Donald McKay launches the Great Republic, the…
October 1853 CE
At 4,500 tons, it is too large to be successful.
Intended to be the most profitable wooden sailing ship ever to ply the Australian gold rush and southern oceans merchant trade, the ship's launch had been planned for September 4, 1853—builder Donald McKay's birthday—but it had been postponed to October 4 due to problems with the timber supplies.
The City of Boston has made the launch a public holiday.
Between thirty thousand and fifty thousand spectators attend, among them Ferdinand Laeisz of the Flying P-Line of Hamburg.
The ship is christened by Captain Alden Gifford using a bottle of pure Cochituate water.
The ship's name is drawn from the title of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
After outfitting, Great Republic sails in ballast from Boston to New York, where in December 1853 her first cargo is loaded.
Great Republic required "1,500,000 feet of pine ... 2,056 tons of white oak, 336½ tons of iron, and 56 tons of copper" - about three times as much pine as was typically required for a large clipper ship.