Cruise of the Dashing Wave: Rounding Cape Horn in 1860

Appendix E. Clipper Ship Dashing Wave after 1860

105 Appendix E. Clipper Ship Dashing Wave after 1860 After Hichborn’s 1860 passage, Dashing Wave had a very long and eventful career. The clipper sailed primarily between domestic locations, but she also called at international ports such as Melbourne, Sydney, Manila, Calcutta, and Hong Kong. During the Civil War a cannonball became embedded in Dashing Wave’s hull. It was rumored that the famous Confederate raider CSS Alabama put it there; however, a more reliable source indicates that the incident occurred when the clipper departed Galveston, Texas, with a load of cotton. In 1864 Dashing Wave sustained damage on a passage from Hong Kong, and in 1867 she grounded on shoals near New York Harbor and sank off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. By 1869 the clipper had been refloated and refurbished for a voyage to San Francisco.During that passage, gales around Cape Horn did considerable damage to the vessel’s spars and rigging, and the ship’s captain died.1 During the 1870s Dashing Wave joined numerous vessels transporting the building supplies that helped develop America’s western frontier. The clipper was altered for hauling lumber and, working out of Tacoma, Washington Territory, carried wood and coal along the West Coast. In the 1880s and 1890s Dashing Wave also carried lumber to exotic locations such as Hawaii, the South Pacific, and Alaska’s Klondike. By the turn of the century the ascendancy of steam propulsion and the increasing difficulty of obtaining profitable cargoes made the overhaul and rerigging of tall ships uneconomical. In 1902 Dashing Wave was sold to new owners who cut down the masts and converted the once-proud tall ship into a utility barge.2 1 Brighton, 91; Fairburn, vol. 3, 1624, 1889. See appendix F for discussion of the embedded cannon ball. 2 See appendix F; also Brighton, 92–94. 106 Appendix E. Clipper Ship Dashing Wave after 1860 Not only did Dashing Wave have an eventful career, she outlived all but a few of her wooden counterparts. Throughout much of the journal ’s narrative, Hichborn complains about the poor condition of Dashing Wave; however, the ship maintained a reputation for solid construction throughout much of her career. Dashing Wave’s hull remained sound throughout the nearly twenty years she served as a barge. The clipper ship’s career came to an end in March 1920. While under tow to an Alaskan salmon cannery with a full load of canning supplies, Dashing Wave grounded in Alaska’s treacherous Seymour Narrows. So ended her lengthy and colorful career.3 3 Brighton, 95–96; Fairburn, vol. 4, 2334. A 1912 close-up of the barge Dashing Wave in Puget Sound, Washington. Note the vessel ’s cut-down masts and bowsprit and the derricks attached to the main and mizzen masts. (Photograph courtesy of the J. Porter Shaw Library, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.) A 1912 photograph of tug boat Goliah, of the Puget Sound Tug Boat Company, pulling the barge Dashing Wave in Puget Sound, Washington. (Photograph courtesy of the J. Porter Shaw Library, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.) ...