Script:
(narrator): Listen to the following lecture by a university professor.
(woman): Please take your seats now because I would like to begin today’s lecture.
Today, we will be discussing one of the more elegant and distinct forms of nineteenth-century transportation - the clipper ship. Clipper ships of the nineteenth century were the graceful, multisailed, oceangoing vessels that were designed for maximum speed. They were given the name “clipper” ship in reference to the fact that they “clipped along” at such a fast rate of speed.
Clipper ships were constructed with a large number of sails in order to maximize their speed. They often had six to eight sails on each of the masts, and ships commonly had three and perhaps four masts. The speeds that they achieved were unbelievably fast for the era; clipper ships could, for example, accomplish the amazing feat of traveling from New York to San Francisco in less than a hundred days.
Clipper ships first came into use in the United States in the 1840s. They were originally intended to make the trip from New York, around the tip of South America, and on to China in order to transport tea to the United States. Once gold was discovered in California in 1848, clipper ships were immediately put into use to carry large numbers of gold prospectors and large amounts of mining supplies from the East Coast to California.
With the success of the American clipper ships, the British began their own fleet of clipper ships to transport goods from the far reaches of the British Empire.
That’s all for today’s class. Don’t forget that there’s a written assignment due on Friday.