264 
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 
when navigators were beginning fully to reap the benefits of these 
researches with regard to the winds and currents, and other facts 
connected with the Physical Geography of the Sea, that four 
splendid new clipper ships put to sea from New York, bound for 
California. They were ably commanded, and, as they passed the 
bar at Sandy Hook, one by one, and at various intervals of time, 
they presented really a most magnificent spectacle. The names 
of these ships and their masters were, the "Wild Pigeon," Cap- 
tain Putnam; the "John Gilpin," Captain Doane — alas! now 
no more ; the " Flying Fish," Captain Nickels, and the " Trade 
Wind," Captain Webber. Like steeds that know their riders, 
they were handled with the most exquisite skill and judgment, 
and in such hands they bounded out upon the "glad waters" most 
gracefully. Each, being put upon her mettle from the start, was 
driven, under the seaman's whip and spur, at full speed over a 
course that it would take them three long months to run. 
575. The "Wild Pigeon" sailed October 12; the "John Gil- 
pin," October 29 ; the " Flying Fish," November 1 ; and the 
" Trade Wind," November 14. It was the season for the best 
passages. Each one was provided with the Wind and Current 
Charts. Each one had evidently studied them attentively ; and 
each one was resolved to make the most of them, and do his best. 
All ran against time ; but the " John Gilpin" and the "Flying Fish" 
for the whole course, and the " Wild Pigeon" for part of it, ran 
neck and neck, the one against the other, and each against all. It 
was a sweepstake with these ships around Cape Horn and through 
both hemispheres. 
576. Wild Pigeon led the other two out of New York, the one 
by seventeen, the other by twenty days. But luck and chances of 
the winds seem to have been against her from the start. As soon 
as she had taken her departure, she fell into a streak of baffling 
winds, and then into a gale, which she fought against and con- 
tended with for a week, making but little progress the while ; she 
then had a time of it in crossing the horse latitudes. After hav- 
ing been nineteen days out, she had logged no less than thirteen 
of them as days of calms and baffling winds ; these had brought 
her no farther on her way than the parallel of 26° north in the At- 
lantic, Thence she had a fine run to the equator, crossing it be- 
tween 33° and 34° west, the thirty-second day out. She was un- 
