(later Fiery Star) Clipper (3m).
L/B/D:
241 × 41.4 × 22.2 (73.5m × 12.6m × 6.8m). Tons:
1,836 om. Hull:
wood. Comp.:
525 pass.; 41 crew. Built:
William H. Webb, New York; 1851.
Built for the California and China trades, Bucklin & Crane's Comet was noted for her fine passenger accommodations, which included a toilet, library, and bathrooms. An extreme clipper ship, she was particularly good sailing to windward. Although her maiden passage to San Francisco was not especially fast (103 days), she continued to Hong Kong and loaded a cargo of teas and silks that proved the most valuable cargo ever imported into the United States to that time. The next year, Comet raced Flying Dutchman, which left San Francisco one day before her. On three separate occasions the ships were within sight of one another, and Comet arrived at New York in 83 days, 18 hours, a day and a half before her Webb-built rival. With freight rates to California low, in 1854 she was dispatched to Liverpool. Still under Captain E. C. Gardner, she proceeded from there to Hong Kong in a record 84 days, 16 hours, anchor to anchor.
Comet continued in general trade through 1862, calling in Australia, the Orient, California, and South America. In 1862, the London-based company of T. M. Mackay purchased her. Renamed Fiery Star, she was put in service with the Black Ball Line's immigrant service to Australia. On her first voyage from Queenstown, she carried a total of 525 passengers, 25 in first- and second-class accommodations. Homeward bound from her second voyage out, Fiery Star departed Moreton Bay on April 1, 1865, with a cargo of wool. Three weeks out, the ship caught fire and 17 of the crew volunteered to stay with the ship while the captain, 55 passengers, and remaining crew took to the ship's boats. Although the latter were never seen again, the crew of Fiery Star were rescued by Dauntless only hours before the ship sank.
Cutler, Greyhounds of the Sea. Howe & Matthews, American Clipper Ships. Stammers, Passage Makers.
