Red Jacket

Red Jacket was a famous Maine-built clipper, built in Rockland by George Thomas and launched in 1853. She was the largest and fastest of the Maine clippers, 251 feet long and registering 2,305 tons. Designed by Bostonian Samuel Pook, Red Jacket was an extreme clipper, likely built for the passenger trade. Her figurehead was a life-size replica of the Seneca chief for whom she was named. She was expensively furnished and outfitted and accommodated a crew of 62 men, in addition to her officers and 14 passenger staterooms. On her first voyage to Liverpool, January 11-23, 1854, she set a speed record: 13 days, 1 hour, and 25 minutes, which has only been beaten a few times. This impressed Liverpool merchants so much that they purchased her in April of 1854. Red Jacket was chartered to the White Star Line for the round trip to Melbourne, Australia. She was still sailing in 1882, carrying lumber from Quebec to England, and she ended her life as a coal hulk at the Cape Verde Islands.