«Marco Polo»: The Story of the Fastest Clipper

Gordon Turner is the author of Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific’s
Greatest Ship and the editor of SeaFare, a quarterly newsletter on sea
travel.

The sailing ships that reigned supreme in the 1850s were the speedy and
handsome clippers whose exploits made front-page news, especially after
record-breaking voyages. Although most were cargo carriers, Marco Polo,
the fastest of all, spent much of her working life carrying emigrants
from Britain to Australia. She was built on speculation at James
Smith’s shipyard in Saint John, New Brunswick, and was bought, while
only a year old, by the Black Ball Line of Liverpool. Her first voyage
to Melbourne and back was completed in less than six months, a feat
unmatched at that time. This was the first of many well-publicized fast
passages. The credit went to James Smith as her builder, James Bain as
her principal owner, and Captain James “Bully” Forbes as her
best-known master. Forbes was a hard-nosed individual who deserved his
nickname, but he was also a superb navigator who could coax the last
ounce of speed from his ship’s sails. After 15 years in the emigrant
trade, Marco Polo spent her last 16 years as a cargo ship until she was
wrecked on Prince Edward Island in 1883.

Hollenberg has done a fine job recounting Marco Polo’s career,
particularly as an emigrant carrier. Descriptions of her construction,
the reasons for her speed, and Bully Forbes’s theories of navigation
are expressed in non-technical language. Hollenberg also writes
knowledgeably of social life aboard, quoting from passengers’ diaries.
The appendix includes enlightening excerpts from the ship’s weekly
newspaper. The author deals adeptly with the medical and hygiene
problems that arose from having hundreds of people living in close
quarters for long periods at sea. The final chapter contains an essay by
16-year-old Lucy Maud Montgomery on the ship’s demise. This
well-written book is a fitting tribute to a great ship whose
achievements have gone almost unnoticed in the annals of Canadian
history.