877 | Liverpool | February 24, 1878 | 107 | McLaughlin | |
| Liverpool | April 27, 1878 | Oakland, California | September 29, 1878 | 153 | McLaughlin | |
| San Francisco | 1879 | Queenstown (for orders), then Le Havre, France | McLaughlin | |||
| New York | 1880 | San Francisco | McLaughlin | |||
| San Francisco | May 29, 1880 | Queenstown | September 28, 1880 | 120 | McLaughlin | |
| Cardiff | December 27, 1880 | San Francisco | May 3, 1881 | 129 | McLaughlin | |
| San Francisco | July 11, 1881 | Le Havre via Valparaíso, Chile | February 17, 1882 | 220 | McLaughlin | |
| New York | July 2, 1882 | San Francisco | November 7, 1882 | 128 | McLaughlin | |
| Laid up, San Francisco | December 1882 | February 1885 | ||||
| San Francisco | February 22, 1885 | Liverpool | June 19, 1885 | 119 | Joshua S. Freeman | |
| Liverpool | 1885 | San Pedro, California | 121 | Freeman (?) |
The figurehead of Glory of the Seas is a partially-clad female figure. It is pictured in a book, The Clipper Ships[1 Hanover Square|India House]].[16] The builder's purported half-model, four prints or paintings, and several relics are held by the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia.[17]