Down Easter
In the New England states, Down Easter was originally only understood to mean the inhabitants of the far east of the USA (the Down East ), mainly the inhabitants of Maine , later also Massachusetts . The term expanded in the 19th century to the port cities between Long Island Sound (north of New York ) and Fundy Bay ( Canada near the border with the United States of America ). In particular, there were the port cities of Maine ( Bath , Thomaston), Massachusetts (East Boston , New Bedford , Newburyport), Rhode Island ( Newport ), Mystic (Connecticut) and Stonington (Connecticut).
The name was transferred to the splendid, mostly wooden forage trade ships , which some consider to be descendants of the clippers . However, they were built in the late clipper era (1950s), were not quite as slim and rigged as the clippers, but could carry more cargo . The last units were in the 1890s from the stack and drove to the early 20th century. Most of them were heavily built full-rigged ships , barges and barquentines of wood for the Cape Horn voyage (.: Cape Hoorn, English Cape Horner ) in cereals and other goods, including a full-rigged ship and three four-masted barques enormous proportions: Vollschiff Rappahannock (1889, 3054 BRT ), the four-masted barque Shenandoah (1890, 3,154 GRT), the somewhat smaller Susquehanna (1891, 2,591 GRT) and the huge Roanoke (1892, 3,539 GRT). They were all built on the helmets of the shipping company and shipyard Arthur Sewall & Co. in Bath (Maine). A few steel ships were added later.
literature
- Basil Lubbock: The Down Easters - American Deep-water Sailing Ships 1869-1929 . Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd., Nautical Publishers, Glasgow 1929, 1930 and 1953 (reprint).