111 Days to San Francisco! Merchants' Express Line of Clipper Ships[.] None But Extreme Clippers Loaded! Prompt Dispatch Guaranteed! The Splendid and Immensely Popular Clipper Shi[p] TALISMAN [-] THOMAS, Commander - is now completing her Loading at Pier 9 East River

New York: Randolph M. Cooley, 118 Water St., Cor. Wall, Tontine Building; Nesbitt & Co., printers, [ca. 1855]. Clipper ship card (4 x 6.5"), coated card stock, printed with gold and black text, red and blue image. CONDITION: Very good, some bumping at corners. A scarce clipper ship card advertising the Talisman of the Cooley packet ship line, illustrated with a vivid image of Columbia printed in red and blue along the left side. Cooley boasts of a 111 day voyage to San Francisco, a guarantee of "prompt dispatch," and the announcement that the vessel is now completing her Loading.

According to Howe, the Talisman was a "medium clipper ship, (truncated) built in 1854, by Metcalf & Norris, at Damariscotta, Maine...she was a beautiful ship, with fine lines and has a good record for speed...During most of her career, including five passages she made to San Francisco, Captain Thomas was in charge. Captain Howard took her over in March 1863 and was in command when she was burned by the Alabama" on her way from New York to Shanghai (Howe, Vol II, 656).

REFERENCES: Howe, Octavius Thorndike, Frederick C. Matthews. American Clipper Ships, 1833-1858, Part 2 (Marine Research Society, 1927), p. 656. (Inventory #: 5610)