Barons of the Sea – Steven Ujifusa

The tl;dr version of this review is, simply, go read this book. Less time reading a random review, more time to spend on learning about clipper ships and the men who built them, right? The book is titled Barons of the Sea: and their race to build the world’s fastest clipper ship. It was written by Steven Ujifusa.

In all seriousness, though, I have no hesitation in recommending this book to maritime enthusiasts or even to general readers of history from any time or era. It ought to appeal to numerous subsections of readers, both because of the subject matter and the deft manner in which author Steven Ujifusa weaves the history of ships, merchants, nations, and trade all into one compellingly readable narrative.

This is key for me, because a book that’s hard to read is hard to recommend. This book was a pleasure to read simply for the writing and narrative style. But, there was substance behind the style and that fact will have me returning to this book in the future for source material but also just to use it as a waypoint in my studies of related facets of history.

The subject matter, though. That’s probably what you’re most curious about if you’ve sought out a book review. As all good histories tend to do (in my opinion), this book weaves together insightful takes on numerous topics that are related to varying degrees, all of which contribute an important thread or threads to the larger whole of understanding the era of the clipper ships.

Take American history, for instance. The United States, to be precise. The clipper ships were a decidedly American phenomenon so it’s impossible to understand their significance without some background on the United States and it’s place in the world during the 19th century. Clipper ships were merchant ships, and a country cannot conduct trade or commerce in a vacuum. That’s where China and India come in, two eastern nations that were closely connected to the development of the clipper ships. This raises several more linked topics that Mr. Ujifusa skillfully incorporates into his narrative. One, the ambitious ‘sea barons’ who saw in China and India lands that could enrich them via the process of import and/or export. These men were the driving forces behind mercantile growth in America and around the world, and they drove the development of the clipper ship as a means to increase their own profits. Speed and efficiency were as important then as they are now, perhaps even more so.

The product(s) that they traded in are the second linked topic when we mention foreign lands, since it’s from China that the tea which stocked the cupboards of Europe and America came. T o remain profitable, the clippers couldn’t arrive in China in ballast, and opium from India found a receptive market in China, for better or (as is abundantly clear) for worse. Ujifusa doesn’t shy away from commenting on the socio-economic impact of the opium trade upon the people of 19th-century China. He also works in some takes on the effects of British (and American) empire on these same countries, although the clipper ship era was at the early end of such effects. Whether you agree with the degree to which he carries his conclusions or not, it’s hard to argue with the facts as he presents them, including the fact that many of America’s leading merchants of that era made their profits in the opium trade with China. And here, again, these profits and that trade played a large role in spurring the development of the clipper ships that many still find to be fascinating pieces of maritime history.

Much more could be said, I’m sure, but I’ll leave you with the final topic that I found most appealing. The discussion of the clipper ship in its design, its construction, and the intricacies of how it was manned and sailed around the globe, these were the topics that I found most enjoyable about Barons of the Sea. The clipper ship was a very specific style that evolved from more broad merchant ships that focused on speed and carrying capacity. Hull design, the impacts of sail and rigging configurations upon performance, these are important topics that receive heavy focus. But, so does the business of funding and constructing the ships, a business in which men like Donald McKay participated in the coastal cities of America’s northeast: Boston, New York, even Medford, Massachusetts. The business of manning and sailing these ships is also an area of focus since the captains and crews had such a direct hand in determining whether the ships were profitable or were failures that bankrupted their owners.

All in all, Ujifusa does a brilliant job in laying the pieces out so that the reader can tell how each piece influenced and was influenced by the others. It takes time to even set the board, of course, but between the beginning and the conclusion of this book you’ll gain a greater appreciation for everything already mentioned, and for how the rise and fall of the clipper ship can give us a window into the fragile conditions that result in some of history’s greatest technological innovations, innovations that are short-lived, brilliant flashes of light and then are left in the dust as history marches on. Such was the great clipper ship of 19th century America.

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