266 : The Atlantic 



name. After he had turned north from this discovery he was over- 

 taken in the night by fog and calm. In the early hours of the morn- 

 ing he w^as surprised to hear the sound of a ship's bell for he sup- 

 posed his vessel was alone in the thousands of miles of icy Antarctic 

 waters. Dawn revealed to him the ship of Admiral F. G. Belling- 

 hausen who for two years had been in command of a Russian Antarc- 

 tic expedition. Bellinghausen entertained Palmer on board his vessel 

 and in due course reported Palmer's independent discovery of the 

 Antarctic coast that still bears his name. 



For some years Palmer commanded the packet Huntsville operat- 

 ing out of New Orleans. Because they had to carry large weights and 

 also traveled over shoals in entering the mouth of the Mississippi, 

 these packets were built with flat floors and little dead rise. Accord- 

 ing to the shipbuilding theory of the day, this should have decreased 

 their speed in sailing, yet Palmer found that in the Huntsville he 

 could consistently complete faster passages than other packet vessels. 

 He became a champion of the flat-floor principle of construction. 

 In 1837 E. K. Collins organized the Dramatic Line of Liverpool 

 packets and he credited Palmer with having persuaded him to em- 

 body the flat-floor principle in the construction of his large, elegant 

 and speedy ships. In 1840 Palmer became a captain in the China 

 trade. On one of his passages back from China he had with him as 

 a passenger Charles Porter Low of the firm of A. A. Low & Brother, 

 China traders and the owners of the vessel that Palmer commanded. 

 Palmer had carved a model of a vessel that incorporated the flat-floor 

 principle with hollow water lines in the bow and other features that 

 Palmer believed would produce a speedy vessel without sacrificing 

 cargo capacity. Mr. Low was so impressed with Palmer's work that 

 as soon as they landed in New York Palmer was introduced to the 

 senior partner, A. A. Low, and an order was immediately placed 

 for the ship Houqua. This vessel of 600 tons is believed to have 

 been based on Palmer's wooden model and was an early and success- 

 ful example of the clipper ship. Palmer was her captain on a run 

 from New York to Canton that was completed in ninety-five days. 

 He also had an influence in the design of the clippers Samuel Russell 

 and Oriental. 



Palmer seems to have felt that the very fast and successful passages 

 that he made with these ships demonstrated the value of the clipper 

 design. He retired from the sea in 1850. The old seamen would have 

 said that Captain Palmer "swallowed the anchor" in 1850; that is to 

 say he gave up his command at sea and went ashore to live. This did 



