Flying Cloud - Clipper

Date of Issue: 1968
Michel Catalog #: 563

This 12 Bogshas/Bogaches airmail stamp was one of the 10 stamps issued on painting series by The Mutawakelite Kingdom of Yemen (see details at end).

Flying Cloud:  The Flying Cloud was a clipper ship that set the world's sailing record for the fastest passage between New York and San Francisco, 89 days 8 hours. She held this record for over 100 years, from 1854-1989.

Flying Cloud was the most famous of the clippers built by Donald McKay. She was known for her extremely close race with the Hornet in 1853, for having a woman navigator, Eleanor Creesy, wife of Josiah Perkins Creesy who skippered the Flying Cloud on two record-setting voyages from New York to San Francisco, and for sailing in the Australia and timber trades.

Click here to know more in detail about Flying Cloud and its voyages.

William J. Aylward:  was born in Milwaukee, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Student's League in New York City. Along with Clifford Ashley, another famous illustrator of marine subjects, he studied with Howard Pyle. Aylward also taught at the Newark (NJ) School while illustrating for magazines such as Scribner's, Harper's, and Collier's. At the age of 43, he volunteered to go to France with the American Expeditionary Force and record their actions in World War I. However, his paintings speak for themselves. He was one of the most skillful handlers of watercolor who can be mentioned in the same breath with Winslow Homer.

Mutawakelite Kingdom of Yemen:  also known as the Kingdom of Yemen or (retrospectively) as North Yemen, was a country from 1918 to 1962 in the northern part of what is now Yemen.

Source: Wikipedia, freestampcatalogue.com, giam.typepad.com