Clipper Ship SNOW SQUALL Bow, Spring Point Museum, Southern Maine Technical College, South Portland, Cumberland County, ME

Significance: SNOW SQUALL's bow survives today as the sole remaining example of the hundreds of American-built clipper ships which made record-setting voyages carrying goods and passengers to and from Gold Rush-era California, Australia and the Far East. A clipper was very narrow in proportion to its length, which a sharp hollow bow; it was square-rigged, typically with an enormous spread of canvas. Vessels of this type developed in the 1840s, designed fro speed (rather than large cargo capacity) in a boom time of high freight rates. By the late 1850s, economic conditions favored slower ships of greater cargo capacity and smaller crews, so clipper construction was abandoned. The romance of the clipper ship era remains in the public mind, yet little primary evidence survives to disclose details regarding American clipper design and construction practices. SNOW SQUALL's bow section thus represents a unique resource for both scholars and the general public.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N26
Survey number: HAER ME-7
Building/structure dates: 1851 Initial Construction