New Year’s Eve Thames Cruise on board the Mercury Clipper with fireworks (2024)

15th November 2024

Here at Best Value Tours, we are delighted to recommend great new, Festive New Years Eve Tours and today we feature; New Year’s Eve Thames Cruise on board the Mercury Clipper with fireworks | Best Value Tours

Full details below, but first some brief history of River Clippers,Clippers were fast mid-19th-century mercantile sailing ships. The late-18th-century Baltimore clipper was also called that.

By later 19th-century standards, clippers were narrow, tiny, could carry little bulk freight and had a big sail area. “Clipper” can refer to full-rigged ships, schooners, brigs, brigantines, etc. British and American shipyards built most clippers, but France, Brazil, the Netherlands, and others made several. Clippers sailed over the world, mostly on UK-China trade routes, transatlantic trade, and the New York-to-San Francisco route around Cape Horn during the California gold rush. Dutch clippers were developed for tea commerce and Java passenger service in the 1850s.

The clipper era boomed in 1843 due to a growing demand for speedier tea delivery from China and continued between 1848 and 1851 for fast passage to gold fields in California and Australia. The era ended in 1869 with the Suez Canal opening.

History

In 1854, Sovereign of the Seas was the fastest sailing ship. The first “clipper” ships were the Baltimore clippers, created in the Chesapeake Bay before the American Revolution and peaking between 1795 and 1815. These were small, rarely over 200 tonnes OM. Page needed Sharp-ended hulls have high deadrise. Rigged as schooners, brigs, or brigantines. The Baltimore clipper, like Chasseur, launched at Fells Point, Baltimore in 1814, was lightly armed and sailed under letters of marque and reprisal during the War of 1812. Her deep draft allowed her to sail close to the breeze. The British blockade of Baltimore made Clippers famous for speed rather than cargo room.

The type dates to 1780. First Baltimore clipper draught: 1789 drawing of HMS Berbice (1780), purchased by the Royal Navy in 1780 in the West Indies.Baltimore clipper-type slave ships were built to circumvent British and American trans-Atlantic slave trade laws. Some Baltimore cutters were seized as slavers, condemned by the court, and sold to owners who operated them as opium clippers, switching from one illicit international trade to another.

Some consider Ann McKim, built in Baltimore in 1833 by Kennard & Williamson, the first clipper ship. Howard I. Chapelle and David MacGregor, maritime historians, reject the idea of the “first” clipper and prefer a multi-step development. She was 494 tonnes OM and resembled a Baltimore clipper with a sharply raked stem, counter stern, and square rig. Ann McKim, the first large clipper ship, did not start the clipper ship era or directly influence shipbuilders, but she may have suggested the clipper design in ship rigs. She influenced the 1845 construction of Rainbow, the first extreme clipper ship.

Fabulous view of London Fireworks from Thames River Cruiser

Prices/Book Tour – New Year’s Eve Thames Cruise on board the Mercury Clipper with fireworks | Best Value Tours

Description

Browns Restaurant at Butlers Wharf will greet you with a drink and seat you for a three-course supper of seasonal British and continental dishes.

Next, board the Mercury Clipper for a champagne night and float along the Thames to start 2025 spectacularly.

On New Year’s Eve, take the Mercury Clipper to avoid the throng and enjoy a free drink and stunning views of London. Wait until midnight to see the South Bank fireworks, which draw thousands of spectators.

The live band will have you dancing farewell to 2024, and the onboard bar will keep the party going until 1:45am, when you’ll be dropped off at London Bridge Pier.

Prices/Book Tour – New Year’s Eve Thames Cruise on board the Mercury Clipper with fireworks | Best Value Tours

Dinner Menu with Vegetarian and Vegan choices included

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