Under Full Sail: Silent Cinema on the High Seas

William Boyd stars as the son of a Boston shipbuilder who competes with a British vessel to earn China's tea trade rights with America. A surprise stowaway aboard Boyd's ship complicates his efforts to win the dangerous contest, in "The Yankee Clipper" (1927). Soaring seafaring tale co-stars Elinor Fair (Boyd's real-life wife), Frank Coghlan, Jr. Next, a real-life whaling hunt sequence is excerpted from the film "Down to the Sea in Ships" (1922), in which Clara Bow made her film debut as a Quaker girl in a 19th-century whaling town. Directed by Elmer Clifton, a protégé of D.W. Griffith. Then, say "Ship Ahoy" (1928) to a schooner transporting lumber north from the Carolinas in this rare historical short. Life on board a German-built ship given to France at the end of World War I is captured in the fascinating short "The Square Rigger" (1932), filmed as part of Fox's "Magic Carpet of Movietone" series. Finally, go "Around the Horn in a Square Rigger" (1933) in record time during this exciting short, as author/sailor Alan Villiers documents an 83-day run from Australia to England. 130 min. total. Standard; Soundtrack: music score. Silent with music score.