Captain Samuel S. Samuels (8 March 182318 May 1908) was a 19th-century American sea captain best known for command of the famous

clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...

ship the Dreadnought. The fastest sailing ship of the time was quite famous and Captain Samuels was also renowned as the captain and designer of the ship. In 1859 he set a new record for

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

of only 9 days, 17 hours. Twice Captain Samuels sailed faster than steamer ships which were increasingly popular for freight during this time. He was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

on 8 March 1823. According to his autobiography, works of

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

and

Frederick Marryat Captain Frederick Marryat (10 July 1792 – 9 August 1848) was a Royal Navy officer, a novelist, and an acquaintance of Charles Dickens. He is noted today as an early pioneer of nautical fiction, particularly for his semi-autobiographical novel ...

inspired him to run away to sea at the age of 11. As a youth Samuels is shanghaied onto a ship bound for Liverpool. He learns the skills of the seaman, becomes an officer, and then a captain by age twenty-one. Samuels was captain of James Gordon Bennett Jr.'s yachts ''Henrietta'' and ''Dauntless'' in famous races in 1866 (Great Ocean Yacht Race), 1870 and 1887. After his 1866 win, Bennett bought the rival yacht, the ''Fleetwing,'' for $65,000. In 1887 he released his autobiography ''From the Forecastle to the Cabin,'' published by Harper & Brothers. In the book he described all of the topics one would expect from the golden age of the sailing era: storms, shipwrecks, famine, disease, press-gangs, desertion, piracy, violence, mutiny. He also tells the story of meeting his future wife, Miss Harriet Alice Steele. He died on 18 May 1908 at age 85 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York and is laid to rest at Green-Wood Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuels, Samuel 1823 births 1908 deaths People from Philadelphia Sea captains