Robert Waterman (sea captain)
Robert H. Waterman (March 4, 1808 – August 8, 1884), known as Bully Waterman or Bully Bob Waterman, was an American merchant sea captain. He set three sailing speed records; his time of 74 days from Hong Kong to New York City has never been bettered in a sail-powered vessel. He was reputed as a martinet, and was once convicted of assault against a crewman in a controversial California criminal case.
Waterman was born in Hudson, New York, the son of a Nantucket whaling captain. His father died at sea when the boy was eight, and the family moved to Fairfield, Connecticut.[1] Waterman first went to sea at age 12 aboard a China trader, and spent most of the next nine years aboard transatlantic packet ships. By 1829, at the age of 21, he had been promoted to first mate of the Black Ball packet Britannia.[2] His captain aboard the Britannia, Charles H. Marshall, later bought the packet South America and made Waterman the skipper. It was Waterman's first command.[3]
In 1836, Waterman accepted command of the cotton freighter Natchez, owned by Howland & Aspinwall, a Manhattan merchant company. He guided the Natchez on several voyages around Cape Horn to Valparaiso. In 1842, Howland & Aspinwall switched the Natchez to the China trade, and Waterman sailed her to Macao.[1] His return trip from Macao to New York took only 78 days, a new record.[4]
During the late 1840s, Howland & Aspinwall gave Waterman command of the clipper Sea Witch. Waterman worked with the ship's designer, John W. Griffiths, designing much of the Sea Witch's rig and sail plan, specifying 140-foot-tall (43 m) masts and more square footage of sail than a 74-gun warship.[5] In 1847, he brought the Sea Witch from Hong Kong to New York in 77 days, beating his previous record by a day.[6][7]
In 1849, Waterman set his final record for the Hong Kong–New York trip. Leaving New York on April 27, 1848, he went to China by the unusual route of Cape Horn (most China clippers traveled by way of the Cape of Good Hope). Loading a cargo of tea at Hong Kong, Waterman took the Sea Witch out of harbor on January 9, 1849. Spending much of the voyage under full sail, he started the Sea Witch's return voyage via the Sunda Strait, often covering over 200 miles (320 km) per day and once reaching 300 miles (480 km). He reached the Cape of Good Hope February 16, logging a 308-mile (496 km) run for the day, his best of the voyage.[8] Waterman reached New York on March 25, a 74-day passage. Neither he nor any other captain of a sail-powered vessel would ever break this record.[9]
Handsomely rewarded by Howland & Aspinwall for his unequaled performance aboard the Sea Witch, Waterman briefly retired from seafaring. However, the N. L. & G. Griswold shipping company was seeking a high-quality captain for its new clipper Challenge, offering him a $10,000 bonus if he could get the ship to San Francisco within 90 days of departure. Waterman accepted the Challenge, and took her out of New York on July 13, 1851. That very first day, Waterman quarreled with and dismissed his first mate, and replaced him with James Douglass, hired off the deck of a packet at Sandy Hook.[10]
