Lot Essay
The Surprise was built to the order of Low's of New York by Samuel Hall at East Boston in 1850. Apparently designed by the great Samuel Pook, she had both characteristics of the thoroughbred clipper - namely speed combined with cargo capacity - and was launched just in time for her owners to take advantage of the high freight rates to California resulting from the 1849 Gold Rush. Registered at 1,261 tons, Surprise measured 183 feet in length with a 22 foot beam, and her first round voyage to San Francisco and thence carrying tea from Whampoa to London earned enough to pay not only her building costs and the trip's expenses but also left a clear profit of $50,000. Fast and reliable, she spent most of her life trading to the Far East where, as late as 1870-71, she was still turning in remarkably good passage times as shown by her 83-day run from Shanghai to New York that winter. Less lucky in 1876 when bound for Yokohama, she struck the Plymouth Rocks off the Japanese coast on 4 February and had to be abandoned as a total loss.