Montague Dawson R.S.M.A., F.R.S.A.

Built in Maine and launched in November 1853, the Red Jacket remains today one of the fastest ships ever built.  She was named for the Seneca chief Red Jacket (Sagoyewatha, or "he that keeps them awake"), who resided in the Genesee River Valley and habitually wore a red British jacket given to him by the British.  The Red Jacket's figurehead was a magnificent life-size carving of Sagoyewatha, complete with beaded buckskins, a red jacket, and a feather headdress. To the end of her sailing days, Red Jacket was considered the most handsome of the large American clippers.

 

The maiden voyage of the Red Jacket is the most famous in the history of clipper ships. Captain Asa Eldridge, a Yarmouth, Cape Cod skipper and an internationally recognized navigator, was in command and she left New York on January 11, 1854, bound for Liverpool. Despite the treacherous winter storms of the North Atlantic, with snow, hail or rain every day, the Red Jacket tore along, determined to reach her destination. She cast her anchor in Liverpool Harbor exactly 13 days, 1 hour and 25 minutes later, a record-smashing run that remains unbroken today. She thus became one of the seven fastest sailing ships in history.