Down Easter (3m).
L/B/D:
233 × 43 × 28 (71m × 13.1m × 8.5m). Tons:
2,054 grt. Hull:
wood. Built:
George Thomas, Quincy, Mass.; 1874.
Built for the Boston merchant firm of Thayer & Lincoln, the Down Easter America was well known for her clipper-like speed and fine lines. Crossing three skysail yards, America made her maiden voyage from New York to San Francisco in 110 days, and from there proceeded to Liverpool. This route, between New York, the West Coast, and Europe, remained her itinerary through the 1880s. After grounding in a storm at San Pedro on February 8, 1887, she was sold to the Pacific Steam Whaling Company, working in that company's Alaskan salmon canneries fleet and in the coal trade. She was later sold to the Northwestern Fisheries Company, of Seattle, and then to James Griffiths for use as a copper ore barge running between Alaska and Tacoma. She was abandoned in False Bay, San Juan Island, after stranding in the summer of 1914. She had a total of seven captains in her career, five as a deepwater merchant ship and two in the coastwise trade; the longest serving was her last, Captain Noah S. Harding, who commanded her for fourteen years.
Lyman, "Largest Wooden Ship." Matthews, American Merchant Ships.
