Comments on: The Halloween

By: Philip Brown

Philip Brown — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 01:35:28 +0000

Sorry got my dates wrong. It was the London – Shanghai run in 1876 under my Great Grandfather which I believe was the fastest at the time for this type of ship

Thanks again Philip Brown

By: Philip Brown

Philip Brown — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 01:21:22 +0000

Dear Sir,

I wonder if you could do me a favour. Could you please send my email address to Mr Dave Foker as his great great grandfather, Capt Fowler of the Halloween was my great grandfather. I appreciate you cannot give me his address but would be grateful if you could pass on mine so that we can contact each other and renew family connections.

Equally I think you will find that the record from Shanghai to London, (1874-1875), in I think 91 days, was achieved by the Halloween with my Great Grandfather as Captain so perhaps he was not such a slouch as your correspondent Sam Jefferson might suggest.

Many Thanks

Philip Brown

By: Sam jefferson

Sam jefferson — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:22:24 +0000

I really enjoyed this article and loved the footage. the Halloween was an incredibly quick ship. This was often attributed to the fact that, in addition to the fact the was a very sharp ship, she had her masts raked in an unusual manner. The mizzen was raked aft, main upright and foremast raked slightly forward. This gave her a better spread of sail and made her quick in light airs apparently.

On her maiden voyage she ran in to some heavy weather in the Channel and washed away a lot of her headgear. This was washed up ashore, and many assumed she had been lost until she arrived in Sydney 69 days out. This is pretty close to the record for a clipper ship, i’m not sure if a ship called Patriarch didn’t do it in 67, but anyway, it was super quick.

She was incredibly fast in the tea trade aswell, althogh she always left with a favourable monsoon. The most popular ships left earlier and had to beat into the SW monsoon, leaving later, you had a NE monsoon in your favour.

I believe her first captain was a captain Watt, who clearly got the best out of her, but was eventually droopped off at St Helena and died a few days later. After this, her passages were slower as her new captain, Fowler, was not such a hard driver of the ship.

She wa unusual in sticking to the tea trade long after the other clippers had abandoned it and always enjoyed a really strong rivalry with a beautiful clipper called the Leander, which also stuck to the tea trade til late.

By: mary mills

mary mills — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:51:09 +0000

I am editing and republishing a book I wrote in 2000 about the Greenwich Peninsula – which will feature Halloween. I was in email contact with someone – seven or eight years ago now – who sent me stuff about Halloween. this is just a formal note to ask if you mind me quoting from your site above – I will give credits of course. and maybe use some of the pictures you sent me then.
I realise you may not access this email – don’t know what to do if you don’t reply