Excerpt from The China ClippersThis book is an effort to preserve the records of the most perfect type of sailing ship at the very height of its development, and it has been written entirely for sailors and those who are interested in shipping. In it I have put down as simply as possible the personal history of certain ships and that in the plain language of the sea without any attempt to explain technical or seafaring terms for the benefit of the landsman. At the same time the reader must not expect to find highly-coloured descriptions of great sea adventures - the adventures are there right enough, but he who wishes to find them must search deep into the cold print of bald statements and read between the lines by the light of his own experience.The material gathered together in this book has been culled from countless abstract log books, as well as from information supplied to me, not only by the men who sailed the ships but also by their owners, designers and builders.Indeed I have to thank so many people for their help that a page of print would not contain their names, and I can only hope that this book may, perhaps, recall some pleasant sea memories and thus in some slight way recompense them for their kindness and trouble.Note - Where the word mile is used in this book, the sea-mile or 6080 feet is always meant, not the statute or land mile which is only 5280 feet.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.