Cruise of the Dashing Wave: Rounding Cape Horn in 1860

Foreword

Foreword Water is unquestionably the most important natural feature on earth. By volume the world’s oceans compose 99 percent of the planet’s living space; in fact, the surface of the Pacific Ocean alone is larger than that of the total land bodies.Water is as vital to life as air.Indeed,to test whether the moon or other planets can sustain life, NASA looks for signs of water. The story of human development is inextricably linked to the oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers that dominate the earth’s surface. The University Press of Florida’s series New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology is devoted to exploring the significance of the earth’s water while providing lively and important books that cover the spectrum of maritime history and nautical archaeology broadly defined. The series includes works that focus on the role of canals, rivers, lakes, and oceans in history; on the economic, military, and political use of those waters; and upon the people,communities,and industries that support maritime endeavors. Limited by neither geography nor time, volumes in the series contribute to the overall understanding of maritime history and can be read with profit by both general readers and specialists. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Americans knew little about California and the Pacific world. The land reportedly seemed salubrious and plentiful yet controlled by what many Americans considered an inefficient Spanish and then Mexican government and people. The South Pacific,which appeared as an exotic paradise of half-dressed island natives, would become increasingly important for American merchants and a fresh hunting ground for New England whalers by the 1820s.When Richard Henry Dana and Herman Melville vividly described the Pacific world during the 1840s, the area was in the midst of considerable change. European nations had dispatched explorers to the region during the late eighteenth century and were beginning to lay claim to various islands. Former Spanish colonies in Central and South America had gained indexi xii Foreword pendence but continued to be swept by disorder.To the north,California would be seized by the United States and begin to evolve from a sleepy Mexican province to an American territory, when the discovery of gold drew thousands to the region. The forty-niners traveled to California via three routes: some trekked across the wide North American continent by land; others took ship from North Atlantic ports to Central America, crossed the steamy jungles of Panama to the Pacific, and boarded another ship for the voyage north to California; a third group traveled entirely by sea from the North Atlantic through the stormy passage around South America and north to San Francisco Bay. The trip was extremely dangerous, regardless of the route taken. Nor did it become significantly shorter or safer until the Panama Railroad was completed in 1855 and the transcontinental railroad spanned the United States in 1869. Until then, most freight and a significant number of individuals continued to travel to California by sea, and several left accounts of their journey. Among the most graphic is Philip Hichborn’s memoir of the 143-day 1860 cruise of the Dashing Wave“around the Horn.” Hichborn, who had recently completed training as a theoretical ship designer and accepted a shipwright’spositiontoworkattheMareIslandnavalbasenearSanFrancisco , signed aboard the clipper ship as a carpenter to cover the expenses of his trip from Boston to California. His account of the ensuing voyage goes well beyond that of other nineteenth-century maritime memoirs, logbooks, and diaries.While most travelers recorded only routine details of daily life—such as weather and sea conditions, cargo disposition, and occasional sea life sightings—Hichborn describes living conditions and social life aboard what was one of the nineteenth century’s better-known clipper ships. Hichborn’s account is written not from the officer’s nor the common seaman’s perspective. His intermediate rank between the two allowed Hichborn to mingle among both groups. His work took him to all parts of the ship—he had constantly to inspect the clipper’s wooden hull, fine tune her equipment,and adjust her riggings and sails—which broadened his opportunity to observe the officers, crewmen, and passengers. Hichborn records his experiences as a skilled technician on board the clipper xiii Foreword ship, records the work of his fellow crewmen, and describes the reaction of passengers forced to endure the challenges of cold, wet, stormy weather. William Thiesen discovered...