Sandwiched between preoccupations with railroads, fire engines, cowboy paraphernalia, or detective procedures, there comes a time when most boys (and some girls) develop an enthusiasm for the rigging of sailing ships. Probably the most romantic or colorful types of sailing ships were the famous Yankee Clippers. Their startling departure from the shipbuilding precedents of their times resulted in a burst of phenomenal speed, which carried the American flag into farflung ports at the forefront of world commerce. To many enthusiasts the words "Yankee Clipper" bring instantly to mind the Flying Cloud as one of, if not the, most beautiful of the lordly clippers of those days.

Designed by Donald McKay and constructed in 1851 at shipyards in East Boston, the Flying Cloud broke the record for the run from New York to San Francisco on her maiden voyage, by arriving at her destination around the Horn in 89 days and 21 hours, despite the loss of her main and mizzenmast topgallants and her mainsail yard. Under Skipper Josiah Creesey she raced her life to fame, until she finished in a blaze of glory when she burned, under the British flag, in 1874.

As a graphic method for learning the nomenclature of standard clipper rigging, a simple model of the Flying Cloud can be constructed from materials to be found in any household. If an odd piece of balsa wood is not available for the hull, for example, a large cork will prove equally satisfactory. The rigging is assembled from burnt matches to represent the "sticks" or masts, reinforced by thread stays fastened to pins in the hull. The sails are cut from paper and appropriately marked with crayons, ink, or pencil. Add a bit of glue, and for tools, a knife, scissors and a nail file, and the equipment is complete.

Figure 7.13 shows how the hull is trimmed sharp at the bows and concave at the stern, to a rough replica of the Flying Cloud's sleek lines. Its overall size must be consistent with the type of mast used, whether matches, lollipop sticks or dowel pins. For the more exacting students the lines can be smoothed down with an ordinary nail file. The hull can then be colored black.

The first upright mast, logically known as the foremast, is made from a match stick whittled to a point which is glued into a hole in the forward part of the deck. A shallow cleft should be cut in the top or peak of the mast before it is "stepped," to hold the rigging. Next comes the mainmast, which, being taller, will require an additional piece of match stick spliced to it with glue and bound by thread. The third mast, the mizzenmast, is slightly lower than the foremast. Some of the later clipper ships carried a fourth mast known as the jigger.

The bowsprit is a shorter piece of blackened match, also slit at the end, with the leftover piece glued in place underneath to form the dolphin striker (see 29 of Figure 7.14).

In constructing this simple illustrative model, the yards to which the sails are bent at right angles to the masts have been eliminated. Instead, they are marked on the paper sails either before or after the latter are cut out. Seams in the sails can be lightly indicated in pencil, if desired. The square sails are slit as shown in detail A of Figure 7.13, bent slightly with the fingers to give a billowing effect, then slipped over their respective masts in order. By consulting Figure 7.14, it will be noted that, exclusive of the triangular headsails on the bowsprit, each tier or course of sails in a squarerigged ship has the same nomenclature, prefixed by the name of its mast.

Fig. 7.13. Model of the Flying Cloud.