Barons of the Sea tells the story of a handful of cutthroat competitors who raced to build the fastest, finest, most profitable clipper ships to carry their precious cargo to American shores. They were visionary, eccentric shipbuilders, debonair captains, and socially-ambitious merchants with names like Forbes and Delano-men whose business interests took them from the cloistered confines of China's expatriate communities to the sin city decadence of Gold Rush-era San Francisco, and from the teeming hubbub of East Boston's shipyards and to the lavish sitting rooms of New York's Hudson Valley estates. Elegantly written and meticulously researched, Barons of the Sea is a riveting tale of innovation and ingenuity that draws back the curtain on the making of some of the nation's greatest fortunes, and the rise and fall of an all-American industry as sordid as it was genteel
Prologue: the patriarch -- The Canton Silver Cup -- Breaking into the family -- Opium hostages -- Yankees in Gotham -- Mazeppa and the problem child -- Captain Nat -- Family pressure under sail -- Memnon: Delano's California bet -- Enter Donald McKay -- Grinnell grabs the Flying Cloud -- At the starting line -- Around the world -- Frightful to look aloft: sovereign of the seas -- Great Republic -- Hill and river -- Surprise and danger -- Glory of the Seas -- Keeping it in the family.
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