Tag: Gaff Topsail Schooner

Home Port: Boston
Rig: Gaff Topsail Schooner
Year Built: 1983
Sparred Length: 125 Feet
Draft: 8 Feet
Beam: 25 Feet
Hull: Steel
Web Site: Liberty Clipper

The 125-foot Schooner ‘Liberty Clipper’ is a majestic steel replica of an 18th century clipper ship.

The term clipper as applied to ships may derive from the idea of them cutting through the water. Clipper bows were distinctively narrow and heavily raked forward, which allowed them to rapidly clip through the waves. The cutting notion is also suggested by the other class of vessel built for speed, the cutter. One of the meanings of clip since the 17th century is “to fly or move quickly”, possibly deriving from the sound of wings. The term clipper originally applied to a fast horse and most likely derives from the term clip meaning “speed”, as in “going at a good clip”.