Lot Essay
The extreme clipper ship Nightingale is considered one of the most beautiful and interesting of the clipper ship era. Designed and built by Samuel Hanscomb, Jr., at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for a Captain Miller with the finish and luxury of a fine yacht, the forty-two years spent on all the seas of the globe by the Nightingale included pioneer voyages to the gold fields of Australia, competition in the English tea races, clandestine travels during the Civil War pursuing the slave trade in West Africa and service to Union forces shortly thereafter. She sailed under the United States, the Brazilian and the Norwegian flags. She was abandoned at sea on April 17, 1893.