The Bethel
Known as “Mizzentop Joe’s boat she was supposedly haunted by a violin playing seaman who fell overboard. It was only after the harbor was reached that the men proclaimed that they could not live in a haunted ship. One by one they disappeared over the side.
Clippers were fast sailing ships much in demand during the gold Rush. The Flying Cloud made the journey from New York to San Francisco via the cape, a journey of 15,000 miles, in 89 days and 8 hours setting a record. Slower ships could take up to 200 days. Flying Cloud's navigator was a woman, Eleanor Creesy, who had been studying oceanic currents, weather phenomena, and astronomy since her girlhood in Marblehead, Massachusetts.