clip

The English verb clip, meaning 'to move swiftly' or 'at a fast pace,' dates to the early 1800s, probably an extension of the older clip meaning 'to cut' — as in cutting through the water. The noun clipper appeared by the 1830s for a class of fast sailing vessels with a sharp bow, a raked stem, and an enormous spread of canvas. The word was descriptive: these ships clipped along. They moved as if something was chasing them.

The clipper era peaked between 1843 and 1869. Donald McKay of East Boston built the most famous American clippers — Flying Cloud, Sovereign of the Seas, Lightning — ships that set speed records from New York to San Francisco around Cape Horn. Flying Cloud made the passage in 89 days in 1854, a record that stood for over a century. British clippers like Cutty Sark raced from China to London carrying tea.

The economics were specific. Clippers sacrificed cargo capacity for speed, which made sense only when the cargo was worth more fresh than plentiful — tea, spices, opium, and Gold Rush passengers willing to pay a premium for a faster voyage. When the Suez Canal opened in 1869, steam ships could reach Asia without rounding Africa. The clipper's speed advantage vanished overnight.

The clipper era lasted barely twenty-five years. No other class of sailing vessel achieved such fame in such a short window. The Cutty Sark, preserved in Greenwich since 1954, is the last intact clipper ship. The word survives in 'clipper' (a fast-moving thing) and in the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, named for the ships that once sailed California's coast.