Page:The Clipper Ship Era.djvu/243

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California Clipper Passages of 1851
189

Captain Waterman had saved thousands of dollars, ever had the courtesy to make the slightest acknowledgment of his services, although they were well aware of their obligation in this matter. It is, however, some consolation to know that he asked and needed nothing at their hands.

As we already have seen, Captain Waterman had taken the Pacific Mail steamship Northerner from New York to San Francisco in 1850, and fully intended at that time to retire from the sea. He was then forty-two years old, and had passed thirty-two years upon the ocean; he possessed ample means, with a portion of which he bought four leagues of land in Solano County, California, and it was only at the earnest solicitation of N, L. & G. Griswold, the owners of the Challenge, that he consented to take her from New York to San Francisco in this year. He was now free to attend to his own affairs. Together with Captain A. A. Richie, he founded the town of Fairfield, California. In 1852, he was appointed Port Warden and Inspector of Hulls at the port of San Francisco, a position he held for twenty-eight years. He then retired to his farm, where he died in 1884, at the age of seventy-six. Probably no man in California was more widely known or more highly respected.

One of the best ocean races of 1851 was that between the Raven, Captain Henry; the Typhoon, Captain Salter, and the Sea Witch, Captain Frazer. These clippers sailed for San Francisco nearly together: the Sea Witch passed out by Sandy Hook on August 1st, followed by the Typhoon on August 4th, while the Raven passed Boston Light on Au-