Name/Title
Great Republic | Clipper Ship Model | c.1900Description
Gift from the estate of Kenneth Wilbur Ross (1937 - 2024) of Red Beach, Maine, 2026.
Launched in 1853, the Great Republic was a legendary American clipper ship designed by Donald McKay as the largest wooden merchant sailing vessel ever built, boasting a length of 335 feet. Intended for the Australia tea trade, she was designed for incredible speed but was severely damaged by fire in New York before her maiden voyage, subsequently being rebuilt and reduced in size. Despite these setbacks, the massive vessel remained a fast and iconic symbol of the clipper era until she was abandoned in 1872.
Donald McKay, the designer and builder of the original clipper ship, The Great Republic, was born in Nova Scotia and the ship was built in Boston.
The model came with a card inside the case with the handwritten name of the ship on the blank side card facing out. Once the card was removed from the case, on the back side is a printed Christmas holiday greeting from Middleton, Carman and Company, a prominent fish merchant company that operated within the Fulton Fish Market in New York City during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This suggests that the non-printed side of the card, turned outward in the case, and hand written with the name of the ship model and its date of construction and its loss of sea was simply used as a matter of frugal convenience. The date of the card does appear to correspond to the date of the construction of the model and case based on hardware and construction techniques used or about 1900.