This is the second part of our story about Captain Nat Palmer. The return passage from China to New York was very slow, and Capt. Palmer, frustrated with the progress, took to carving a design from a block of wood combing a sharp, concave bow with a fuller, flat-bottomed hull. A fellow passenger was William Low, one of the family that ran the shipping business A. A. Low & Bros., a highly successful firm in New York. Low was very impressed with Captain Palmer’s design and when they arrived in New York, he brought Palmer and his new design to his family firm. This model ultimately became the ship Houqua, considered by naval historians to be the first of the clipper ships.
Houqua was built at Brown & Bell Shipyard in New York in 1844. The ship was named in honor of the Canton merchant Houqua, who was an influential trading partner and friend of the Low family. Originally costing $45,000 – about $2 million today – Houqua quickly paid for herself during the Gold Rush of 1848.
Houqua was 142 feet LOA, 582 tons, 29 feet on the beam with 17 feet draft. The building took six months to complete. The launching was a big event in New York and was reported by a young Gordon Bennett, owner of the fledgling New York Herald, a newspaper later to become the most successful in America, if not the world. He wrote of the launch: “One of the prettiest and most rakish-looking packet ships ever built in the civilized world is now to be seen at the foot of Jone’s Lane on the East River. She is about 600 tons in size, as sharp as a cutter, as symmetrical as a yacht and as rakish in her rig as a pirate. Her figurehead is a bust of Hoqua, and her bows are as sharp as the toes of a pair of Chinese shoes.”
After gold was discovered in California, ships like Houqua headed west around Cape Horn carrying cargo, offloading it in San Francisco for a huge profit then continuing westward to China where they would pick up more cargo and continue around the world back to New York City. Captain Nat was hired as skipper on the maiden voyage, making a passage to Macao in a fast 95 days. Heading east outbound, the ship carried 400 tons of domestic goods and cotton. The third mate on the trip was a young Charles Low, who later went on to his own distinguished career.
Let’s join Captain Palmer for a morning sunline running toward the Cape of Good Hope. It is July 20. The height of eye is 15 feet. The sextant has an error on the arc of 2 minutes.
We’re at a DR 15°25’N by 52°10’W.
The time of the sight is 10:35:20 GMT.
The sextant altitude Hs is 18°40.8’.
1. Calculate HO.
2. What is LHA?
3. Calculate intercept.
4. Plot LOP. What is the estimated position?
For answer go HERE