Red, White and Blue (ship)

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|image alt=Three-masted sailing ship at sea in full sail }}

|Ship name=''Red, White and Blue'' |Ship owner=John Morley Hudson, and American Boat & Oar Bazaar |Ship ordered= |Ship builder=Oliver Roland Ingersoll |Ship original cost= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=21 June 1866. |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship stricken= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate= |Ship notes= }}

|Ship beam= |Ship draught= |Ship draft= |Ship hold depth= |Ship propulsion= Sail |Ship sail plan= Ship-rigged. |Ship complement= 2 |Ship armament= |Ship notes= }} |}

''Red, White and Blue'' of New York was a ship-rigged, lifeboat that, with her crew John Morley Hudson, Francis Edward Fitch and Fanny the dog, broke an American record for a small vessel by crossing the Atlantic from New York to Margate in 38 days in 1866.

She had a pressed and moulded, galvanised iron hull, and her masts, spars and sails were like those of a full-sized clipper, but sized in proportion to the hull. The voyage was tough. The crew endured heavy weather, a leaking hull, and spoiled stores; the dog died at sea.

The ship and crew received the welcome due to them at Margate, but some of the British public found it difficult to credit the success of the attempt, although the voyage was ultimately proved genuine. The ship was exhibited in 1866 at The Crystal Palace, London, and in 1867 at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, where Hudson was granted an interview with Emperor Louis Napoleon.

The original purpose of the voyage was to provide publicity for Oliver Roland Ingersoll's invention, Ingersoll's Improved Metallic Lifeboat. The exhibition of the ship in London and Paris was intended to consolidate that publicity and to attract orders from shipowners. However the temporary British controversy about the validity of the crossing attempt, and Hudson's consequent difficulties and debts, contributed to the rather quiet way in which this story ended. Provided by Wikipedia