the winds and waves has always remained one of the exciting experiences of her life.
All of the American clippers made good passages home from China to Atlantic ports in 1852, though no record was broken. The run of the Shooting Star, 83 days from Canton to Boston, was the best of the year.
It was during the passage from Canton to New York in this year that Captain Creesy of the Flying Cloud had the unusual experience of perusing his own obituary in mid-ocean. It appears that after passing Java Head, and when his vessel was well across the Indian Ocean, she fell in with a ship outward bound, and in exchange for chickens, fruits, and vegetables from Anjer, received newspapers from New York, one of which contained the following somewhat startling announcement:
"Captain Creesy of the ship Flying Cloud.—It will be seen by the telegraph news in another column that this gallant sailor is no more. Two days after sailing from San Francisco, bound to China, he died, and the ship proceeded in charge of the mate; he was a native of Marblehead, and about forty-six years of age. For many years, he commanded the ship Oneida in the China trade, and was distinguished for the rapidity of his passages. In the Flying Cloud, he made the shortest passage on record to San Francisco, and eclipsed the finest and most costly merchant ship in the world,[1] and yet this crowning triumph of his life was attended with many disasters to his spars and sails; still, he pressed on, disdaining to make a port short of
- ↑ The Challenge
