Home Business and Labor Eleanor Creesy Navigates the World’s Fastest Clipper

Eleanor Creesy Navigates the World’s Fastest Clipper

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Eleanor Creesy became an instant celebrity on Aug. 31, 1851, when the clipper ship she navigated sailed into San Francisco harbor. The Flying Cloud had sailed from New York in less than half the time the voyage usually took.

Her husband, Josiah Creesy, was captain of the great clipper, but he knew his wife was a better navigator than he was.

She was one of the greatest.

Flying Cloud

Flying Cloud by James Buttersworth

Eleanor Creesy

Eleanor Creesy was born in Marblehead, Mass., in September 1814, the daughter of John and Eleanor Prentiss. John Prentiss was a master mariner, and he taught his smart daughter ocean navigation. As a girl she studied weather, ocean currents and astronomy and math. She learned how to use a sextant and a chronometer.

A historian wrote that, “she found the art of fixing one’s position every day exceedingly engaging and immensely satisfying, and she often missed it after too long a stay ashore.”

In 1841, she married Josiah Creesy, a ship captain also from Marblehead. He worked for Grinnell, Minturn, the leading trans-Atlantic shipping company of the age. He was captain of the Oneida then and wishing for a faster vessel.

Eleanor accompanied him on his voyages, which wasn’t unusual. Ship captains’ wives often came along and tended to the injured men on the vessel. She also helped provision her husband’s ships, making sure they had the latest navigation charts.

Flying Cloud's lines

Flying Cloud’s lines

Josiah Creesy got his wish when he was chosen to skipper the Flying Cloud, built by Donald McKay in his East Boston shipyard. Her figurehead was an angel blowing a trumpet. Clipper ships were built for speed, with long, sharp bows, V-shaped hulls, rounded sterns and large sail areas.

Studying Up

Before the Flying Cloud made its historic voyage, Eleanor Creesy studied a book by Matthew Fontaine Maury, considered the father of oceanography. Explanations and Sailing Directions to Accompany the Wind and Current Charts was viewed with some skepticism by old ship captains. It was based on exhaustive studies of the logs kept by naval and merchant ships. Maury recommended a new route around Patagonia that Eleanor Creesy decided to follow.

On her maiden voyage, the Flying Cloud carried passengers and $50,000 worth of cargo, including 500 kegs of white lead, 100 cases of imperial black paint, lamp black, 100 cans of turpentine, 190 dozen brandy peaches, 100 dozen tomato and pepper sauces and 68 boxes of candles. On June 2, 1851, she sailed out of New York Harbor.

The first time Eleanor Creesy calculated how far the Flying Cloud had traveled in a day, she thought she’d made a mistake. She couldn’t believe the ship was that fast. She checked for mistakes. The Flying Cloud was that fast.

In one day, Flying Cloud covered 389 miles, a greater distance than had ever been covered in a day, even by steamships.

Around Cape Horn

The ship ran into a storm while sailing around the dangerous Cape Horn. All fires on board were extinguished; the temperature dropped to near freezing. Josiah Creesy stood on deck in the cold wind and rain and shout below to his wife, asking for new sailing directions.

Launch of the Flying Cloud in East Boston

With the skies obscured, she had to use dead reckoning to figure out the ship’s position. She made an educated guess based on the last known position of the ship, add its speed and take into account the wind, waves and currents.

Hour after hour she worked through the storm to find new dead reckoning positions.

On Aug. 31, Flying Cloud sailed into San Francisco, 89 days and 21 hours after she left New York. During those early days of the Gold Rush, it could take 200 days to travel the more than 60,000 miles around the tip of South America.

Fame

Her arrival generated headlines around the world, and Eleanor and Josiah Creesy were famous. In California, the Daily Alta reported,

The Flying Cloud was built in Boston, and will stand, as long as she lasts, a monument of Yankee talent in the way of ship building. Her arrival in port yesterday morning created a considerable degree of excitement, and crowds rushed over to the North Beach to obtain a view of her.

Two sisters got married aboard the Flying Cloud a few weeks after she made her historic voyage: Ellen Lyon was already engaged to be married in California, but her sister Sarah and fellow passenger Laban Coffin fell in love during the trip. Eleanor Creesy baked Sarah’s wedding cake.

Two years later after their historic voyage, Josiah and Eleanor Creesy broke their own record by 13 hours. They continued to sail together until the Civil war, when Josiah volunteered as a lieutenant, commanding a small clipper ship. After the war, the Creesys retired from the sea and lived on a farm in Salem, Mass. He died in 1871; Eleanor lived to be 85, dying in August 1900.

With thanks to The American Clipper Ship, 1845-1920: A Comprehensive History, with a Listing of Builders and Their Ships by Glenn A. Kinnock. This story was updated in 2022.

14 comments

Sarah H. Gordon September 21, 2014 - 2:44 pm

Yes, a McKay clipper.

Will Sipsey September 22, 2014 - 12:23 pm

60 thousand miles?

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[…] The next year they made the voyage in the astonishing time of 89 days, eight hours. Josiah and Eleanor Creesy were instant celebrities around the world.  Their record would hold for a […]

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[…] went under as well. He worked for his brother-in-law for a few years, then decided to follow the California Gold Rush of 1849 with his brother Charles. They opened Macy & Co., in Marysville, Calif., to provision miners. […]

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[…] Creesy https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/eleanor-creesy-navigates-worlds-fastest-clipper-ship/ had the insight to use Maury’s findings when she navigated Flying Cloud to the fastest traverse […]

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Susie Sherman July 17, 2017 - 8:07 pm

May I quote this article in our Friends of Middleborough Cemetries Newsletter? The article I am writing is about the sister of Josiah Creesy, Elizabeth (Cressy) Woodward . I was researching the name Creesy and found the connection to Elizabeth Creesy was born in Beverly Aug 25 1806 to John and Mary (Batchelder) Creesy and in the Beverly. I was curious. born in Beverly, Creesy – Cressy? Well that just got me. There couldn’t be a famiy of children born to parents with the same names and dates. Elizabeth Creesy Aug 25 1806 to John and Mary (Batchelder) Creesy? When I followed the links and found that the people on my hometown had incorrectly spelled the name on Find a Grave I felt better.

Susie Sherman July 18, 2017 - 8:52 am

Thank you!

Susie Sherman July 18, 2017 - 11:36 am

Friendsofmiddleboroughcemeteries.org is a 501c3 that works on the upkeep of our town’s cemeteries as there is no Cemetery Commission in Middleborough.

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[…] 1849, he decided to follow the California Gold Rush with his brother Charles. He sailed to California, leaving his wife and two small children behind. […]

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[…] clipper ship made New York in four days, and the pilot who took it up the Hudson River declared he had never […]

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[…] spread of how Mary Patten had nursed her husband, navigated the clipper ship and protected the vessel's cargo, all at the age of 19. Suddenly she found herself an instant […]

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[…] 1849, he decided to follow the California Gold Rush with his brother Charles. He sailed to California, leaving his wife and two small children behind. […]

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