Тhis beautiful medium clipper, launched at Kinderdijk in 1857, was built and owned by the remarkable Fop Smit, grand old man of a shipbuilding and shipowning family famous throughout the world. Noach was the first of no fewer than six grand clippers destined to bear the same name, all of them built and owned by one or another of the Smits, but none of these successors ever gained more fame and she has always been regarded as easily the best of the lot.
A ship of 892 old tons, Noach had a wooden hull with little or no deadrise, not much keel, and a rounded stern. She was 47.5 metres in length and, with a width at maximum of 11.2 metres, rather broad in the beam. Nevertheless, and even though she lacked the fine sharp entrance and elegant narrow grace of the extreme clippers then being built in British yards, she was without doubt an extremely handsome vessel. With her distinctive figurehead of an outwards-gazing Noah, she was richly decorated at bows and stern with very fine carved-and-gilded scrollwork, and the fitting-out of her well ventilated passenger accommodation was done without regard to expense.
Noach was an unusual ship. With her very tall masts, enormous bowsprit and jib-boom she had to be heavily rigged, and was in fact the first Dutch ship ever to carry the iron-wire standing rigging (made for her by the English firm of Newall & Co) introduced in British yards about 1850. Later, her rigging was lowered in for reasons of economy, but even from the first she could ship more cargo than her foreign counterparts and be sailed quite efficiently by a crew of only 27 as opposed to the British clipper requirement of 32 34. This lively interest in money saving appears to have been characteristic of Fop Smit. He liked to be asked why he chose this particular name for his ships and to chuckle, it is said, over his answer. Noah, he would explain, must have been a very shrewd old individual; he timed the launching of his ark to coincide with the flood, and he sailed with only his own family on board leaving behind to drown unpaid! - all those who had helped him to build it. De Noach remained his proudest possession until he died in 1866, when ownership passed to his son Fop Smit Junior.
Noach's first master, Captain P Wierikx, startled the shipping world in 1858 with a claim that his ship had made a 24-hour run on her maiden voyage which beat any then recorded by the champion British tea clippers. Whatever the truth or otherwise, Captain Wierikx was certainly a great sail-carrier and the Noach under his command made some very fast passages indeed. His best time homeward from Batavia to Brouwershaven, deep-laden with sugar, ore, and a transport of soldiers, was set up in 1863 and never bettered by any of his successors. His astonishing time was 71 days port to port, 65 days land to land, a passage of which the master of any ship could feel justifiably proud.
Examination of Noach's passages reveals the curious fact that she was almost invariably a good deal faster on the homeward leg of her voyage, but her fastest time outward, made in 1866 under the command of Captain Liipcke, was a noteworthy exception. Liipcke sailed from Broewershaven to Batavia, land to land, in 65 days and port to port in 71 days. The fact remains however that over 13 consecutive voyages made under five dif-ferent captains, Noach averaged 87 days for her outward passages against 85 days homeward bound. Much the most intriguing aspect of all this is the fact that Noach was not purpose-built for speed, but rather with an eye for cargo and passenger-carrying capacities. Old Fop Smit was not much inter¬ested in the ocean races then being run by ships in the China trade; his prime concern lay in the area of revenues, and in this he was brilliantly successful. Passengers revelled in the ease and comfort of Noach's luxurious accommodation (each cabin had its own well-stocked liquor cabinet) and were attracted also by her unrivalled reputation for consistent regularity. Anyone booking a passage in the Noach could feel reasonably confident of arriving at the port of his destination in close to record time. Another novel feature: on 5 May 1864, on a passage from Brouwershaven to Batavia, Captain J R Ulrich surprised his passengers by pro¬ducing what might well have been the first-ever ship's newspaper.
The Noach set out on her longest voyage in 1859, one which proved to be her most eventful. On a passage to Australia she ran into a tremendous gale which ripped away her foremast and jib-boom, and much of her copper sheathing. Forced into Port Jackson for repairs, she sailed on later to Sydney, and on then to Newcastle, New South Wales to pick up a cargo of coal for Batavia. After discharging her coal, she took on rice and a supercargo of 80 coolies bound for Macao. Back then to Batavia,before heading home via Semarang. When at last she docked back in Brouwershaven in 1861, she had been awav 532 days.
The last of her very fast passages was made in 1871, when Captain van Schelven sailed her from Zierikzee to Batavia, port to port, in 72 days; a disappointment for the young skipper, as he failed by just one day to equal Captain Lupcke's record run of 1866.
In 1877 an ageing Noach was re-rigged as a barque, and went on to offer sterling service to her owner until she was finally demolished in 1884. But even then she continued useful, as much of her was salvaged for use in the construction of the Thorbecke, last of all the clipper ships built in Holland's yards.
The design stamp is made after painting of Cornelis de Vries.
Chad 2011;550f;SG?. Centrafricaine 2015;1200f;SG?
Source:Kenneth Giggal,Cornelis de Vries:SAILING SHIPS.
De Noach-Clipper 1857
Re: De Noach-Clipper 1857
Noach-Holland’s clipper.
Chad 2011;550f;SG?
Chad 2011;550f;SG?
Re: De Noach-Clipper 1857
The wooden clipper “Noach”was built by Fop Smit, founder of modern Dutch shipbuilding and navigation. Until his death in 1866 he would be the owner, after which it was inherited by his son Fop jr. In 1878 the rigging was reduced to that of a barque. The “Noach” sailed for 27 years. In 1884 the ship was sold for 12.800,-to be broken up. The shipyard of Meursing in Amsterdam re-used the components to built the “Thorbecke”VII. Its dimensions: Length: 49,59m; Width:11,21m; Weight:799 tons.
The Clipper is named after Noah, the biblical Old Testament patriarch.
Grenada 2020;(6x1,0) $.
Sources: Information in margin of MS.
The Clipper is named after Noah, the biblical Old Testament patriarch.
Grenada 2020;(6x1,0) $.
Sources: Information in margin of MS.
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